Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Jul 25

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - July 25, 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. (If the links don't work, just
manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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PLANETARY SATELLITES NAMED

At the 25th General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union, held from
July 13-26 in Sydney, Australia, the Working Group for Planetary System
Nomenclature announced the names of two dozen planetary satellites discovered
since 2000. On the list were 11 Jovian moons, 12 Saturnian moons, and one
around Uranus....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1012_1.asp

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EXOPLANET BABY BOOM

Which stars are most likely to harbor planetary systems? Before the discovery
of the first extrasolar planet around a normal star in 1995, astronomers had no
way to answer this question. But now, with more than 1,000 Sun-like stars
examined for evidence of planets and more than 100 Jupiter-like exoplanets
catalogued, the answer is clear. The stars most likely to host planets are
those with more "metals," that is, elements heavier than hydrogen and
helium....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1010_1.asp

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KECK "OUTRIGGERS" FACE ADDITIONAL ROADBLOCKS

In their quest to create the world's greatest visible-light interferometer,
Keck Observatory planners recently suffered a significant setback. A federal
court ruled on July 15th that NASA must perform a more comprehensive
environmental assessment of the Mauna Kea mountaintop site before construction
can proceed....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1009_1.asp

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INTERGALACTIC GLOBULARS

Globular star clusters are usually found in the outskirts of the galaxies whose
centers they orbit. Our own Milky Way hosts about 150 of them, each sporting
hundreds of thousands of stars. But now astronomers have discovered a
population of globulars unbound to any galaxy. These orphaned star systems
wander like vagabonds amid the members of a galaxy cluster. Michael West
(University of Hawaii) announced the new findings, on behalf of two research
teams, at the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union in
Sydney, Australia....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1007_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* On Saturday, July 26, Saturn reaches perihelion (the closest point to the
Sun) in its 30-year orbit.
* New Moon on July 29th.
* The Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks during the early-morning hours of
Monday July 28th. You should see perhaps 5 to 10 slow meteors visible per hour
between midnight and dawn.

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

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/ataglance/

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ICELAND: FIRE, ICE, AND THE AURORA (Advertisement)
October 23-31, 2003

SKY & TELESCOPE and TravelQuest International invite you to join a very special
exploration of Iceland, exotic land of Vikings, volcanoes, and northern lights.
Iceland is blessed with frequent and spectacular displays of the aurora:
undulating curtains, pulsing rays, and dramatic overhead coronas. Their colors
-- green with red, purple, or blue -- range from subtle to vibrant. In addition
to scanning the Moonless night skies for northern lights, we'll explore
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For more information, call TravelQuest at 800-830-1998 or visit their Web site
at:

http://www.tq-international.com/Icel...celandHome.htm

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Copyright 2003 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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