IRAS ? The Infrared Astronomical Satellite ? was launched in 1983 and was the first spacecraft to map the entire sky recording over 350,000 sources, and there were some early surprises in the data too. The bright star Vega in the constellation of Lyra was seen to have a cool accretion disk of a primordial Vega [solar] system in the process of formation. A decade later, astronomers discovered another larger accretion disk of dusty material, this time around the star Formalhaut in the constellation of the Southern Fish, and many more have followed since. Thereafter a new astronomical study was created with to examine primordial accretion disks around other stars. Here Richard Pearson talks to astronomer Michiel Min about stellar planetary systems.

The Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers discover the youngest known galaxy in the Universe. This baby galaxy, located 45 million light-years away seems to be only 500 million years old (our own Milky Way galaxy, like many galaxies in the Universe is 12 billion years old). Its interstellar gas is "nearly pristine", comprised mainly of hydrogen and helium, with only a sprinkling of the heavier elements associated with older galaxies. This discovery gives astronomers an opportunity to understand how galaxies first formed.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory took this image of galaxy NGC 6118, located 80 million light-years away. A supernova was discovered exploding just north of the galaxy's centre on August 1, 2004. Astronomers now believe that it is a Type 1b or 1c, which means that it probably arose in a binary star system; a massive star whose hydrogen envelope was siphoned off by its stellar partner before it exploded.

Welcome back, SkyWatchers! With the Moon out of the way during the early evening hours this week, we will take this opportunity to further study with binoculars and telescopes the circumpolar constellation of Cassiopeia. Challenging double stars, splendid galactic clusters, nebula regions and two of the Andromeda Group galaxies await you! As the weekend approaches, you're invited to play comet hunter as several of our solar system "travelers" are within range of amateur equipment. For morning viewers, the planets and Moon continue to provide a fantastic display of the ecliptic plane and by Sunday both Venus and Mars will be approximately one degree apart. As always, you will find things here for all skill and interest levels. So go outside, tilt your head back, and open your eyes....

Because here's what's up!

When the NEAR spacecraft approached the Asteroid Eros in 2000/2001, scientists found much less small impact craters than they were expecting. Either there are less small asteroids in the Solar System than scientists were expecting, or something's happening on the surface of Eros to obscure the impact craters. Researchers from the University of Arizona think they have an answer: seismic shaking. Whenever Eros is struck by a small asteroid, it sets off shaking across the entire asteroid. Loose material creeps across the surface, down slopes, and can fill up older craters, obscuring them completely.

The crew of Expedition 10 completed maneuvers today to move their Soyuz spacecraft from one docking port of the International Space Station to another. They undocked the Russian-built spacecraft from the Pirs module at 0929 UTC (4:29 am EST), backed away about 100 feet (30 metres), and then moved it over to the Zarya docking point. The whole operation took about 20 minutes, and clears the way for the crew to use the Pirs compartment for two upcoming spacewalks, scheduled for early 2005.

Cassini took this amazing full colour picture of Saturn's moon Mimas set against the giant planet's rings. The bright swath next to Mimas is created by sunlight passing through the Cassini division; a gap in the rings. The dark band that stretches across the bottom of the picture is actually the shadow of Saturn's B ring, which is the densest. Cassini took this image when it was 3.7 million km (2.3 million miles) from Saturn.

NASA's Spirit Rover has just completed a long hard slog across difficult Martian terrain to reach the Columbia hills. The short journey of just a couple of kilometres has taken Spirit months. Imagine if it could thoroughly analyze an area and then just pick up and fly somewhere new? NASA has awarded a contract to a proprosal from Pioneer Astronautics, which envisions a vehicle that could land on Mars, refuel with local materials, and then fly hundreds of kilometres to explore; repeating this process over and over again - the Martian Gashopper Aircraft.

Protoplanetary discs surrounding new stars seem to have the building blocks for rocky planets right from the start, according to new research from an international team of researchers. The astronomers used the European Southern Observatory's VLT Interferometer to examine the discs around three young stars, which were similar to what our own Sun looked like more than 4.5 billion years ago. They found that the inner part of these discs is very rich in sand, ready to be clumped by gravity into larger and larger rocks until full planets form.

Cassini took this amazing photograph of Dione, one of Saturn's larger moons, on October 27 when it was 1.2 million km (746,000 miles) away. Voyager first saw the craters and bright, wispy streaks on its surface 24 years ago. Cassini is expected to do much much better, though, when it makes a close pass to the moon in mid-December, 2004.

NASA announced that the next crew of the International Space Station will be NASA astronaut John Phillips and Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev. The crew of Expedition 11 is expected to launch to the station on board a Russian Soyuz rocket in May 2005. Both crewmembers have already visited the station. Phillips came aboard during the 12-day STS-100 mission in 2001 when helped install the Canadarm2. Krikalev was a member of the first crew to man the station, Expedition 1.

This is an image of impact Crater Hale, which is located in the Argyle basin in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The photograph was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in June 2004. The crater and surrounding region have been heavily eroded over millions of years by a combination of wind and water. There is even evidence at the bottom of the picture of a network of fluvial channels, which were probably caused by running water.

Cassini's image team has released two new photographs taken by the spacecraft that show two of Saturn's moons in unprecedented detail: Titan and Tethys. The picture of fog enshrouded Titan is actually a mosaic of 9 individual images stitched together that were taken as Cassini approached. The photograph of Tethys is actually in natural colour, and shows how neutral the moon looks. Tethys has a density similar to water, so scientists believe the moon is mainly composed of water ice. Cassini will make a much closer approach to Tethys in September 2005.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft took this image of Saturn and one of its moons, Tethys. This image was taken on Oct. 18, 2004 when the spacecraft was 3.9 million km (2.4 million miles) away from Tethys, which is only 1,060 km (659 miles) across.

You may think that digital cameras are a tad expensive. But place them onboard a satellite and the cost (and camera!) go through the roof. So what does half a billion buy you? Andrew Johnston in his book, Earth from Space, gives the layman's perspective on this by presenting views from remote sensing satellite. The stunning results give a whole new appreciation of the complexity and beauty of the Earth's surface. Whether wonderful works of art or detailed technical disseminations these images capture stunning views of our altogether small world.

Professor Colin Pillinger is Head of Planetary & Space Sciences, Open University, and the UK principal investigator on the Beagle-2 project. Colin gained his PhD from the Open University, Wales, in the late 1960s, and became one of the lucky few Britons to work on the lunar samples brought back by the Apollo 11 Moon landing mission in 1969. Recently Colin talked to Richard Pearson about Beagle 2, the potential for life on Mars, and the state of the Beagle program.

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! For those of you who like observing challenges, this week will provide many interesting opportunities to view occultations of bright stars by asteroids as well as three observable comets. We will explore lunar features for both binoculars and telescopes and look into "The Eye of the Bull". Although the Moon goes full this week, we can still have fun by learning to observe satellite passes and even chase the ISS! We will begin an in-depth look at the constellation of Cassiopeia by viewing and discussing some of its bright double stars and a galactic cluster. Just as predictable as the morning planets, there's always something fun to do, a bit of history and things to learn. So open your eyes...

Because here's what's up!

After several days of delays, NASA's Swift observatory was finally launched Saturday at 1716 UTC (12:16 pm EST) atop a Boeing Delta II rocket. Swift's job will be to scan the heavens for elusive Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), which astronomers think could be the birth cries of new black holes. GRBs are short-lived, lasting only seconds - a few minutes at most. Swift can locate an explosion, and turn the entire spacecraft in about a minute to focus sensitive instruments on the fading afterglow. If everything works as planned, the spacecraft should be able to find more than 100 of these explosions every year.