Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Feb 4

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - February 4, 2005 * * *

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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. (If the links don't work, just
manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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ASTEROID 2004 MN4: A REALLY NEAR MISS

If you plan to be alive on April 13, 2029, you can look forward to an
asteroid-watching party across three continents like nothing the world has ever
seen.

The near-Earth asteroid 2004 MN4 made headlines for a couple of days last
December when astronomers estimated that it had a 1-in-38 chance of hitting
Earth in 2029. The threat quickly passed when old images were found that pinned
down the asteroid's orbit well enough to guarantee that it will miss our
planet. Now, extremely precise radar observations made on January 27th, 29th,
and 30th have refined its orbit even further. The asteroid is still certain to
miss Earth, but it will be a squeaker indeed -- and the event will present a
once-in-a-millennium naked-eye asteroid show....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1458_1.asp

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THE REAL RHEA

With a diameter of 1,528 kilometers (949 miles), Rhea edges out Iapetus for
being Saturn's second largest satellite, though it is less than half the size
of Earth's Moon. Like most Saturnian satellites, Rhea has a heavily cratered
surface that is covered by water-ice. A new image of the trailing hemisphere,
acquired by Cassini's narrow-angle camera on January 16th, reveals wispy
streaks in the ice that may be ice cliffs....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1457_1.asp

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SOHO COMET CATCHER

On January 15th, just seven months after the 800th comet was found in images
obtained by the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft, SOHO
Comet No. 900 was discovered by a German amateur astronomer. Rainer Kracht
detected the object in images taken with one of the spacecraft's LASCO
coronagraphs. Kracht downloaded the observations from the LASCO Web site....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1454_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* This week Comet Machholz is fading a bit as it continues to move northward.
It's northeast of Cassiopeia and still easily visible in binoculars.
* Mars is passing between the Lagoon and Trifid nebulae in Sagittarius on the
7th and 8th.
* New Moon is February 8th.

For more details, see This Week's Sky at a Glance and Planet Roundup:

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance

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Copyright 2005 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly News Bulletin is provided as a
free service to the astronomical community by the editors of SKY & TELESCOPE
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*-----------------------------------------------------*
| Stuart Goldman |
* Associate Editor *
| Sky & Telescope |
* 49 Bay State Rd. Sky & Telescope: The Essential *
| Cambridge, MA 02138 Magazine of Astronomy |
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