Looking east-northeast roughly 30 minutes before sunrise tomorrow, August 22nd. The green line in the image represents the ecliptic.
While the IAU continues to mull over what exactly it means to be a planet and whether or not Pluto will make the cut, Tuesday morning’s sky will serve up a lovely arrangement of celestial bodies whose […]

Artist’s concept of 2003 UB313. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)
It appears that the festivities are getting rather interesting in Prague as astronomers attending the IAU’s XXVIth General Assembly continue trying to hammer out what exactly constitutes a planet. (See my previous entry for more details.)
Richard Fienberg, editor-in-chief of Sky & Telescope […]

Under the new proposal being considered by the IAU, our solar system will include nine twelve planets, and that’s probably just the beginning. Credit: International Astronomical Union/Martin Kornmesser
I’m sure by now you’ve caught wind of the long-awaited news:
The world’s astronomers, under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), have concluded two years of […]

The rings cannot hide the ragged, icy crescent of Rhea, here imaged in color by the Cassini spacecraft. The second-largest moon of Saturn shines brightly through gaps in the rings.
Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across) lies beyond the dim, unlit side of the rings. A diffuse clump of material lies in […]

NASA is remembering pioneering astrophysicist James Van Allen, who died Aug. 9 at the age of 91.
“James Van Allen was one of the greatest and most accomplished American space scientists of our time and few researchers had such wide range of expertise in so many scientific disciplines,” said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. “NASA’s path of […]

Lightning strike near Pueblo, Colorado. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
While reading through updates to the NOAA’s page yesterday, I came across this new release. It serves as an unfortunate reminder that senseless, preventable deaths occur when people don’t take the weather seriously. Last month in particular, fatalities attributable to lighting have significantly topped the […]

A friendly observing reminder: this week marks a good opportunity to catch a glimpse of elusive Mercury in the morning as it shares the stage with neighboring Venus. On the Thursday the 10th and Friday the 11th, Mercury will hover just below its brighter counterpart as the two reach roughly 2° of separation. (Map, […]