The 212th AAS Mtg in St. Louis, MO, June 1-5

Three themes permeated many of the sessions at the recent American Astronomical Society meeting in St. Louis, MO June 1-5, 2008. The International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009 is going to be a BIG, world wide event. The number of excellent astronomy related web...

The Giotti Space Craft: Mission to Comet Halley

In 1301, the medieval Italian painter Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), observed Halley’s comet, which he memorialized as the star of Bethlehem in his painting, Adoration of the Magi. Almost 700 years later, he was honored by having his name carried by the first space...
White Dwarfs Don’t Remain Silent

White Dwarfs Don’t Remain Silent

“They are like a hot lump of coal slowly cooling”, Ashley Yeager describes white dwarfs in her piece, “Dead – But Not Duds” in Science News, Oct 11, 2008. White dwarfs, the dead corpse of a star with a mass less than about 1.4 solar masses, create in their final...

The Stars of Sgr A* (Sagittarius A Star)

Figure 1. Measured (dots) and calculated (line) orbital position of S0-2 based on 16 years of observations. The orbit matches Kepler’s law perfectly. From Ghez, et.al., Astrophysical Journal, Aug 21, 2008. Peer toward the Milky Way’s center in visible light, and you...