NASA completed a major milestone this week as part of its work to get the space shuttle fleet flying again when the newly redesigned external fuel tank arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tank will eventually be mated with the space shuttle Discovery for its Return to Flight mission, STS-114. NASA and Lockheed Martin have spent almost two years redesigning the tank to make it safer. One major redesign was on the forward bipod fitting, which shed the foam that led to the destruction of Columbia last year.

Happy New Year fellow sky watchers! The New Year gives everyone a chance to make plans, resolve themselves to new and better habits and the hope that the New Year will be a good one. January also offers stargazers a chance to plan a years worth of observing. For some this may seem like a daunting task. Many observers, particularly those new to amateur astronomy, still ask ?what should I look for, what will I see?? It is in the spirit of this question that I offer a year long ?to-do list? for back yard astronomy. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but it might get you out the door and lead you to many other discoveries. The list is a mixture of upcoming events and small, at home projects that require no special equipment, just a healthy curiosity.

Astronomers from Yale have used data from the Hubble Space Telescope to develop a map of dark matter clumped inside clusters of galaxies. These clusters contain hundreds of galaxies bound together by gravity; about 90% of their mass is dark matter. The team used a technique called gravitation lensing to see how the light from distant galaxies was bent by the gravity of closer galactic clusters. Even though dark matter is invisible, its mass will still bend light like regular matter.

NASA has given a Canadian firm the green light to begin developing a robotic salvage mission that could repair and upgrade the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The agency awarded a $154 million contract to Canada-based MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates. This is the same firm that developed the Canadarm, and contributed to the Mobile Servicing System on the International Space Station. MDA's solution is called Dextre: a two-armed robot that could perform all of the same maintenance tasks that had originally been designed for human astronauts. The move towards a robotic solution is still controversial, and NASA hasn't made the final decision on what to do with Hubble yet.

NASA's Swift observatory is only in the initial testing period, and it's already finding massive gamma ray bursts. Scientists were calibrating the telescope when it recorded a burst on December 17, three on the 19th and then one on the 20th. The team was hoping they'd see 2 bursts a week, so this greatly exceeds expectations. It could be that they were lucky, or they underestimated how often these explosions occur. The Swift team also tested the observatory's instruments by pointing it at Cygnus X-1; a well-known object that produces a signficant amount of gamma rays.

At a traditional wedding, the bride, well hidden by a veil, gracefully walks up the aisle. At the appropriate moment, the groom gently moves the veil aside so all can share in the wondrous visage of his new bride. Jeffrey Kargel provides the same service for us in his book, Mars: A Warmer Wetter Planet as he draws away the veil of mystery surrounding Mars to show us the red planet's intriguing visage. Not only does he provide a detailed analysis of shapes and features, but he also provides a description of how these likely came into being. Considering that Mars and Earth have been dancing together in their orbits for so long, it is about time that we have a book like this to get to know more of our partner.

Cassini took this image of Rhea, one of Saturn's moons, which shows the bright rays from a relatively fresh crater on its eastern limb. This image was taken on November 10, 2004, when the spacecraft was 3.6 million km (2.2 million miles) away from Rhea. Cassini will make a much closer approach to the moon on November 25, 2005.

Planetary nebulae are created when large stars shed material near the end of their lives. This material should expand in a perfect sphere, but astronomers have found many examples where the material is twisted into an unusual elliptical or bipolar shape (like an hourglass). A team of German astronomers have detected the presense of a magnetic field around the central stars in four planetary nebulae - it's these magnetic fields that could give nebulae their unusual shapes.

The Chandra X-Ray observatory took this image of an unusual star called Beta Ceti. It's only three times more massive than our own Sun, but it radiates 2,000 times more X-ray power. Astronomers believe it's putting out so much X-ray radiation because it's at an advanced stage of stellar evolution called "core helium burning". For its first billion years, Beta Ceti was converting hydrogen to helium through fusion, but it ran out of hydrogen fuel and became a red giant star. Then it started to shrink again, and temperatures rose to 100 million degrees; hot enough that it could begin fusing helium atoms together to create carbon atoms.

NASA's Spirit rover celebrated the completion of its first full year of operations on Mars yesterday, and began its second by analyzing puzzling new rocks. Spirit is currently exploring a region of the Gusev Crater called Columbia Hills. Scientists uncovered a completely new kind of rock in December, which look like they were ejected from a volcano or meteor impact. On the other side of Mars, Opportunity is examining its own heat shield, which protected its descent through the Martian atmosphere. By studying how charred the shield is, engineers hope to improve their ability to deliver future robots to Mars.

Cassini made a relatively close flyby of Iapetus on December 31, 2004, and took photographs which show Saturn's third-largest moon in unprecedented detail. Iapetus is best known for its two-toned colour; one hemisphere is dark, while the other is bright. Cassini passed within 123,400 km (76,700 miles) of the moon, which is 10 times closer than Voyager 2. One possiblity for Iapetus' dark side is that it passed through a cloud of organic material which painted one side. Another idea is that the dark material originated from inside Iapetus, and was ejected in a series of volcanic eruptions. Hopefully this, or an upcoming flyby in 2007 will give scientists enough information to understand it better.

The powerful Gemini Observatory took this image of spiral galaxy NGC 6946, which is awash in star formation. This image was taken with a special filter designed to highlight the regions of star formation. Astronomers aren't sure why this galaxy is so furiously building new stars, compared to the other galaxies in our local neighborhood. And all this starbirth leads to supernovae, which are explosions of massive stars that "live fast and die young." Just in the last century, astronomers have seen 8 supernovae explode - more than any other galaxy ever observed.

Greetings, fellow sky watchers! I trust everyone's holidays were wonderful? It's time to start a New Year and what better way than with a bit of celestial "fireworks" as the Quadrantid meteor shower begins the week! Dance along the ecliptic plane as five planets are visible in the morning skies and Moon occults Jupiter for Africa and part of Australia! Journey with me as we explore the "death" of a star in the M1 and celebrate the "birth" of a new solar system with T Tauri. We will begin exploration of Orion with the M78 and the "Flame" nebula. Who knows? This could be your lucky "Knight"! The week end becomes even more exciting as the last of the Moon occults Antares for the northwest and the "Magnificent Machholz" joins the Pleiades in a spectacular showing! As Saturn reaches the ascending node, we'll be out reaching for the stars...

Because here's what's up!

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will make its closest approach to Saturn's moon Iapetus on New Year's Eve, passing only 123,400 km (76,700 miles) away. Iapetus is best known for its strange two-toned colour, and it's also been called the "Yin Yang Moon" - one hemisphere is completely dark, and the other is white. At 1,400 km (890 miles) across, it's Saturn's third largest moon, and it was originally discovered by Jean-Dominique Cassini in 1672 who actually deduced that one side of the moon was dark, and the other bright. Cassini will make another 13 close encounters with Saturn's moons during 2005, 8 of which will be past Titan.

A few weeks ago, I let you know that Dr. Jean-Pierre Lebreton, the Huygens Project Scientist and Mission Manager from the European Space Agency, graciously agreed to answer questions from Universe Today readers and forum members about Titan and Huygens. Your response was incredible, and we got dozens of great questions - thanks to everyone who participated. The Community Support team picked their favorites and passed them along to Dr. Lebreton. We've got the answers back. So, if you want to know more, read on...

Happy Holidays, Skywatchers! This week we continue our celestial journey beginning before dawn with a close pairing of Venus and Mercury. As we wait for the later and later rise of the Moon each evening, we will visit in Aries with a fine double - Mesarthim. Returning again to the north, it's time to locate the M34 in Perseus and begin studying the open clusters of Auriga with the M36 and M38. For those in the north, discovery awaits you with the "Little Dumbbell", M76, while the south enjoys the incredible Eta Carinae. Celebrate the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one by journeying across time and space. Take the time to enjoy the singular beauty of "Hind's Crimson Star" and return again to the "Magnificent Machholz" as it climbs even higher and gets even brighter! So grab your binoculars, get out your telescopes, and hope for clear skies...

Because here's what's up!

An unmanned Progress cargo ship reached the International Space Station on Sunday, and the two-man crew got right to work unloading its cargo. Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao had both cut their food consumption by 10% to stretch out supplies, and had each lost a few kg during the last month. The Progress ship is carrying 2.5 tonnes of supplies, including a 15kg (33 pound) gift package for each man.

Astronomers have now ruled out the possibility that Asteroid 2004 MN4 will strike the Earth in April 2029. Scientists from the Spacewatch Observatory near Tuscon, Arizona searched back through older observations to find some images of 2004 MN4 that were captured in March, 2004. This gave them enough data to recalculate the asteroid's path, and see that it doesn't pose a threat to the planet.

NASA's Opportunity Rover has reunited itself with the heat shield that protected its entry into the Martian atmosphere almost a year ago, when it first arrived at Mars. After it was ejected, the shield crashed to the surface nearly 2 km away from Opportunity's landing spot. The rover will study both the heat shield, and its impact mark - now the freshest crater on Mars. Engineers will have an opportunity to understand how the heat shield performed during atmospheric entry, and scientists will get a chance to see what's beneath the surface of Mars.