Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Jan 27

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - January 27, 2006 * * *

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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided. (If the links don't work
directly, just paste them into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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LOW-MASS EXOPLANET

Three international groups have teamed up to discover what is probably
the lowest-mass planet ever found around a normal star. The planet's
mass is between 3 and 11 times that of Earth, with a most likely mass
of 5.5 Earths. The previous record-holder, which orbits the red-dwarf
star Gliese 876, contains about 7.5 Earth masses. The only known
exoplanets with lower masses are four objects orbiting a pulsar -- the
collapsed core of a massive star that went supernova....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1667_1.asp

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SURPRISE! MOST STARS ARE SINGLE

Astronomers have known since the 1700s that a significant fraction of
stars belong to binary or multiple systems. But what is that fraction?
Given the observed fact that most solar-size and larger stars reside in
binaries, many astronomers have concluded that more than half of our
galaxy's stars belong to multiple-star systems.

But a new study shows that the conventional wisdom is almost certainly
wrong. The problem is that astronomers have neglected to consider our
galaxy's most common stellar denizens: red dwarfs. These low-mass,
low-luminosity stars make up more than 80 percent of all the stars in
the Milky Way....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1669_1.asp

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MEADE CEO ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

Steven G. Murdock, Meade Instruments's chief executive officer and the
force behind many amateur-astronomy innovations, has announced his
retirement. He'll stay on as CEO in the coming months as the company
hires his successor....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1665_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* Saturn (magnitude -0.2, in Cancer) is at opposition (opposite the Sun
in our sky) on January 27.
* New Moon on January 29.
* Jupiter (magnitude -1.9, in Libra) is the very bright "star" in the
south at dawn.

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing...icle_110_1.asp

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Copyright 2006 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is
provided as a free service to the astronomical community by the editors
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Stuart Goldman
Associate Editor http://SkyandTelescope.com
Night Sky Magazine http://NightSkyMag.com
49 Bay State Rd.
Cambridge, MA 02138