From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Sat May 31 2003 - 20:20:56 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: bulletins_at_SkyandTelescope.com
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 7:48 PM
To: ljk4_at_msn.com
Subject: S&T's Weekly News Bulletin for May 30th
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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - May 30, 2003 * * *
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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. Clear skies!
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SOLVING THE PUZZLE OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS
Like the final pieces of a jigsaw puzzle on the brink of completion,
tantalizing clues to the mystery of long-duration gamma-ray bursts have
come fast and furious in the past few months -- and they seem to be
telling us at last what these enigmatic objects are, how they evolve, and
what powers them. Long-duration GRBs, it seems, may simply be supernovae
seen from a "privileged" perspective....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_966_1.asp
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AN ANNULAR ECLIPSE IN MAY
On Saturday morning, May 31st, the Moon will pass directly between the
Earth and Sun as seen from Iceland, northern Scotland, and part of
Greenland. But the Moon's angular size won't be quite large enough to mask
the Sun totally. Instead, skywatchers in these fairly remote locations
will experience a brilliant ring of sunlight -- the hallmark of an annular
eclipse....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/objects/eclipses/article_924_1.asp
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EVERY GALAXY AN ACTIVE GALAXY?
Quasars. Blazars. Seyfert galaxies of Type 1 and Type 2. Even some
professional astronomers have trouble keeping the actors on the
active-galaxy playbill straight. Some of these enormous beasts spew jets
of plasma at near-light speeds. Others flicker and flare with stupendous
luminosities that outshine the Milky Way's energy output hundreds of times
over.
But they all have the same basic makeup, Yale University astrophysicist C.
Megan Urry told members of the American Astronomical Society during its
Nashville meeting. In the consensus view today, every active galactic
nucleus (AGN) contains a supermassive black hole feeding on gas from a
tightly wound accretion disk encircling it, with a much larger, bloated
torus (doughnut) of opaque material surrounding this "central engine."
What the object looks like depends primarily on whether our line of sight
is blocked by the opaque, puffy torus or goes through its "doughnut hole"
to reach the bright center....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_964_1.asp
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CELESTRON CLAIMS ANOTHER VICTORY
The legal battles between telescope giants Celestron and Meade
Instruments -- involving charges of patent infringement for computerized
Go To telescope technology -- are continuing to be resolved by the courts.
On May 23rd the US District Court in California delivered a partial
summary judgment in Celestron's favor, saying that the company's Go To
telescopes do not infringe on Meade's patents under the "doctrine of
equivalents." In late February the court ruled that Celestron's products
do not "literally infringe" upon Meade's patents....
While both rulings are clear victories for Celestron, they do not end the
lawsuits between the archrival companies, which date back to 2001....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_965_1.asp
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A CLOSE-UP LOOK AT THE YOUNG UNIVERSE
Astronomers using a worldwide array of radio telescopes have delved deep
into a galaxy and found what they're calling a "supernova factory" -- a
superdense star-forming region that has more in common with the ancient
early universe than with most galaxies today.
The observations, announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting
in Nashville, uncovered five very young supernova remnants -- one less
than 13 months old -- in a dense young star cluster in the pair of
colliding galaxies known as Arp 299. The star cluster, 350 light years
wide, seems to produce a supernova every 2 or 3 years. By comparison, our
entire Milky Way produces one only one every century or so....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_963_1.asp
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X-RAYING PLANETARY BIRTHPLACES
A team of researchers led by Joel Kastner (Rochester Institute of
Technology) is using a new technique to understand how planetary systems
form.
Armed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Kastner and colleagues looked
for X-ray emission coming from the suns of infant solar systems. In a baby
planetary system gas and dust collect into a flattened, rotating disk
around a star, and some of it can end up on the stellar surface. As the
flotsam spirals in, it can become ensnared by strong magnetic fields near
the star's surface and accelerated onto "hot spots" on the star that glow
in X-rays. Another, different source for X-rays is the normal hot corona
(outer atmosphere) of the young star itself. "Young Sunlike stars are very
energetic sources of X-ray emission," says Kastner....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_962_1.asp
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PLANET-FORMATION PARADOX SOLVED?
Astronomers aren't sure how long it takes to form planetary systems like
our solar system. They know the basics. A cloud of interstellar matter
falls together under its own gravity; the cloud shrinks to form a spinning
star surrounded by a rotating disk; dust in the disk starts sticking
together in clumps; the clumps grow big enough to start collecting matter
faster by gravity; the process continues until all the dust and gas in the
disk are incorporated into planets or blown away. The mystery involves the
timescales....
At the American Astronomical Society meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, two
teams of astronomers, working independently, announced that they have
found puzzle pieces that may help solve the mystery....
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_961_1.asp
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CLEAR SKIES AND CLEVERNESS AT CAMP OAKES
The 35th annual RTMC Astronomy Expo was held May 23-25 under clear skies
outside Big Bear, California. More than 1,700 astronomy enthusiasts from
the US, Canada, Mexico, Austria, and Taiwan participated in the gathering
at Camp Oakes, above 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) elevation in the forested
mountains near Big Bear Lake. The star party featured vendor exhibits,
lectures, panel discussions, beginners' activities, and daytime and
nighttime observing.
The theme of this year's event was "Building Your Own Observatory." Nearly
a dozen guest speakers told a sometimes standing-room-only crowd about how
they constructed their "dream domes."...
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_960_1.asp
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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY
* A big sunspot group has been flaring and sending coronal mass ejections
toward Earth during the last few days. Keep a lookout for possible aurora
activity this Friday and Saturday night.
* New Moon on May 31st.
* On May 31st there's a partial eclipse of the Sun for much of Asia and
Europe; also Alaska, where the local date is May 30th. Parts of Greenland,
Iceland, and northernmost Scotland see an annular eclipse.
For details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:
> http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/
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EXPLORE THE OCEAN'S DARK SKIES (Advertisement)
Lost Islands of the Atlantic: Maiden Voyage of the Orion
November 19 - December 22, 2003
Travel between the coasts of Africa and South America with SKY & TELESCOPE
contributing editor Stephen J. O'Meara. The journey pauses to explore
numerous islands including the Canaries, Ascension Island, St. Helena, and
others. An optional pre-cruise extension in the Canary Islands (November
16-21) includes visits to the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife and
Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos on La Palma.
Space is limited, so make your reservation today! Send e-mail to
tours_at_SkyandTelescope.com or visit:
> http://www.tq-international.com/LostIslands/lostislandhome.htm
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