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A close planet triangle and a very close conjunction Venus, Mercury and Saturn formed a fleeting dusk triangle in late June, and the former two moved to within 5' of each other on June 27: pictures of late June from Arizona and Australia (more), from June 27 from Austria (with Mercury and Venus as disks!), Germany, Spain, Virginia, Colorado and Kentucky, from June 26 from Pisa, Herne (more), Austria, Portugal, Colorado, Canada and Texas, from June 25 from Greece, Austria and California, from June 24 from Hawaii, Florida (another one) and Mono Lake, and from June 19 from Colorado. Previews: Science@NASA, S&T, NwS, KR - and see this table for more such events!

Update # 289 of Tuesday, July 5, 2005

Deep Impact stunning success! / Cosmos 1 launched and lost / Strangest, smallest exoplanet so far found / Discovery on the pad, July 13 launch confirmed

Incandescent impact cloud imaged by Deep Impact But the comet's coma hardly brightened at all after the impact - which raises deep questions indeed Further image sequences downlinked from the Flyby Spacecraft - that made it through the coma of Tempel 1 unharmed - show the very moment of impact: An extremely bright, hot cloud can be seen, causing the cameras' CCD chips to bloom, then the fresh ejecta plume is visible in reflected sunlight, casting a shadow on the nucleus' surface. A wealth of information can be gleaned from these amazing pictures, on the physics of small body collisions, the make-up of comet nuclei and the behaviour of gas and dust jets: This all exceeds most expections though not hopes. The only disappointment if you will: The comet itself has hardly brightened as a consequence of the dust release and is still hovering between 10 and 11 mag. The ejected dust could be seen as an increase of the central condensation for a few hours at best, but now Tempel 1 is practically back to normal for many telescopes. The weak consequences of the impact for the comet as such now raise the question: What does happen to the nuclei of other comets when these suddenly perform substantial jumps in brightness? Posted on July 4 Impactor dead on, huge ejecta cone, comet nucleus stays in one piece: Deep Impact a stunning success! The real pictures almost looked like the artist's views we have seen so often in the past months: There was an odd-shaped comet body growing larger and larger in the field of view - for both the flyby spacecraft and the doomed impactor. Then the impactor's data stopped while the flyby s/c saw a bright cone of ejecta grow from one end of the nucleus! The view of this ejecta cloud got bigger and bigger with the spacecraft closing in, and even on the last image before it had to go into shield mode, the cone was still there (and thus no crater visible). The majority of the images (and spectra) will be downlinked only over the coming 24 hours or so, and everything needs to be enhanced (although the raw images are already stunning): Stay tuned for more! Posted on July 3 Impactor released from Deep Impact craft! The Deep Impact spacecraft has successfully released its impactor at 6:07 UTC Earth received time on July 3: At release, the impactor was about 880,000 kilometers away from its quarry. The separation of flyby spacecraft and the washing-machine-sized, copper-fortified impactor is one in a series of important mission milestones that will cap off with a planned encounter with the comet at 5:52 UTC on July 4. Six hours prior to impactor release, the Deep Impact spacecraft successfully performed its fourth trajectory correction maneuver: The 30-second burn changed the spacecraft's velocity by about one kilometer per hour. The goal of the burn was to place the impactor as close as possible to the direct path of onrushing comet Tempel 1. In order to release the impactor, separation pyros fired allowing a spring to uncoil and separate the two spacecraft at a speed of about 35 centimeters per second. Twelve minutes after impactor release the flyby began a 14-minute long divert burn that slowed its velocity relative to the impactor by 102 meters per second, moving it out of the path of the onrushing comet nucleus and setting the stage for a ringside seat of celestial fireworks to come less than 24 hours later. Deep Impact mission controllers have confirmed the impactor's S-band antenna is talking to the flyby spacecraft. All impactor data including the expected remarkable images of its final dive into the comet's nucleus will be transmitted to the flyby craft - which will then downlink them to Deep Space Network antennas that are listening 134 million kilometers away. The 14-kilometer-long comet Tempel 1 meanwhile displayed another cometary outburst on July 2 at 8:34 UTC when a massive, short-lived blast of ice or other particles escaped from inside the comet's nucleus and temporarily expanded the size and reflectivity of the coma that surrounds it. Posted on July 2 Deep Impact closing in; excitement high - as are the uncertainties All systems on both the flyby spacecraft and the impactor are nominal, days before Deep Impact will attack comet 9P/Tempel 1, and their computers have been loaded with the final flight software - including program segments for all kinds of possible contingencies that will hopefully never be used. Even the unlikely case that the impactor refuses to separate from the mothership despite several attempts has been planned for: Both spacecraft together would then be rammed into the comet, taking extremely good pictures on the way in and providing observers elsewhere with an even more energetic impact. In the nominal mission, however (»one of the most daring and one of the most risky,« in the words of JPL director Jim Elachi), the impactor would separate 24 hours before the impact and navigate autonomously into its target, while the flyby spacecraft diverts its path to a safe distance. Impact will occur at 5:52 UTC Earth Received Time on July 4, ±3 minutes. In the past few weeks Deep Impact has already yielded some science: There are frequent but insignificant outbursts on its nucleus (»sneezes«) that were not seen in other comets of this kind, simply because they weren't monitored that intensely. The chemical analysis of the gases released during these outbursts (which dissipate completely within hours) might help distinguishing between a dozen models for this phenomenon. Meanwhile the infrared spectrograph on the flyby spacecraft could distinguish several molecules in the coma even 10 days before arrival: The spectra resemble those from the Vega spacecraft near Halley in 1986, but they were taken from 300 times as far away - and in recent days the signal/noise ratio has shot up. While near the nucleus the spectrograph should able to see parent molecules in the inner coma not accsessible to observers from farther away - and after the impact they will come from well below any processed crust, providing a glimpse at material untouched for 4.5 billion years. There is still considerable uncertainty about the consequences of the impact on the comet, though: Inside and outside the Deep Impact community about every outcome imaginable has been proposed so far, from a complete explosion of the comet due to its volatiles and the impact energy over the formation of craters of various sizes to no measurable effect whatsoever. The impact itself should cause an extremely short (1/60 sec or so) flash, but how much material will be ejected from the nucleus and what will happen to the coma afterwards is anyone's guess. Karen Meech, who coordinates the groundbased observations, has been quoted with an expected rise in total brightness of 7 magnitudes, from the current 10 to about 3 mag., possibly increasing further. And others expect the maximum effect not before ½ day after the impact: If that holds true, not Hawaii or the Western U.S., where the actual impact can be monitored, but Asia, Europa, Africa and Southern America might get the best view. In our sky the show would unfold just to the northeast of the bright star Spica in Virgo. (Science of May 27, p. 1247 + NASA Press Conferences of June 9 and July 1, 2005)	Top pages for continuing news & pictures: Image releases by NASA, the mission's homepage at UMD (mirrored at JPL), news pages from ESO and ESA, current ground-based pictures from professionals and amateurs and the open posting archives of the Comets (esp. of July 5 [earlier, still earlier]) and CometObs Mailing Lists. Also recommended: a (German) Weblog from yours truly, which chronicles the events (with countless links, not all repeated below!) from June 30 onwards. No longer updated but once hot with DI news: Live Images from Deep Impact and web logs from Planetary Society (archived entries from July 4-5, 3-4 and 1), Spaceflight Now and Fla. Today. NASA's Central News Page, an updated Encounter Press Kit (excerpts), a consolidated timeline of all events (another, another and another one), special pages with observations from Arizona, Hawaii and Australia - and Tempel 1 cartography experiments by Jost Jahn! Press Releases and other Updates from countless sources of July 5: ESA (earlier, even earlier), ESO, Cornell. July 4: JPL (earlier), HST, ESA (earlier, still earlier, even earlier, still earlier, even earlier, still earlier), PSU, ESO (earlier, still earlier, even earlier). July 3: JPL [alt.], ESO, NASA, ESA, CFHT. July 2: CSIRO. July 1: paper by Sarid & al., NASA [alt., UMD] (more and more), ESA, ESO (more), UCSC. June 30: ESA, NOAO. June 29: paper by Mousis & al., NASA [UMD], ESA (another one), Spacehab, Cardiff, MPG. June 28: NASA [alt., UMD, alt.], CSIRO, CfA, S&T, Science@NASA. June 27: HST, NASA (another one). June 23: NOAO, U of A, Brown (sidebar), ESA. June 22: ESO. June 21: UMD, ESA [alt.] and Cornell (another one). June 20: ESA. June 17: S&T. June 16: CfA, ESO. June 9: JPL [NASA], NAOJ. Pictures and movie clips by the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft (and impactor) of July 4: PIA021... 37, 36, 35, 34, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 21, 20 and 19, of July 3 (Flyby views Impactor), May 1 til July 2, July 1 and of June 30, 29, 27, 26 25, 22-24 (outburst; other version), 21, 20, 19, 15 (other version) and June 13. Swift picture of Tempel 1 of June 29, Chandra picture of Tempel 1 of June 30 and Hubble pictures of Tempel 1 of July 4 (3-series). Groundbased pictures of Tempel 1 of June 23, June 21-28 ("sneeze" sequence) and June 12, many more from UAI and some from G�hrken; how to find the comet was explained by Griffith Obs., S&T and Orion (PDF). News coverage of July 5: SR, TIME, Telegr., AJC, NwS, SFG, Guard., FT, SC, TP, Bild. July 4: SN (earlier, still earlier), Plan. Soc. (earlier), AB, S&T, BBC (other story), Maui News, Guard., SFG, NwS, FT, Dsc., MSNBC, Telegr., ST. July 3: SN (earlier), FT, Honopl. Adv., BBC, SMH, Guard., NwS, ST. July 2: SDU, Guard., AFP, BdW. July 1: Plan. Soc., Dsc., SFG, CSM, NwS, JS Online. June 30: DiamBack, ABC, CNN, Reg. (earlier), AFP, Welt, ZEIT, TP. June 29: Plan. Soc., PBS, FT, Daily Liberal, USAT, APOD. June 28: HC, Star Bull., PS. June 27: S&T, Austr., ScA, Hon.Adv., NwS, S&T. June 25: HC. June 24: Denver P., June 23: CSM. June 22: NG, NwS, Ast., SC. June 18: AB. June 16: MSNBC. June 15: SC. June 13: AB. June 12: Star Bull. June 11: Honol. Adv., AP. June 10: BBC, AD, ST. June 9: Plan. Soc., SC. June 7: SC. Plus a prediction from the fringe. 2005 K2 (LINEAR) has split in mid-June, but the fragment that broke off, has now faded away: numerous fine photographs from Italy. Earlier: S&T. Another LINEAR has also split - next to C/2005 A1 a weak fragment has been sighted: Comet ML. Full Moon in June looked really big: BBC, Guard., Science@NASA, Istrate picture. Man almost hit by meteorite? JournalStar. Faint supernova in galaxy M 51 - here is a nice picture! MESSENGER executes successful flyby test On June 28, the MESSENGER team successfully tested the spacecraft and instrument commands planned for the Aug. 2 flyby of Earth: Status.
Did Cosmos 1 make it into a brief orbit after all? 1½ weeks after the ill-fated launch the fate of Cosmos 1 is still unclear: The Russians are all but sure that it never even separated from the Volna rocket and that both immediately crashed back into the Barents sea. But the reception of weak and telemetry-free but otherwise normal-looking signals at about the right time and from three diiferent sites - including the Chech Republic, almost one orbit away - continues to raise the possibility that the spacecraft had somehow made it into a short-lived, unstable orbit. Detailled analysis of the data is continuing now that the actual recordings first have been returned back from remote places: Many details seem to fit the "we were in orbit" hypothesis. Uncertainty also clouds the future of the Planetary Society's solar sailing ambitions: All the money is gone now, and the flight was not insured (in contrast to the similarly ill-fated launch of a suborbital prototype in 2001). In any case Cosmos 1 was the first orbital demonstrator of a solar sail that has ever proceeded to actually being launched - something never achieved by all the space agencies in the world. (With AW&ST of June 27, p. 26-28) Posted on June 23 Loss of Cosmos 1 almost certain, but search continues Almost 24 hours after the launch of Cosmos 1, the Planetary reported that "the Russian space agency (RKA) has made a tentative conclusion that the Volna rocket carrying Cosmos 1 failed during the firing of the first stage. This would mean that Cosmos 1 is lost. While it is likely that this conclusion is correct, there are some inconsistent indications from information received from other sources. The Cosmos 1 team observed what appear to be signals, that looks like they are from the spacecraft when it was over the first three ground stations and some Doppler data over one of these stations. This might indicate that Cosmos 1 made it into orbit, but probably a lower one than intended. The project team now considers this to be a very small probability. But because there is a slim chance that it might be so, efforts to contact and track the spacecraft continue." An so they do on day 2 ... Posted on June 22 First orbital solar sail "Cosmos 1" launched, lost - and recovered? Apparent detection of radio signals confusing as Russia talks of rocket failure The first hours after the on-time (though 3½ years late) submarine launch of the first solar sail experiment to be performed in Earth orbit have been extremely confusing: First there was celebration, soon despair when the spacecraft was not heard from as expected, then new hope when three ground stations reported early weak contacts after all. But - according to the Planetary Society, some 12 hours after launch - "some data point to a launch vehicle misfiring, one that would prevent the spacecraft from achieving orbit." Indeed the Russians say that the Volna's engine had failed already 83 seconds after launch. As project director L. Friedman reports from Moscow: "That the weak signals were recorded at the expected times of spacecraft passes over the ground stations is encouraging, but in no way are they conclusive enough for us to be sure that they came from Cosmos 1 working in orbit." Earlier the Society had made this statement: "We have reviewed our telemetry recordings and have found what we believe are spacecraft signals in the data recorded at the tracking stations in Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka and Majuro, Marshall Islands. The review of data received at the tracking station in Panska Ves, Czech Republic also appears to indicate a spacecraft signal. If confirmed, these data will indicate that Cosmos 1 made it to orbit. We will continue to monitor planned telemetry sessions and will be working with U.S. STRATCOM (Strategic Command) to locate Cosmos 1." And soon after launch it had said: "The Cosmos 1 spacecraft was launched today but we cannot, at this time, confirm that a successful orbit injection. Some launch vehicle and spacecraft telemetry data gave ambiguous information during the launch."	Continuing updates, a blog (more details, but now finished), July 1 and June 20 Press Releases from the Planetary Society, a detailled Press Kit and archived Updates of July 1, June 25, June 23, June 21/22, June 21, June 20 (another one) and June 15. Coverage of June 24: TASS, AP. June 23: AD, Wired, Kommersant, NwS, AFP, Scotsman, InterFax, LAT, ST, Welt. June 22: SN, MosNews, AFP (earlier, still earlier), TASS, NG, BBC, InterFax, Guard., AP, Dsc., PA, ST, BR Online. June 21: SN (earlier), Wired, ST. June 20: Nat'l Geogr., CSM, Dsc. June 16: Wired. June 8: CNN. June 7: Guard. Pluto probe arrives at GSFC! The first spacecraft designed to study Pluto took the first steps on a long journey on June 13 when it was shipped from the Applied Physics Laboratory to NASA's GSFC, for its next round of pre-launch tests: APL and GSFC Press Releases. Photometry of Pluto not easy: S&T. Low density of Amalthea - deduced from Galileo tracking - argues against formation in present orbit around Jupiter: JPL and TU Wien Press Releases, PhotoJournal, Plan. Soc., NwS, TP. SMART-1 finds calcium on the Moon Taking advantage of a solar flare, the D-CIXS instrument has detected the element on the lunar surface from its X-ray fluoresence: ESA Release. From SMART to lunar bases: AB. Picture of Cassini crater: ESA Release. Three ESA experiments on Indian lunar orbiter confirmed - an MOU has been signed: ISRO and ESA Press Releases, Hind.Times, AFP. Balloon telescope BLAST flies from Sweden to Canada but has to land early after just 4 days: SSC (earlier), Univ. of PA [SR], AMEC and CSA Releases, Homepage, OregonLive, CBC, Toronto Star (earlier), Guard. Foton capsule returns with mainly ESA experiments: ESA Release, SN, ST.
An exoplanet with a substantial dense core is apparently circling the star HD 149026: The dimming of its light when the planet transits its disk is so small that the planet - with about the mass of Saturn - must have an astonishing density. Modeling of 3 photometric transits provides an orbital inclination of 85.3±1.0° and (including the uncertainty in the stellar radius) a planet diameter of 0.725±0.05 Jupiters. Models for this planet mass and radius suggest the presence of a core of about 67 Earth masses composed of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium: This substantial planet core would be difficult to construct by gravitational instability and is just being hailed as substantial evidence for the classical giant planet formation-by-core-accretion model. When a consortium of American, Japanese and Chilean astronomers first looked at this planet, they surely expected one similar to Jupiter. "None of our models predicted that nature could make a planet like the one we are studying," said Bun'ei Sato, consortium member and postdoctoral fellow at Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, Japan. "For theorists, the discovery of a planet with such a large core is as important as the discovery of the first extrasolar planet around the star 51 Pegasi in 1995," adds Shigeru Ida, theorist from the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. In one dramatic, but plausible scenario, discoverers theorize that the planet could have formed from the collision and merger of two conventional protoplanets, each with a mass core 35 times that of the Earth's. After the collision, the resulting orbit would have been highly elongated, but over time, tidal forces would have brought it into its present configuration. 6 to 9 Earth masses: The smallest exoplanet found so far shares its Sun (actually a red dwarf with 1/3 of a solar mass) with two "Jupiters" that have been known for a while - they orbit the star every 61 and 30 days while the small planet does it every 1.94 days. Its radial velocity signal has shown up for the last three years, but only now did it seem strong enough for a big announcement. Little other than the minimum mass (5.9 Earths) is known about the inner planet, Gliese 876d: There is no analog of this mass in our own solar system. Perhaps it is a 'chimera' of an Uranus - with 14 Earth masses - and an Earth-like planet, i.e. a rocky body surrounded by a very thick atmosphere. In any case the planet is too hot for liquid water or life as we know it, just 3 mio. km from the star which heats it to 200 ... 400�C. The discovery of Gliese 876d highlights the mighty progress in spectroscopy in the last few years: The radial velocity amplitude is only 6.4 m/s, with measurement errors of 3 to 4 m/s because the red dwarf has only 10th magnitude (although it is just 15 light years away). With bright stars, amplitudes of ±1 m/s are now accessible, and several more - so far secret - candidates for similarly small exoplanets are already under scrutiny. (NSF Press Conference on June 13, 2005)	The weird planet: a long paper by Sato & al., homepage of the research group, NASA [SR] and SFSU Press Releases and coverage by S&T and NwS. The small planet: a long paper by Rivera & al. (PDF), Berkeley, NSF and Carnegie Inst. Press Releases, technical and colorful pictures, the star's encyclopedia entry, an APOD and coverage by S&T, AB, SF Gate, Plan. Soc., CSM, Dsc., BBC, HC, SR, NwS, SC, Space Today, TP. Plus an interview w/G. Marcy. Sharp dust ring around Fomalhaut The off-center ring in an ACS image strengthens case for a planet shaping the debris disk: a paper by Kalas & al., HST, NASA and Berkeley [SN] Releases and coverage by S&T, FT, Dsc., NG, NwS, SC, ST and BdW. The excentricity of the disk had already been apparent in sub-mm data: a paper by Marsh & al. from January. Proplyds can really form planets - the SMA has found plenty of dust in the protoplanetary disks of the Orion nebula: a paper by Williams & al., CfA Press Release, Dsc., NwS. Planetary 'contruction zone' at TW Hydrae: CfA and NRAO Press Releases. Extrasolar comets could be detectable, too - and confuse exoplanet hunters: a paper by Jura and a stories by NwS and BdW. How dusty are comets? BdW.

Mars Update All 3 MARSIS antennae have deployed successfully while SPICAM is seeing Martian aurorae. ESA Press Releases of June 22, June 16, June 10 (another one), June 9 and June 7, UA Release of June 8, UK Parliament Rep. (dealing w/the Beagle 2 loss) and coverage of June 28: Plan. Soc. June 23: Plan. Soc., Reg. June 21: NwS. June 20: S&T, BBC.

June 18: ST. June 15: BBC, NwS. June 9: BBC (other story), Telegr., BdW. June 8: NwS, SC (other story), ST. What does methane on Mars prove? Dartmouth PR [SR], BdW. MER Opportunity happily rolling on now - and both MER combined have spent 1000 days on Mars! JPL Releases of June 10 and June 6, a Cornell PR, Squyres Diary entries of June 15, June 11 and June 4, pictures # 79 99 and 97 and coverage of June 30: Plan. Soc. June 17: Dsc. June 16: AB. June 8: SC. June 6: AB, S&T, BBC, ST. MGS pictures 39 56 and 53.

Saturn Update A possible lake (!) as well an a controversial ice volcano have been spotted on Titan, while the first Huygens papers are ready. JPL etc. Releases of June 28 [NASA] and June 8 [Cass.],

ESA Releases of June 17 and June 8 [SR], pictures # 79 65, 64, 63, 62, 61, 75 35, 33, 32, 31, 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 62 41, 40 and coverage of July 1: BBC. June 30: BdW. June 29: BBC, Dsc., NwS, ST. June 28: Plan. Soc. June 14: TP. June 10: CSM, ST. June 8: Dsc., BBC, NwS, SC. Chandra X-ray view of Saturn: Release.

ISS etc. Update: Discovery is go for a July 13 launch! Discovery is back on the launch pad, with the FRR confirming a July 13 launch over some doubts, while House & Senate are favoring a fat budget bill for NASA, which is being reorganized massively, while two consortia have been selected for CEV work. The status of Discovery, the Return to Flight Homepage, Press Kit (big PDF) and Executive Summary of the Task Group, a Griffin statement of June 28 (plus a transcript of the full hearing), a memo about waivers, Diaz and Readdy on their exits, NASA Releases of July 1, June 30, June 27, June 15, June 14 (another one), June 13 (another and yet another one), June 8 and June 7 (another one), HR 3070 Summary, Senate, House, Embassy of France and AAAS Press Releases (plus their Report), Science@NASA of June 24 and June 10 and a letter from the Plan. Soc. to Congress.

Coverage of July 5: FT. July 4: FT. Sp.N. July 2: FT (other story). July 1: SN, HC, FT, BBC, Guard., SR, NwS. July: SciAm. June 30: FT, HC (earlier), Dsc., BBC, ST (earlier). June 29: FT, HC, ST. June 28: FT, HC, BBC, NwS, ST. June 27: SN, Dsc., NwS. AW&ST. June 26: FT. June 25: FT, BBC. June 24: FT, SN, ST. June 23: HC, BBC. June 22: HC, UPI. June 21: USAT, SR (part 2). June 20: SD. June 19: HC, ST. June 18: SN, FT (earlier), SR. June 17: FT, Wired, ST. June 16: SN, FT, HC, BBC, ST (earlier, still earlier). June 15: FT, AP, SN, BBC, HC, NwS, CSM. June 14: FT (other story), HC (other story), Dsc., ST, Welt. June 13: HC, FT (earlier, still earlier), AFP, Sp.N., SpaceRev. June 12: HC. June 10: FT, Plan. Soc. June 9: FT (other and another story), CNN, HC (other story), BBC, ST (other story). June 8: FT (other story), AFP, ST. June 7: SR, FT, BBC. June 6: SN, FT. Europe's Space Council met again: ESA Release. Cosmic Vision 2015-25 out: ESA Release. HST crisis waning, especially with the Senate adding $250m for a servicing mission, but many hurdles remain, while a new STScI director has been named - Mikulski and STScI Press Releases and coverage of June 22: ST. June 6: Sp.N.

A perfect astrophysical jet from the lab? Physicists have devised a plasma experiment that shows how huge long, thin jets of material shoot out from exotic astrophysical objects - they create jets of plasma at will in a "planar spheromak gun": Caltech PR [SN], NwS. "Bumpy space dust" the explanation why there is so much molecular hydrogen in space? It might trigger the formation of the molecules: OSU Press Release. Soft Gamma Repeater lurking in SNR Cas A?! Infrared light echoes seen by Spitzer hint at repeated outbursts of the neutron star that formed some 400 years ago: a paper by Krause & al., JPL, Spitzer, NASA, MPG and Univ. of AZ Press Releases, SC, BdW. Bizarre supernova remnant imaged by the HST in the LMC - the supernova that formed N 63A is thought to have exploded inside the central cavity of a wind-blown bubble, which was itself embedded in a clumpy portion of the LMC's interstellar medium: HST Release, Dsc. No remnant to be seen in SN 1987, however hard one looks in every wavelength: a paper by Graves & al., a CfA Release and SC. Pulsating maser found in interstellar cloud It is driven by the radiation of a pulsar located behind it: NwS. Strange pair of Brown Dwarfs challenges models - the relative temperatures aren't "right": S&T. Minerals from supernova found in dust collected in the upper atmosphere of Earth - it came a long way through space & time: UA Press Release [SR]. Nonsphericity of Ia supernova supports link to GRBs Although no burst was seen in connection with SN 2003jd, this fits the idea that the jets were not pointed our way: Berkeley [SR] and MPG [German] Press Releases, SC, TP. Going after the 1st short GRB that was tracked down by Swift on May 9 - it most likely happened at the edge of an old elliptical galaxy, there was no (bright) supernova, and the n* merger model seems to work: papers by Hjorth & al. and Lee & al. and a kind of homepage of the burst. Plus the Status on June 16.

A particularly impressive 'Einstein' ring involving galaxies far away has been imaged - it fills 3/4 of a full circle: ESO Release, NwS. Age of the Milky Way determined in the 14.5±2 Gyr range - it formed not long after the Big Bang: U. Chicago PR [EA]. Galaxies in voids produce more stars than similar galaxies in clusters and are thus much bluer - what does this tell us about galaxy evolution? Drexel Press Release, NwS. Largest simulation of the Universe revealed - the most realistic simulation ever of the growth of cosmic structure and the formation of galaxies and quasars from the Virgo consortium: MPG [German] and PPARC Releases and coverage by BBC and TP. Neutrino background: Univ. of Oxford PR, SC. Casimir force: Purdue PR. Unified model of AGN supported by Spitzer discovery of warm dust around quasars: Cornell and RUB Press Releases. Lots of stars close to our galactic center: NwS, Welt. Launch mishap in Plesetsk Military spacecraft lost in Molniya failure, perhaps due to blast in combustion chamber: TASS. Earlier: SN, BBC, AFP, ST. NASA to extend TRMM mission - perhaps until 2010: Sp.N., ST. Europe approves joint Galileo bid The European organization overseeing the Galileo satellite navigation system announced on June 27 that it has approved a joint bid by two industry consortia that had been competing for the rights to develop the system: Alcatel PR (earlier), BBC, Bloomberg, Reg., ST (earlier). Guinness recognizes NASA Scramjet - NASA set the record in November during the third and final flight of the X-43A project: NASA Release, BBC. Bernard Schriever, who pioneered military space program, dies at 95 - he was called "equivalent in his accomplishments to Wernher von Braun": USAF PR, FT. High-speed camera at the VLT can shoot up to 500 pix/sec: ESO PR. UA to cast GMT mirror: Release, NwS. Aussie dreams of Antarctic telescope: SD, ABC. SMA success hailed: CfA PR. Mirror blank for DCT: Corning PR. Security up for Edinbg. Obs.: Scotsman. Saving Yerkes Obs.: GazetteXtra. Celestron sold - again: S&T.