... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... This shows the Sun, Moon and Earth (not to scale) together with the . ... They have tested the technique on the Earthshine, the light reflected from the Earth by the Moon, and showed that it can reveal the presence of life in our planet. ... This technique uses the fact that the light reflected from the planet is polarised, whereas that emitted by the star is not. ... Polarised light can tell us about the reflecting surface...

... The remote planet Pluto and its moon Charon orbit the Sun at a mean distance of almost 6,000 million kilometres, or nearly fourty times farther out than the Earth. During a recent investigation by an international group of astronomers [1], the best picture ever of Pluto and Charon [2] was secured with the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera at the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). ... The new HST image was taken when Charon was near its maximum elongation from Pluto (0.9 arcseconds). ...

... WFIRST . ... Missions . ... Science . ... The design reference mission described in the Final Report of the WFIRST-AFTA Science Definition Team has two instruments to execute the mission science program : . ... The WFI will have 6 imaging filters, a grism (for redshift measurements in support of BAO science), and an Integral Field Unit (IFU) for spectroscopic characterization of supernovae. ... A three-tiered WFI supernova survey, with both imaging and IFU spectroscopy, taking a total of 0.6 years. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Our Galaxy . ... Other Galaxies . ... Space Flight . ... When Galaxies Collide (Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO). Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope) . In the southern sky constellation of Corvus (the Crow), we see the Antennae Galaxies (alias NGC 4038 and 4039). ... Your email address will not be published. ... Here you will find the latest news and views from the fascinating worlds of astronomy and space exploration. ...

... STScI-PRC99-27 A CLOSER ENCOUNTER WITH MARS Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space-based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. ... In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. ... Dark sand dunes that surround the polar cap merge into a large, dark region called Acidalia. ...

... Assignments 4, 5 and 6 all involve the imaginary world of Ziggy. ... Each week, you should write a short executive briefing to Captain Howard, explaining to her what you have learned from that week's data. ... A 500 word limit applies to each briefing you submit. You will submit three briefing papers (due dates below): one for each data release. ... First briefing due (Assignment 4). 2nd data set released. ... Second briefing due (Assignment 5). 3rd and final data set released. ...

Astronomical Society of the Pacific Announces 2007 Award Winners in Astronomy Research and Education . The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) announced today the eight winners of its 2007 awards for excellence in astronomy research and education. The ASP's most prestigious award, the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal for lifetime achievement in astronomy has been awarded to Martin Harwit, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy, Cornell University. ...

... Abell 2218: A Galaxy Cluster Lens . ... Almost all of the bright objects in this recently released Hubble Space Telescope image are galaxies in the cluster known as Abell 2218. ... Snowstorm on Planet Earth . ... The lovely Milky Way flows through this large constellation whose celestial wonders also include the closest star to the sun, Alpha Centauri, the largest globular star cluster in our galaxy, Omega Centauri, and the closest active galaxy, Centaurus A. A Lunar Eclipse Over Time . ...

Next: Release of 1 Aug. Up: Old Releases Previous: Release of 18 Nov. ... Fixed 5 Aug 1997. RCW. ... 5 Aug 1997. ... Because of the digital patch panel at the VLA and the effort by sched to understand which IFs are needed to support the specified phasing modes (VL, VR, and VA), CHNSTA is no longer needed. ... Add barrel=roll_off to the vsop setup files. ... 15Aug1997. ... Protect against requesting VLBI in non-VLBI modes at the VLA. ... Fixed keeping track of use of VLA modes. ...

... NASA SPACECRAFT FINDS NEW EVIDENCE FOR WATER ICE ON MERCURY . ... The new data indicate the water ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick," said David Lawrence, a MESSENGER participating scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., and lead author of one of three papers describing the findings. ... Water ice concentrations are derived from the hydrogen measurements. ...

... Polish scientists at the Space Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Wroclaw, south-west Poland, have constructed an instrument called SphinX (short for Solar PHotometer In X-rays), which is an X-ray spectrophotometer, that will obtain spectra in the energy range 0.5--15 keV in 256 energy channels with frequency of up to 100 times a second. ... SphinX is part of a package of instruments known as TESIS (PI Prof. Sergei Kuzin, Lebedev Institute, Moscow). ... Space Research Centre, . ...

... 2MASS Overview . The 2MASS Sky . Executive Summary of 2MASS Second Incremental Data Products . Point Source Catalog . Extended Source Catalog . ... Distribution Mode for 2MASS Products . Data Release Plan . ... Point Source Catalog (PSC) . Extended Source Catalog (XSC) . ... 2MASS Source Naming Convention . ... General Properties of the Data Release . ... Comparison of Achieved Performance of Second Incremental Release Catalogs with Level 1 Science Specification . ...

... Time calculated from Fermi GBM Trigger Time = 14:12:08.67 ( Connaughton, GCN 9230 ). 1% coincident with our start zero image time. 3x3 degrees around Swift XRT position . ... SUBJECT: GRB 090424 : MASTER-Net prompt optical limit DATE: 09/04/25 20:29:42 GMT FROM: Vladimir Lipunov at Moscow State U/Krylov Obs E. Gorbovskoy, V. Lipunov, V.Kornilov, A.Belinski ... Our observations results: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fermi GRB Trigg.* ...

NASA Press Release Text - June 24, 1996 GALILEO READY FOR CLOSE FLYBY OF JUPITER'S BIGGEST MOON Now residing in orbit around Jupiter, NASA's Galileo spacecraft is primed for its first close flyby of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, at 2:29 a.m. EDT on June 27, 1996. ... In the days just before and after the Ganymede flyby, Galileo's other studies will include a search for auroral activity on Jupiter's nightside and observations of other Jovian moons: Io, Europa and Callisto. ...

... Recent Results . ... last 10 years in ADS) . in SAO press releases . ... observations database) . ... Last update: . ... Measurement of the dark halo shape in polar ring galaxies . Determining the mass of supermassive black hole in galaxy Mrk6 nucleus based on spectropolarimetric observations . The dust jets in the nucleus of comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 . ... New Polar Ring Galaxies . Traces of recent interactions in isolated Seyfert galaxies . ...

... Image Quality of the VLT . Total Optical Control . First light for the ESO VLT unit telescope 1 occurred during the workshop. ... The image shown (Figure 1 ) here was obtained with the VLT on May 16, 1998, in red light (R band), i.e. while the mirror was still uncoated. ... In this diagram (FIgure 2), the measured image quality of the VLT UT1 astronomical images is plotted versus the ``seeing", as measured by the Seeing Monitor, a small telescope also located on top of the Paranal Mountain. ...

... Astrophysics Group . ... The 9C survey of radio sources was made with the Ryle Telescope at a frequency of 15.2 GHz and a resolution of 25ТљxТљ25Тљcosec(dec) arcsec 2 . ... Waldram, E.M., Pooley, G.G., Grainge, K.J.B., Jones, M.E., Saunders, R.D.E., Scott, P.F., Taylor, A.C., 2003, MNRAS, 342, 915 . ... Field name . ... It comprises seven fields, each delineated by boundaries in RA and Dec, together covering a total of 114.7 deg 2 for which the source catalogue is complete to ~ 10 mJy. ...

. The bright white dot is the planet Beta Pictoris b, glowing in the infrared light from the heat released when it was formed 10 million years ago. The bright star Beta Pictoris is hidden behind a mask at the center of the image. Image processing by Christian Marois, NRC Canada

XMM-Newton CCF Release Note XMM- CCF -REL-176 RGS QUANTUMEF Shortest-Wavelength Correction Factors A.M.T. Pollock July 27, 2004 1 CCF components Name of CCF VALDATE List of Blocks changed XSCS ag RGS1 QUANTUMEF 0013 1998-01-01T00:00:00 RGA EFFAREACORR NO SI1 SI2 SI3 SI4 SI7 RGS2 QUANTUMEF 0014 1998-01-01T00:00:00 RGA EFFAREACORR NO SI1 SI2 SI3 SI4 SI5 SI7 2 Changes Near the short-wavelength end of the RGS bandpass, the instrument ... The best- t power-law indices, , are shown. ...

... UA SCIENTIST & TEAM DISCOVER SURFACE FEATURES COVER TITAN (Science contacts: Peter H. Smith, (602) 621-2725; Mark Lemmon, (602) 621-1485; UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory) . Scientists for the first time have made images of the surface of Saturn 's giant, haze-shrouded moon, Titan. ... About three weeks before Cassini's first flyby of Titan, the spacecraft is to release the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe to parachute to Titan's surface. ... Upper left: hemisphere facing Saturn. ...