H2G2 Astronomy Society
Previous Articles of 2001
Charting the uncharted backwaters of the Universe

The following contains all the enteries from the main page that appeared over 2001.

2003
2003 News Articles

2002
2002 News Articles

2001
December 2001
November 2001
October 2001
September 2001
August 2001
July 2001
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May 2001
April 2001
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December 2001

Jupiter Up Close
Over New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, observers in the northern hemisphere might notice a brighter than usual object. The fifth planet from the sun and the largest planet, Jupiter, will come closer than usual to Earth on January 1, 2002. It's distance will be a mere 4.91 astronomical unit¹, a mere stones throw!

Saturday 29th December

More Moon encounters
If you go outside this evening and look to the southeast you will see the Moon beautifully suronded by Jupiter and Saturn. However if you are out on the morning of the 30^th on the West coast of America you will witness two eclipses. Initially there will be a partial eclipse of the Moon and then the Moon will eclipse Jupiter just before moonset. Email Yeliab with your observing loaction to recieve the exact timings for you.

Saturday 29th December

Saturn Eclipsed
Sadly the last eclipse of Saturn this year was not visible from the UK but would have been a beautiful sight and was for much of North America. On Friday the 28^th of December many viewers across North America saw the moon gently and silently glide infront of Saturn. As Saturn entered the eclipse from the night side of the moon Saturn appeared to disipear before reaching to moon which gave observers with hight powered telescopes some beautiful photographs. Some of these pictures can be seen in the Spaceweather.com Saturn eclipse gallery.

Friday 28th December

November 2001

Rotating Stars that Twist
From PhysicsWeb: A star that rotates with a twist has been observed for the first time, confirming a long-predicted magnetic phenomenon known as the Applegate effect. Andrew Collier Cameron and Jean-Francois Donati used the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales to track ‘star-spots’ on the surface of a sun-like star for eight years. The observations could explain why the stars in some binary systems have erratic orbits. Read the full PhysicsWeb Twisting Stars article.

Tuesday 18th November

Partial Solar Eclipse
Sky watchers in Hawaii and most parts of North America experienced a partial solar eclipse on Friday, Dec. 14th. Near the end of the day Sun over San Salvador, El Salvador, was 78% covered by the Moon. Browse the spaceweather.com eclipse gallery for many photos of this spactacular event.

Friday 14th November

Atmosphere Detected on Distant Planet
On Tuesday November ^th it was announced that a chemical has been detected in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet for the first time. David Charbonneau and Timothy Brown of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado observed sodium in the atmosphere of the Jupiter-like planet that orbits a Sun-like star known as HD 209458. This is the first direct evidence for an atmosphere on a planet beyond our solar system and is likely to spark many similar searches. Read the Spaceflightnow.com extrasolar atmoshere article.

Thursday 29th November

Aurora warning!
Twisted magnetic fields above sunspot 9704 erupted yesterday (Nov. 22nd at 2330 UT) and hurled a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. The expanding cloud, pictured right, will sweep past our planet on Nov. 24th or 25th and trigger geomagnetic activity. Sky watchers located at magnetic latitudes greater than 50 deg. should be alert for auroras this weekend. (Note: This CME joins another less impressive one, en route since Nov. 21st.)Check Spaceweather.com for more updated and NOAA Forcasts for immaes of the current state of the ionosphere.

Saturday 24th November

2001 Leonids Storm
The 2001 Leonid Meteor shower really was one not to be missed. Though that's exactly what most people in England did. On the morning of November 18^th meteors were seen raining down like silent rain with sightings of over 1000 metoers an hour. Some of the h2g2as members were there and you can read their reports in the December egic². This shower was from the 1766 pass of the commet Temple-Tuttle. Another shower then erupted on the morning of the 19^th which was viewed from Asia and Australia where up to 3000 an hour could be seen. If you sadly missed this due to cloud etc. then see the spaceweather.com 2001 Leonids gallery to feel throughly awed by the photos.

Thursday 22nd November

The Leonids are Comming!
Well in fact there allready here. Indeed if you look out on a clear night this week you will probably see at leas on or two an hour and possibly more. But if you think that is a poor show then just wait till Sunday. The peak of the 2001 Leonids meteor shower is expected on Sunday 18 ^th of November. The peak will be different for your specific location but if you live in, for example there are predictions³ for over 1000 meteors in Hawaii and 4000 - 8000 in north America and east Asia. If it is clear Sunday morning or evening then make sure you're outside to watch. Check the Science@NASA Leonids 2001 Article for more details.

Friday 16th November

Theory About the First Star
According to a team of astrophysicists in the US, the first object to form after the Big Bang was a single massive star. Recent simulations by Tom Abel of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and co-workers have revealed how density fluctuations in the early universe could have led to the formation of a pre-galactic gas cloud with a lone star at its centre. Moreover, the model predicts that no other stellar object could have formed before this first star died in a supernova
Read the PhysicsWeb Single Star Theory article.

Thursday 15th November

Fresh Light Shed on Black Holes
New observations of the X-rays and visible light emitted by the matter orbiting a black hole may challenge current theories about the regions that surround black holes. Henk Spruit of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany and colleagues believe that – in contrast with existing theories – the visible light they observed is synchrotron radiation that originates from a region of the disk about 20 000 kilometres from the black hole. This is the first time in over 20 years that X-rays and visible light from the disk around a black hole have been observed simultaneously _{Summary from PhysicsWeb mailing - G Kanbach et al 2001 Nature 414 180.}
PhysicsWeb Black Hole Region article.

Wednesday 14th November

Gamma-Ray Burst Hunting
Gamma-ray bursts, GRBs, have been a rather interesting topic for discussion in the group. On September the 21^st this year NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer, HETE, satellite detected a rather close GRB, about 5 billion light years away. As soon as it 'saw' the burst it relayed the coordinates to a network of orbiting and ground based satellites that were able to then look in the location for the faint afterglow in order to gain information about these exotic events. Find out more from the spaceflightnow.com GRB article

Thursday 8th November

Sever Geomagnetic Storm Raging
There is currently a rather active geomagnetic storm raging in the atmosphere above the Earth's poles. This is triggering vibrant aurora that can been seen from mid latitudes, as far south as central California. If it is dark and clear look north or south (depending upon your hemisphere) to look for Aurora Borealis or Australis respectively⁴. To find out the current state of activity look at the NOAA aurora plots as well as the spaceweather.com November 6th gallery

Tuesday 6th November

Large Sunspots Visible
Sunspot 9682 is a large group of spots that is currently crossing over the surface of the sun facing us. The spot has a twisted "delta-class" magnetic field which could unleash an X-class solar flare. The spot should be visible without instrumentation however you MUST use adequate solar filters (ie eclipse glasses) or project an image of the sun. Also have a look at an image of the sun this day. Never look at the sun directly⁵.

Thursday 1st November

October 2001

Weekend Aurora Again
Last weekend aurora was visible from quite low mid lattitudes (the far south of the UK) and this weekend could be a repeat. Though no meterors to view, the sky should blase after a solar outburst sent a CME billowing our way on the 25^th. The CME should hit on the 27^th to 28^th of October, and it should be spectacular for high lattitude observers if aurora are triggered.

Friday 26th October

The Orionids may Glow
The Orionid meteor shower this weekend may also be back it by aurora. This morning a twisted magnetic fields above sunspot 9661 erupted unleashing an X-class solar flare and hurling a coronal mass ejection toward Earth. This should hit on the 21^st right when the orionids will peak. You were going to get up at 3AM, but now it may be worth rising at 12:00 and catch the peak of the aurora aswell.

Friday 19th October

The Orionid Meteor Shower
This weekend, the 20^th - 21^st of October, will see the peak of the anual Orinid meteor shower, which result from the Earths passage through the path of COmmet Halley, the brightest regular commet. The shower will be best wiewed at 3am Sunday morning local time and the radiant is just to the north east⁶ of Orions right sholder. The peak is expected to be between 10 and 20 meteors per hour. Science@NASA Orionids article

Thursday 18th
October

New Earth Orbit Planets Discovered

On Monday (15^th October) a team of astronomers from United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Belgium announced the discovery of eight more gas giant planets orbiting stars similar to our Sun. This brings the total number of extra-solar planets discovered, to nearly 800. Their discoveries were based on observations from telescopes in Australia, California, and Hawaii, a truly international collaboration.

Thursday 18th October

Mars Exploration Rover-2003 mission
In late May and then again in early June 2003, two separate Mars Rovers will be launched by NASA on a 7.5 month journey to Mars. The first Rover is expected to land on the Martian surface on January 2, 2004 and the second one on January 20, 2004. Unlike Mars Pathfinder these rovers will be self contained laboritories and be able to travel up to 100 meters a day explooring the surface, for about 90 Martian days. NASA is also sending a list of names to the surface of the planet, and you can send your name to Mars here.

Wednesday 17th October

Zodiacal Lights
From spaceweather.com: Autumn is the season for Zodiacal Lights. Each day before dawn sky watchers with dark skies can spot a faint triangle of light above the eastern horizon caused by sunlight reflecting from interplanetary dust grains. More Information

Wednesday 17th October

Beautiful Aurora Seen from Last Weeks CME

The Coronal Mass Ejection, CME, that blasted away from the sun towords Earth late last week produced some beautiful auroral activity at quite low mid lattitudes. The CME was described as a 'full halo' which means occours when it is pointed right at us meaning we are looking into the 'buble' of the CME and only see the rim expanding from the sun⁷. www.spaceweather.com has a photograph gallery of last weeks aurora.

Sunday 14th October

Ulysses Sees the Sun Begin to Quieten Down

This year has seen the sun appreach and peak it's 11 year solar cycle in which it's activity increases and decreases. At the peak of every cycle the suns magnetic poles also swap their orientation and this was observed in March of this year. The Ulysses space probe⁸ is watching as order is now returning to the solar wind as the Sun begins to shake off the chaos that has characterised its behaviour during this recent peak. See the full Spaceflightnow.com Ulysses article.

Tuesday 9th October

A Close-Up View of Planetary Birth
Early next year, scientists hope to gain insight into conditions that precede planet birth by deploying a powerful new instrument: the Keck
Interferometer. The twin Keck telescopes are the world's largest telescopes for optical and near-infrared astronomy. See the full Spaceflightnow.com Planetary Birth article.

Tuesday 9th October

The Giacobinids Meteor Shower
The annual Giacobinids meteor shower, which is also known as the Draconids due to the location of the radiant, will peak on October 9th and 10th. This shower is not usually very impressive, with a low ZHR⁹, and is only viewed from the northern hemisphere however there are occasional outbursts such as hapened in 1998. The commet from which the debris is laid is currentrly far from Earth and this years shower is not expected to be brilliant

Monday 8th October

Perseid Meteor Shower Gallery
The Perseids meteor shower, August 12^th provided quite a showing this year for those that were not enveloped by a thick layer of cloud. Many observers were able to phtotograph some of the meteors and Spaceweather.com has compiled a Perseids gallery of some of the best photographs.

Tuesday 2nd October

September 2001

Sir Martin Rees wins Cosmology Prize
The astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal¹⁰, has won the 2001 Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation for his fundamental and diverse contributions to our understanding of the universe. The Gruber prize is the only award for cosmology and has recognized Rees's studies of the cosmic microwave background, quasars, black holes and gamma ray bursts.
Rees is also Royal Society Research Professor at Cambridge University.

Friday 14th September

X marks the spot for our local black hole
A sudden blast of X-rays from deep inside the Milky Way has pinpointed the position of the super-massive black hole that many astronomers believe lurks at the core of our galaxy. The high-resolution study is the first definite observation of X-rays from Sagittarius A* - the radio source thought to be our galaxy's central black hole. Frederick Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues have located its position 1500 times more accurately than earlier studies (F Baganoff et al 2001 Nature 412 45).
PhysicsWeb local black hole article

Wednesday 5th September

Cluster 2 Spacecraft Surf the Plasma Waves
ESA's four Cluster spacecraft continue to provide ground-breaking new information about the interaction between our nearest star - the Sun - and planet Earth. As they sail through the sea of plasma that fills near-Earth space, the identical instruments on the Cluster quartet are helping scientists to create the first three-dimensional views of this turbulent region.

Monday 3rd September

August 2001

Sir Fred Hoyle 1915 - 2001
The astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle has died at the age of 86. Hoyle famously coined the phrase 'big bang' to describe the explosion in which the universe was born, but rejected that idea in favour of his 'steady-state' theory. Hoyle was the first to realise that all chemical elements are created inside stars by nucleosynthesis - a central idea in modern astrophysics - but missed out on a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

Thursday 23st August

Discovery to Depart the Space Station Today
All 10 orbiting astronauts -- the Expedition Two, Three and Discovery
crews -- gathered in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module of the
international space station this morning for a farewell ceremony in
advance of today's undocking of the shuttle. On Sunday, the
Italian-built Leonardo cargo module was detached from the station
Sunday and returned to Discovery's payload bay for the trip back to
Earth. The reusable module delivered over three tons of supplies and
equipment to the station for its new residents. Find out the latest status from Spaceflightnow.com Station Status

Tuesday 21st August

Jupiter helps to explain planets around multiple stars
Conventional theories of planet formation - which are based on our solar system - were thrown into question recently when astronomers realised that about one third of extrasolar planets were in orbit around more than one star. But much of the theory has been salvaged by Stephen Kortenkamp of the University of Maryland and colleagues, who believe that the early creation of Jupiter could have accelerated the growth of the terrestrial planets in our solar system. The team proposes that Jupiter played a role similar to that of the second star in binary systems (S Kortenkamp et al 2001 Science 293 1127). Read the full PhysicsWeb Multiple Star article.

Wednesday 15th August

Persieds:- Results
The general view from people around the world is that this years' Perseid meteor shower wasn't as spectacular as in recent years. Most people in the UK were clouded out allowing little chance to see any of the 'shooting stars'. Some clear skies were around last night allowing watchers to chatch a glimpse of the shower. Most meteors were close to the radient with short tails. Visit the Anual Perseid Meteor Watch page to contribute your observation results and see others.

Tuesday 14th August

ISS Pases
The ISS is growing rapidly in size as it is built in orbit around us. You can, with reasonable equiptment [about a 50x zoom], see the lenght of the main station as well as it's fainter solar pannel arrays streaching away from it. With a motorised mounted telescope it can be tracked to show its rotation. Login to the newly updated Heavens Above to find out when you can see it.

Saturday 11th August

Did interplanetary dust seed
life on earth?
Low-energy protons in the solar wind could have transformed space-borne carbon compounds into the seeds of life on Earth. A simulation of the young solar system suggests that the interaction of protons with interplanetary dust containing anthracene produced biological molecules called quinones, which exist in most living organisms. According to Lubomir Gabla and co-workers of Jagiellonian University in Poland, this suggests that the precursors of life are more likely to have reached Earth in the form of dust than during a comet impact (M Tuleta et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett. 87 078103). Read the full PhysicsWeb Interplanetary Dust article.

Friday 10th August

July 2001

Perseid Meteor Shower Preperation
Starting on the 23rd July and continuing untill the 20th August the Perseid meteor shower it the most observed of all anual showers. Not only is it over a long period but it's peak, aroung the 12th July, often gives rates of 50 - 70 metoers an hour. The summer weather, allthough not giving long nights, does offer the chance of clearer weather as well as warmer observing.

Tuesday 24th July

Helios Rises to New Heights
The new NASA venture, Helios, made it's frist test over the Pacific ocean. Helios is a new solar panneled flying wing with five mini fuselages hung below aloowing the wing to flex to create the ultimate lift. It is thrust is created by fourteen propellars which are powered from the solar pannels that the wing is covered with. In future the craft will also contain fuel cells to allow it to travel 24 hours a day. It's super effeciant design meaning that it can not only travel higher but also faster allowing it to maintain stationary over one point on the ground. It is hopped that Helios will be used as a temproy cheap sattelite option for smaller companies and less developed countries. Read the Helios BBC report

Monday 16th July

Mars - The Evening Beauty
Over the next few weeks make a point of having a look a Mars. Mars, the second closest planet to us (following Venus) is currently beautifully positioned for mid-latitude NH observers low in the southern night sky. This positioning is not good for anyone wanting to observe Mars with a telescope, as the Earths atmosphere will heavily distort views. None-the-less the polar ice caps should be visible through medium telescopes or large binoculars. Any photographs welcome.

Tuesday 10th July

June 2001

Total Eclipse 2001 UPDATE
On Thursday 21^st June the first total eclipse of the sun of the new millennium occurred. It was visible from southern Africa, the line of totality passing through Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well as Madagascar. The sight really was one to behold, with a beautiful corona reaching far out into space and one really large prominence on one limb. Totality was very long, over 4 minuets and gave all spectators a great time to view. The BBC live web cast also worked well allowing many more people over the world to see this natural spectacle.

Friday 22th June

NASA Smells - The Job of the Sniffer
"When did you realise you had an exceptional nose and how did you become a NASA sniffer?" Magic markers, circuit boards, wires, socks and shaving cream - you name it and George Aldrich has sniffed it. In fact, you could say he "smells" for a living. Things behave differently in space. Because of the heat and cramped conditions, an aroma that is inoffensive on Earth may become intolerable in orbit - and once it's up there with you, you're stuck with it. In fact, in 1976 Russian cosmonauts were forced to make an emergency landing when an acrid odour became too much to bear. As NASA's "master sniffer", Aldrich leads a team of 25 people whose job is to test everything that goes up on the space shuttle for smelliness. We talk to the man who has now done 744 "smell missions" and who has to take a test every three months to "certify" his nose. Full New Scientist Article

Friday 22th June

Total Eclipse 2001
On Thursday 21^st June there is a total eclipse of the sun visible from Africa, the line of totality passing through Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well as Madagascar. Totality reaches the West coast of Angola at 1.39pm local time and disappears of Madagascar at 3.50pm on that Thursday. Totality is expected to last a maximum of 4 minutes 56 seconds which is much longer then the 1999 eclipse. The West coast's weather is predicted to be better however Madagascar East coast will provide a beautiful sunset as soon as totality ends. If anyone is able to go then please let us know and keep us posted.
More information can be found on the 2001 Eclipse Central page.

Sunday 17th June

Doctoring the spin on Venus
Astronomers have long thought that Venus acquired its unusual 'retrograde' spin when internal friction and turbulence in its atmosphere flipped the planet's rotation axis in the distant past. Now French astronomers argue that chaotic effects could have reversed the planet's spin while its rotation axis stayed put. Alexandre Correia and Jacques Laskar of CNRS simulated the rotation of Venus over thousands of millions of years and conclude that it must have followed one of two paths to reach its current state. Full PhysicsWeb article - Venus.

Friday 15th June

New X-ray probe lights up the cosmos
The radiation that streams across space from pulsars, black holes and other astronomical objects carries information in its intensity, frequency composition, spatial distribution and polarization. But the polarization of X-rays is particularly difficult to measure - attempts to study it have been hampered by poor sensitivity and have only succeeded for a few very intense sources. Now a team of astronomers led by Enrico Costa at the Istituto de Astrofisica del CNR in Rome has devised a probe to measure the polarization of X-ray sources a hundred times dimmer than those previously observed.Full PhysicsWeb article - X-ray probe.

Friday 8th June

New light on the Face on Mars
On 8th April the Mars Global Surveyor took new high resolution pictures of the 'Face on Mars' which has been surrounded with controversy since it was originally found in pictures taken by the Viking Orbiter in 1976. The resolution of the pictures is down to about 2 meters per pixel and pretty well shows the hill for what it is. Spaceflightnow pictures here.

Thursday 31st May

May 2001

Looking for life on Europa
Well, the probe may not have been sent yet, it may not have even been built or designed, but there is a plan to send a probe to Europa to dig through it's icy chrust and find out what lies benieth. Holding the possibility of a liquid salt water ocean and thermal activity on the floor, powered by Jupiter magnetic field, the chances of life are at least possible. The recent BBC Horizon program tracked a team who are looking at lakes benieth out polar caps to investigate the possibility.

Wednesday 23rd May

Comet collapse opens a window
on the past
Astronomers got more than they bargained for last summer when comet C/LINEAR unexpectedly disintegrated while at its most visible from Earth. Routine observations of the passing comet gleaned valuable information from the surprise fragmentation, and analysis has now shed light on the origin, composition and motion of the ancient body. Insights into the formation of comets are fundamental to our understanding of how planets coalesce, a process thought to be closely related. Full PhysicsWeb article.

Saturday 19th May

Baby star blows a bubble
Astronomers have spotted an almost perfectly spherical bubble swelling in the star-forming region Cepheus A. The phenomenon has never been seen before and the clouds of water vapour that form the bubble are thought to have been ejected by a young star at its centre. Paul Ho of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in the US led the study of the shell of water vapour, which is about one and a half times the size of the solar system, and cannot be explained by current theories of stellar evolution (J Torrelles et al 2001 Nature 411 277). Full PhysicsWeb article.

Friday 18th May

Asteroid ArthurDent
Asteroid no. 18610 has been named ArthurDent. The name was circulated by the International Astronomical Union on Thursday May 10th, shortly before Douglas Adams sadly died on the 11th. It does, however, make an aptly weird tribute to him.

Thursday 17th May

Tito Returns Home
At 0541 GMT, Sunday the 6th of May the Soyuz capsule containing Talgat Musabayev, Yuri Baturin and the first ISS holidaymaker Dennis Tito. The whole trip was eight days and cost Mr Tito an estimated $20 million, but worth it. "Personally, I've had the time of my life. I've achieved my dream and nothing could have been better."

Sunday 6th May

Aquarids Metior Shower
This weekend (5th and 6th of May) the Earth passes through the path of Comet Halley, with it's dust trail causing the Aquarid meteor shower. Sadly this year the nearly full moon hampered observations, with watchers reporting only a few per hour.

Sunday 6th May

Comet Linear Splits in Two
A group of astronomers using the 1.5-meter Catalina telescope report that comet C/2001 A2 (LINEAR) has split. Its icy nucleus now consists of two pieces nearly equal in brightness. LINEAR A2's total brightness has soared a hundred-fold since the end of March, and the comet could grow even brighter as it heads for a close encounter with the Sun on May 24th (0.78 AU). In recent days binocular observers report visual magnitudes around 6.3 -- just below naked eye visibility. Sky watchers with small telescopes or binoculars can spot the comet near the feet of the constellation Orion after sunset.taken from spaceweather.com

Wednesday 2nd May

April 2001

Tito bords the ISS
The Soyuz TM-32 spacecraft carrying Dennis Tito and two cosmonaut crewmates successfully docked with the international space station at 3:58 a.m. EDT today as the two vehicles sailed 240 miles above central Asia. They boarded the outpost at about 5:28 a.m. EDT.spaceflightnow.com full story

Monday 30th April

Lagging behind the solar cycle
The intensity of galactic cosmic rays measured on Earth is related to the Sun's cycle of activity, which is well known by astronomers. The solar magnetic field flips every 11 years and the number of sunspots and 'coronal mass ejections' rises and falls twice in each complete 22-year cycle. The cosmic ray intensity on Earth also peaks twice every 22 years in time with the solar cycle. Now two US astronomers have discovered a quirk in this pattern - and they believe that drifting coronal mass ejections could be to blame.(E W Cliver and A G Ling 2001 Astrophys. J. Lett. 551 L189).

Monday 30th April

Email Umberto Guidoni on the ISS
Umberto Guidoni is the first European to go aboard the International Space Station and ESA is giving anyone the opportunity to email him while he is aboard the ISS. A selection of the questions sent will be transmitted to the station and he will reply directly to you. The email address is [email protected].

Tuesday 24th April

Aurora Photographs
Last Tuesday, as night fell an interplanetary shock wave, resulting from a CME, passed over our magnetosphere charging the atmosphere at the poles. All over America bright aurora were seen and photographed by sky watchers. Some of these beautiful pictures can be seen at the specewaerthe.com photo galery.

Tuesday 24th April

Tito to Space
The California millionaire Dennis Tito is still set to launch to the International Space Station soon. The expected date was April 30, but there is still some question as to whether NASA will allow Tito into the ISS or just leave him floating on the other side of the door. NASA would prefer to let him go on a later date and allow for more training even though Mr Tito has already been on zero-gravity flights, centrifuge training and supersonic jet flights to prepare.

Saturday 21st April

The Spots' Back
Just when you though the giant sunspot had gone, it appears from the other side of the sun. After two weeks out of view while the sun rotated it round, the huge sunspot number 9393 returns to our view. It was easily visible to the naked eye when it first formed and created the largest solar flare ever recorded. Even though it has now reduced in size it could still send a damaging CME towards us.

Friday 20th April

India resets date for GSLV Rocket
The first development launch of Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle has been set for April 18. The original launch attempt of
GSLV was aborted one second before the lift-off on March 28 because an
engine failed to develop the required thrust. Read the full Spaceflightnow.com article

Good Friday 13th April

High Sunspot Activity
Over the last week the sunspot number has increased dramatically and is the greatest number since July 2000. It also produced the largest sunspot for 10 years which covered an area 13 times the surface area of the Earth and was visible from Earth¹¹. For the latest solar information go to spaceweather.com

Thursday 5th April

Troubled Mission to Pluto
The US government is currently battling with NASA to send a probe to Pluto, the most distant planet from the Sun at 29.88 AU¹² from us. The government does not want to fund a mission to Pluto but scientists say that if they don’t go now then Pluto will soon be so far away from the sun that it’s atmosphere will freeze and collapse, making observations difficult.

Thursday 5th April

March 2001

Mir Returns Home
Mir finally came racing back to Earth on 23^rd March 2001 after a 15 year, 2 billion mile trip. Russian controllers de-orbited it with superb accuracy as watchers in Fiji saw Mir streak across the sky in pieces. It landed easily inside it’s designated splash down area in the Pacific Ocean, a fitting end to a spectacular mission which is a real credit to the Russian space agency.

Saturday 31st March

Previous Feature Articles

The Leonid Meteor Shower 2001

Are you looking forwards to the Leonid Meteor shower this year? Well, it should be a good one according to current predictions. The Peak of the shower should be on
Sunday 18 ^th of November

Will you be out?
Everyone is of course at the mercy of the weather, espicially the British as England allways has a good amount of cloud stored up for a good meteor shower. So it is advisable to check the current weather forcasts for your location to find out when your clearest skies are. The AOL international weather forcast page Has local predictions as well as current sattelite immages of cloud cover around the globe.

If you are out and observing then send your results either into a forum on any of the h2g2as pages or email using the contact links below. Mention your location, observing times, number per hour or half hour etc, and note any particulary bright meteors.

Contact

If you would like to contact me please use these two links:
yeliab@home and yeliab@uni