Sky & Telescope's News Bulletin - Feb 27

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* * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - February 27, 2004 * * *

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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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YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET

A new glorious image of Saturn from NASA's Cassini spacecraft provides just a
hint of what is to come. Cassini ventures closer and closer to the ringed
planet each day as it heads for its July 1st rendezvous, meaning images in the
coming weeks and months will exhibit ever more detail. The spacecraft's
narrow-angle camera acquired this picture on February 9th....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1192_1.asp

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NEW LIGHT ON DARK ENERGY

A group of astronomers led by a codiscoverer of the "dark energy" pervading the
cosmos has come forth with new results that begin to suggest how it actually
works....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1191_1.asp

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A NEW KUIPER BELT GIANT

Move over Quaoar! The outer solar system may have a new heavyweight champion.
On February 19th astronomers announced what may be the largest object yet seen
in the ring of icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune known as the Kuiper
Belt.

For the past 1.5 years, the reigning king of the Kuiper Belt has been 50000
Quaoar, measuring about 1,250 kilometers (775 miles) across. Michael E. Brown
(Caltech) and Chad A. Trujillo (now at Gemini Observatory) discovered it using
the 48-inch Oschin Schmidt telescope on Palomar Mountain. The duo, along with
David L. Rabinowitz (Yale University), has now found another slow-moving blip
on images taken on February 17th with the new Palomar QUEST camera....

http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1184_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* First-quarter Moon on Friday, February 27th.
* The Moon shines near Saturn on February 29th.
* Jupiter comes to opposition on Wednesday, March 3rd.

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

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

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October 2-9, 2004

Explore the astronomical capital of the world as we visit Kitt Peak National
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Space is limited for these astronomical adventures -- make your reservation
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Copyright 2004 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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