Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! We'll begin the week with a challenging unaided eye observation and head out to deep space as we venture toward NGC 2903 and the "Sunflower" Galaxy. The Moon will soon join the scene and we'll explore some of its nightly features, but not before we've had a chance to catch two comets! There will be occultations, jovian activity and a new double star to delight the eye, so head out under dark skies because...

Here's what's up!

The European Space Agency's Mars Express took this image of 140-km (87 mile) Crater Holden on the surface of Mars. This crater is very old, with numerous smaller impact craters inside it, which formed later. It's also heavily eroded, with the characteristic central mount nearly completely covered by sediments. The rim of the crater has been cut in several places by gullies, which seem to form small valley networks.

Controllers with the European Space Agency have deployed the first of Mars Express' MARSIS radar booms. During the operation, however, they detected an anomaly with one of the 13 segments that make up the telescoping boom - segment 10 hasn't fully locked into place. Controllers are going to hold off extending the second boom until they can figure out what's happening with the first. Once fully deployed, the MARSIS radar will allow Mars Express to map the subsurface of the Red Planet, searching for underground reservoirs of water.

Saturn's moon Phoebe might have arrived at the planet after a long journey from the outer Solar System, according to new research from NASA. When Cassini analyzed the heavily cratered moon in June 2004, it found that it was ice rich, but covered with a thin layer of darker material. This is a similar composition to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt Objects. Phoebe likely started further out, but then was redirected towards the inner solar system through interactions with other objects. Finally, it was captured by Saturn into a stable orbit.

Scientists analyzing images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor think they might have located the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, which crashed onto Mars in December 1999. The team developed techniques for spotting spacecraft by analyzing the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. They think they've found MPL's parachute, exhaust blast, and the actual spacecraft. Additional, higher resolution images will be taken by MGS later this year to confirm the discovery.

The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite snapped this picture of a marine phytoplankton bloom forming off the coast of Spain, in the Bay of Biscay. Blooms like this occur frequently in the bay this time of year, since the water is cold, but very nutrient rich. As the water warms to a certain level, the plankton's growth explodes. It's important to monitor these blooms, as phytoplankton forms the base of the marine food chain.

Our star goes through an 11-year cycle of solar activity. At the recent height of the cycle, the Sun blasted off some of the most powerful flares and coronal mass ejections ever seen. And during the minimum, due in 2006, it's supposed to be calm, right? Well, not exactly. Even during the lowest point of solar activity, the Sun still blasts off a few of the most powerful X-class flares. Unprotected astronauts caught in the radiation would probably get pretty sick.

The amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface has been on the rise for the past decade on average, potentially accelerating the effects of global warming. Scientists had been measuring a decrease in sunlight from the 1960s to the 1990s, because of rising pollution was actually blocking sunlight. With better pollution controls in place, the planet's surface has brightened by about 4% in the last 10 years.

Prolonged exposure to microgravity causes astronauts to lose bone and muscle, so they have to exercise for hours a day to stay healthy. NASA is working on a new strategy that could involve just laying down and going for a spin - in a short-radius centrifuge. 32 test subjects will spend 21 days in bed rest, simulating the effects of microgravity. Some will spend an hour a day in a centrifuge that simulates 2.5 times the Earth's gravity. It's hoped that this treatment can reverse the loss of bone and muscle mass.

Skywatchers are in for a treat tonight as the eta Aquarid meteors will be putting on a show. Observers in the southern hemisphere should be able to see 15-60 meteors an hour depending on the darkness of the skies. Those in the northern hemisphere won't be so lucky, seeing only about 10 meteors an hour. Look to the constellation of Aquarius, towards the East in the early morning of May 6, and you should see a more than a few meteors. Be patient, dress warmly, and bring a friend or two..

The European Space Agency's Envisat satellite is building up the highest resolution map ever created of the entire Earth. Once complete, it will provide coverage of the every spot on Earth with three times the resolution of any previous survey. The final image set at a resolution of 300 metres will use up 20 terabytes of memory, and provide a resource for scientists, developers, and planners.

Geologists have built up a suite of tools and techniques that let them peer back in time to watch the formative stages of the Earth and how it's changed over time - by looking inside rocks. By analyzing trapped water and air in rocks, geologists are studying how our atmosphere changed 3.9 billion years ago, when the crust of the planet was just forming, and there wasn't any oxygen in the air.

Astronomers aren't stuck looking at plain old light any more. There's a whole electromagnetic spectrum out there, ready to be explored, from 21cm hydrogen radio-waves through microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, to gamma rays and beyond, astronomers have instruments for all seasons and all wavelengths. High-energy gamma rays are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere - which is good for our health - but astronomers can still see them thanks to a process called Cherenkov radiation telescopy.

The theory of panspermia proposes that life really gets around, jumping fron planet to planet - or even from star to star. Life might be everywhere! Assuming this is true, how do single-celled bacteria make the journey through the vacuum of space? Easy, they use chunks of rock as space ships, in a process called lithopanspermia. And now, researchers from Princeton and the University of Michigan think that life carrying rocks might have been right there at the beginning of our solar system, keeping their tiny astronauts safe and sound, frozen in statis until the planets formed and the right conditions let them thaw out, stretch their proteins, and begin a process leading from microbe to mankind.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft took this image of our home planet during its recent gravity assisting flyby. The spacecraft swept past the Earth on March 4/5 to get a speed boost on its way to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It studied the Earth and Moon using several instruments while it was in the neighbourhood and now the ESA has processed the images it sent back.

The next mission to make the journey to the Red Planet, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has arrived at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Engineers will assemble various components, and test everything to ensure it's ready for launch. If all goes well, the MRO will lift off in August atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket, and then make the journey to Mars. MRO will study both the surface and underground of Mars in tremendous detail, and survey potential future landing sites.

NASA has decided to push back the launch of the space shuttle Discovery to July to give engineers more time to deal with some potential safety concerns with the return to flight. Managers are concerned about ice building up on the shuttle external tank, which could fall off and damage the orbiter during take off. The shuttle will be rolled back to the assembly building to make additional improvements. NASA is currently targeting a launch window of July 13 to 31.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers.This week's early dark skies will promote plenty of deep space action as we view the M51, M94, M53, and M64. Mid-week will provide some excitement as the reliable children of Comet Halley streak across our atmosphere during the peak of the Eta Aquarid meteor shower. In two months, Deep Impact will have reached Comet Tempel 1 - but why wait until then to view it? You can see it now! The call goes out to observers to help in scientific study and the week ends with a special treat. So grab your binoculars and telescopes and head out under dark skies...

Because here's what's up!

Alan Shepard flew first in the United States' space program and second overall in the space race. A brief 15 minute suborbital flight pitched him a few hundred kilometres east of his launch site. Later, as commander of Apollo 14, he walked on the moon's surface. But with 74 years of living, there was much more to his life which Neal Thompson openly and warmly presents in his marvellous book, Light This Candle, The Life and Times of Alan Shepard.

Astronomers working with the European Southern Observatory have confirmed the first direct photograph of a planet orbiting another star. The team originally announced their discovery in September 2004, but they confirmed their findings this year using the powerful new NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. The planet is approximately five times the size of Jupiter, and orbits its brown dwarf star at about the distance that Neptune travels around the Sun.