Sky & Telescope's Weekly Bulletin - Apr 14

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SKY & TELESCOPE'S WEEKLY BULLETIN - April 14, 2006
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Welcome to SKY & TELESCOPE's Weekly Bulletin. Images, the full stories,
abridged here, and other enhancements are on our Web site, at:
http://SkyandTelescope.com

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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
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A Big New Step in the Search for ET

April 11, 2006 | Under a sunny blue sky this afternoon, a crowd of 75
scientists, engineers, distinguished officials, and space enthusiasts
cheered and raised champaign glasses as Harvard engineer Paul Horowitz
and his wife cut a big red ribbon on the steps of a squat wooden
building. Poking skyward from behind the building's roll-off roof was
an unrecognizable structure wrapped in reflective gold fabric. It was
the newest and largest optical telescope east of the Mississippi. And
it represents the next step in what could be humanity's grandest
scientific quest, though perhaps the one with the slimmest odds of
success....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1712_1.asp

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Hubble View Downsizes "10th Planet"

April 12, 2006 | When the discovery of the giant Kuiper Belt object
2003 UB313 was announced last year, astronomers estimated its diameter
to be roughly a third greater than that of Pluto. Subsequent infrared
scrutiny by the Spitzer Space Telescope and a groundbased radio
telescope seemingly confirmed that the object had a diameter near 3,000
kilometers (with an uncertainty of roughly 400 km). But Hubble Space
Telescope images obtained last December barely resolved the object, and
a careful analysis shows that it is likely 2,400 ± 100 km across --
just 5% bigger than Pluto....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1711_1.asp

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A Supernova's Backwash May Form Planets

For many years astronomers have theorized that when massive stars
explode as supernovae, some of the material won't be ejected with
enough speed to escape. This material falls back and will either crash
into the dying star or form a disk around it.

Now, thanks to NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have their
first observational evidence that a supernova fallback process occurs
in nature....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1710_1.asp

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OBSERVING - SKY AT A GLANCE
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April 14 - April 22

Drop in on Jupiter (magnitude -2.4, in Libra). It rises in the
east-southeast shortly after dark and is highest in the south around 1
a.m. Be sure to check for its new feature, "Red Spot Junior."

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

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OBSERVING - THIS WEEK'S HIGHLIGHTS
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Update on Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3: This periodic comet, due to
reach 4th magnitude in May, has shed more fragments. Its two main
pieces are 9th magnitude in the evening sky.

http://SkyandTelescope.com/observing/

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SHOP AT SKY (Advertisement)
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Copyright 2006 Sky Publishing Corp. S&T's Weekly Bulletin is provided
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Stuart Goldman
Associate Editor http://SkyandTelescope.com
Night Sky Magazine http://NightSkyMag.com
49 Bay State Rd.
Cambridge, MA 02138