Astronomy

The National Academy of Sciences will release a report Friday detailing how it recommends money be spent on astronomy research over the next decade. First on the list of investment priorities is the Next Generation Space Telescope, which is scheduled to replace the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. The NGST is predicted to be 100 times as sensitive as Hubble and will generate images 10 times as sharp. Unlike Hubble, which orbits the Earth just above the atmosphere, NGST would be deployed 1 million miles from Earth.

Popular Science aviation editor Eric Adams, covers cars, airplanes, space travel, military technology, and astronomy. He scored a trip to the Atacama desert in Chile to see the world's largest telescope at the European Southern Observatory. It gave him the unique opportunity to see the heavens as few people ever do. An unforgettable experience, but Adams says astronomy can be just as thrilling with a more modest telescope. Here are some of Adam's favorite astronomy gadgets: 1. Stellarvue SV90T 90mm Apochromatic Refractor In terms of both image quality and portability, you can't beat an apochromatic refractor.

The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the celestial spectacle. Day turned into night. Temperatures turned cooler. The total eclipse could be seen starting in India on Wednesday morning and moving eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Millions cast their eyes towards the heavens to catch a rare view of the sun's corona.

It's 4 a.m., the astronomy homework is due in just a few hours, and there's still confusion about some quirks in those mysterious quasars. What's a fretting college student to do? If you're in professor Michael Ruiz's astronomy class at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, your answer may be just a few clicks away, in an online forum that every student in the class can access, 24-7. "If you don't understand something it's nice to be able to ask another student without wandering the halls knocking on doors saying, 'Do you take astronomy?

With models, maps and mouse clicks, children in a Maryland school district are bringing the universe within reach. They are participants in a NASA-sponsored education program, dubbed "Accessible Universe," that seeks to make astronomy engaging for elementary school students -- especially those with disabilities. The program uses Internet sites and simple tools like models of the Earth and sun to help teachers explain astronomy in ways that students with special needs can understand.

Just as "Y2K" and its batch of predictions about the year 2000 have become a distant memory, here comes "Twenty-twelve." Fueled by a crop of books, Web sites with countdown clocks, and claims about ancient timekeepers, interest is growing in what some see as the dawn of a new era, and others as an expiration date for Earth: December 21, 2012. The date marks the end of a 5,126-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya, the ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy and for the great cities it left behind in Mexico and Central America.

Astronomers announced this week they found a water-rich and relatively nearby planet that's similar in size to Earth. While the planet probably has too thick of an atmosphere and is too hot to support life similar to that found on Earth, the discovery is being heralded as a major breakthrough in humanity's search for life on other planets. "The big excitement is that we have found a watery world orbiting a very nearby and very small star," said David Charbonneau, a Harvard professor of astronomy and lead author of an article on the discovery, which appeared this week in the journal Nature.

Astronomers have discovered a new planet that just may be able to support life in a nearby solar system a mere 20 light years from Earth. It's called Gliese 581g and is located in the constellation Libra. It circles the red dwarf star Gliese 581. According to a research that is set to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, the planet is "squarely in the middle of the habitable zone of the star" which offers a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet around a very nearby star.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky early Friday when Dave Samuels trained his telescopes at the moon, hoping to catch a glimpse of a NASA rocket striking the lunar landscape. "We saw nothing," he said. Samuels is vice president of the Fremont Peak Observatory near Monterey, California, which had invited members of the public to watch Friday's NASA mission through its telescopes. The lunar strike happened shortly after 4:30 a.m. on the West Coast (7:30 a.m. ET). NASA had encouraged everyone around the country to host "impact parties," saying the plume of dust generated by the lunar impact would be visible through "mid-sized backyard" telescopes 10 inches or larger.

The longest solar eclipse of the century cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the spectacle. Day turned into night, temperatures turned cooler in cities and villages teemed with amateur stargazers. The total eclipse started in India on Wednesday morning and moved eastward across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Vietnam, China and parts of the Pacific. Millions cast their eyes towards the heavens to catch a rare view of the sun's corona.

Popular Science aviation editor Eric Adams, covers cars, airplanes, space travel, military technology, and astronomy. He scored a trip to the Atacama desert in Chile to see the world's largest telescope at the European Southern Observatory. It gave him the unique opportunity to see the heavens as few people ever do. An unforgettable experience, but Adams says astronomy can be just as thrilling with a more modest telescope. Here are some of Adam's favorite astronomy gadgets: 1. Stellarvue SV90T 90mm Apochromatic Refractor In terms of both image quality and portability, you can't beat an apochromatic refractor.

Imagine being able to see something the size of a nickel from 10,000 miles away. Hal McAlister developed the tools to do just that. In 1984, the professor of physics and astronomy at Georgia State University founded CHARA, or the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy. He now directs the program, studying stars with some of the most advanced astronomy technology in the world that links multiple telescopes together. "I've always wanted to be an astronomer," McAlister said.

It's 4 a.m., the astronomy homework is due in just a few hours, and there's still confusion about some quirks in those mysterious quasars. What's a fretting college student to do? If you're in professor Michael Ruiz's astronomy class at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, your answer may be just a few clicks away, in an online forum that every student in the class can access, 24-7. "If you don't understand something it's nice to be able to ask another student without wandering the halls knocking on doors saying, 'Do you take astronomy?

With models, maps and mouse clicks, children in a Maryland school district are bringing the universe within reach. They are participants in a NASA-sponsored education program, dubbed "Accessible Universe," that seeks to make astronomy engaging for elementary school students -- especially those with disabilities. The program uses Internet sites and simple tools like models of the Earth and sun to help teachers explain astronomy in ways that students with special needs can understand.

The National Academy of Sciences will release a report Friday detailing how it recommends money be spent on astronomy research over the next decade. First on the list of investment priorities is the Next Generation Space Telescope, which is scheduled to replace the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 2008. The NGST is predicted to be 100 times as sensitive as Hubble and will generate images 10 times as sharp. Unlike Hubble, which orbits the Earth just above the atmosphere, NGST would be deployed 1 million miles from Earth.

Astronomy Day is an annual celebration of how much fun it can be to watch the sky, says Kelly Beatty, senior editor of Sky Telescope Magazine. Its a time for skywatchers around the world to pause and share their love of the night sky with anyone whos willing to join them.;In many communities, members of local astronomy organizations will host evening star parties to let the public look through their telescopes, or theyll create colorful, informative displays at local malls, libraries or other locations to show what skygazing is all about, according to Sky Telescope.