The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has discovered that Mars' atmosphere glows during the night. The discovery was made using the spacecraft's SPICAM instrument, which is designed to study the chemicals in Mars' atmosphere and ionosphere. This nightglow occurs because atoms combining to form molecules in the Martian atmosphere release energy in the form of photons. A similar nightglow had been discovered on Venus, and give scientists an insight into the kinds of chemical reactions that are going on, and refining atmospheric circulation models.

The Hubble Space Telescope has unquestionably shown the benefits of a space-based observatory, but having a telescope far from Earth offers the current conundrum of how to maintain such a facility. Since NASA?s Vision for Space Exploration is seemingly leading humans back to the moon, why not construct an observatory there? A group of scientists from the U.S. and Canada are exploring the option of building a Deep-Field Infrared Observatory in one of the moon?s polar craters. Although not quite a garden spot, this location would provide an excellent site for a very large and very unique spinning liquid mirror telescope.

Many scientists feel that there's compelling evidence that the Moon formed when a Mars-sized planet smashed into the Earth, throwing out a hail of debris that eventually collected into our satellite. Now researchers from the Southwest Research Institute have developed a simulation that shows how Pluto and its moon Charon could have formed in a similar way. Two objects about 2,000 km across might have collided billions of years ago, producing Pluto, and smaller Charon orbiting it. Astronomers now believe that the early Solar System was a dynamic place, with collision after collision violently building up the planets.

If you're going to head into space, make sure you check the weather forecast - the space weather forecast. Just a week ago, a large sunspot blasted out an X-class solar flare, and sent a highly energetic cloud of protons our way. The Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect us on the planet, but it could be an emergency for people on the Moon. The Moon is totally exposed to solar flares, and an astronaut outside would have gotten very ill from radiation sickness. Future Moon explorers will watch the Sun's behaviour carefully, probably staying indoors and behind shielding while big sunspots are pointed our way.

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have found evidence that the big stars become extremely powerful magnets when they die. They used the Australia Telescope Compact Array and Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia to watch a powerful magnetar - an exotic neutron star with a magnetic field one quadrillion times more powerful than the Earth's field, which releases X-rays and gamma radiation. They found clues in the surrounding nebula that indicate that the magnetar used to be a star with 30-40 times the mass of the Sun. Larger stars spin faster when they become neutron stars (500-1000 times a second), and this generates a powerful dynamo that boosts the magnetic field.

You're really interested in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. We put out the call, and received dozens of questions for SETI researcher Seth Shostak. The forum team picked out their favorites, and passed them along to Dr. Shostak. Here are his answers. Thanks to everyone who participated: both the questioners and Dr. Shostak for taking the time to put together his answers. And a special thanks to Ola D. in the forum Community Support team for organizing this. See if your question was answered.

An experiment recovered from the wreckage of the space shuttle Columbia has given researchers valuable insights into how plants behave when they're growing in space. Experimenters were expecting common roof moss to grow in random, confused directions, but instead it grew in an ordered spiral pattern. On Earth, gravity controls the growth of moss so that it grows directly away from the centre of the planet. It's possible that this spiral direction is a backup growth response that existed before the moss evolved the ability to detect gravity. Unfortunately, only 11 out of 87 cultures were salvageable from the Columbia's wreckage.

NASA has chosen to fund a new spacecraft, called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), to study the edge of the Solar System, where the solar wind from the Sun interacts with interstellar particles. IBEX will launch in 2008, and take a highly elliptical orbit that keeps it away from the influence of the Earth's magnetosphere. It's equipped with two neutral atom imagers designed to spot interstellar particles as they interact with the outgoing solar wind. IBEX will also study galactic cosmic rays that pose a radiation risk to space explorers.

The nature of dark matter is one of the mysteries currently puzzling astronomers. A new study published in the journal Nature proposes that halos of dark matter the size of our Solar System (but with only the mass of the Earth) were the first objects to form after the big bang, and they served as the gravitational glue that attracted regular matter. It's possible that there are still more than a quadrillion (a million billion) of these halos just in our own galaxy, and they could pass through our Solar System occasionally. New observatories could be able to detect the gamma ray trails of these dark matter halos as they move through the Solar System, confirming one theory that they're composed of exotic particles called neutralinos.

The crew of the International Space Station are safely back inside after completing a 5+ hour spacewalk. During their time in space, Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov installed a $10 million German prototype robot arm which will demonstrate the feasibility of keeping a repair robot outside the station. Sharipov discovered residue on the outside of three vents that the station uses to expel waste products into space. This is unusual, and could be contributing to the recent problems with air on board the station. The crew of Expedition 10 will make another spacewalk in late March.

The ESA's SMART-1 has taken its first close-up pictures of the Moon's surface, snapping a series of photos from an altitude ranging between 1,000 and 5,000 km above the lunar surface. SMART-1 only entered lunar orbit on November 15, and has been spiraling down for two months. The spacecraft will make a medium-resolution survey of the Moon for the next two weeks before lowering its orbit to begin 5 months of detailed observations, getting as close as 300 km. This first image is centred at lunar latitude 75? North, and the largest crater in the picture is called Brianchon.

Astronomers with the European Space Agency believe that the supermassive black hole (Sgr A*) at the heart of the Milky Way was much more active only 350 years ago, when it was releasing a million times more energy than today. The study was made using the ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory, which was able to detect how a cloud of hydrogen gas near Sgr A* is being bathed in gamma radiation. Since this cloud 350 light years away from Sgr A*, astronomers know how long ago the radiation was released. It's dim right now, but Sgr A* is sure to flare up again in the future when it consumes another large quantity of matter.

It's amazing thing but many amateur astronomers (and possibly the occasional professional as well!) don't have the big picture on where the bulk of the visible light in the universe comes from. "Sure" you say, "from the stars!" Ah but that's the easy answer. In fact the more you learn about light, the less straightforward such an answer becomes. In this article, Jeff Barbour probes a little deeper and the implications could light the way to an extraordinarily new appreciation for the "star stuff" seen all around us.

The lunar module brought two men from an orbit about our moon onto the moon's surface and then back into the lunar orbit. Though fairly simple to describe, this craft encompassed many firsts and delved into realms never before experienced by humankind. Scott Sullivan, in his book 'Virtual LM', unravels the technology of this spaceship and its constituent parts using hundreds of different visual plates. Not as complex or detailed as engineering schematics but smoothed and coloured for clarity and understanding, these views provide a vivid, easily comprehensible, in-depth perspective of this first true spacecraft for humankind.

A team of Colorado University researchers has uncovered bacteria that primarily use hydrogen as their fuel source in the colourful hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Bacteria, such as salmonella, have been uncovered which use hydrogen for fuel before, but nobody expected this was happening in the intense heat of the hot springs. By using very sensitive detectors, they discovered that there's a constant supply of hydrogen being delivered to the bacteria from hydrothermal vents. Hydrogen is the most common element in the Universe, and finding bacteria that consumes it in extreme conditions further expands the places life could potentially gain a foothold.

Greetings, fellow Skywatchers! As we start the week off with a "Snow Moon", we'll enjoy its bright features as we wait for its later rise and become more Sirius. There will be plenty of opportunities to explore as we look into the M79 and the M35. As Leo "the Lion", swallows bright Selene leaving us with earlier dark skies, it will be our pleasure to sail along on the fantastic Orion Nebula and journey to the very edge of our own galaxy as we hunt down the "Intergalactic Wanderer." For many of us who are tired of the winter weather, there will be no shortage of smiles as we capture the "Eskimo Nebula"! As always, there are plenty of things to see and learn about, so open your eyes to the skies...

Because here's what's up!