This image is of a region of Mars called Tithonium Chasma, which is at the western end of the enormous Valles Marineris Canyon system. The whole canyon system was created through a combination of geologic factors, including tectonic rifting, water, and wind action, volcanism, and glaciers. The canyon floors have a dark, layered material, which is probably sedimentary material, though it's still under much speculation from scientists. The picture was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft.

In two weeks, NASA's Swift observatory will take to the skies atop a Delta II rocket to scan the Universe looking for the most powerful known explosions. It's believed that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) happen when a new black hole is born - an event that typically happens once a day in our skies. Swift will be able to locate a GRB within 20 to 75 seconds, and then automatically turn its instruments on the explosion. It will also communicate the coordinates of the event to a network of observatories so they can also study the region and afterglow from the explosion.

A new report by the UK House of Commons science and technology select committee pins the blame for the loss of the Beagle 2 lander on a lack of early money. Because the UK government failed to provide adequate funds early on in the lander's development, the developers had to chase celebrities for sponsorship when they should have been testing their equipment. The government eventually poured in ?25 million as the project started to stall, but it was too late to make up time by that point as Mars Express had a firm launch date.

Although Australia's Mt. Stromlo was devastated in January 2003 by wildfires, the first stage of reconstruction is complete, and the observatory is back in business. The observatory's visitor centre opened its doors to the public on October 30, and gave visitors a chance to explore the reconstruction and do a little skywatching with its rebuilt and brand new telescopes. Before the fire, Stromlo saw 70,000 visitors a year, and researchers used its instruments to make many important contributions to astronomy. Phase two of the reconstruction is now underway.

Hello fellow stargazers and welcome to this week's edition of what's new and fun to do under the skies. For all of you who took the time to view last week's total lunar eclipse? Congratulations! This week's planetary actions will blow you away. On the 3rd, the real "Lord of the Rings" - Saturn - will accompany the Moon across the night. The solar system excitement continues as before local dawn on November 4th and 5th will be a superb visual pairing of Venus and Jupiter at less than one degree apart. The Southern Taurid meteor stream will be active and it has produced fantastic fireballs seen around the world! For those of you craving a bit of deep sky work? The time is right to do a little "Wild Duck" hunting. Here's what's up!

Physicists have puzzled for more than a century about the nature of time. Why does it go in one direction? Time could go backwards, and physics formulas would still work properly. Researchers from the University of Chicago think they might have an answer: we live in a universe of ever increasing entropy. Instead of one Big Bang going off, and then the Universe expands and cools forever, small fluctuations in nearly empty space could set off new Big Bangs - the Universe would never reach equilibrium.

Grounded since the Columbia disaster, the space shuttles are tentatively expected to return to flight as early as May 2005, according to NASA officials. The agency updated their launch schedule on Friday, targeted Discovery's launch window to be open from May 12 to June 3, 2005. The shuttles have a lot of work to do; current plans are calling for 28 more flights until 2010 to complete the construction of the International Space Station, after which the shuttles will be retired.

This relatively boring picture of Spirit's calibration target, with a bit of rocky ground in the background is the 50,000th photograph sent back by NASA's twin rovers since they arrived on Mars in January, 2004. There are now more than twice as many images returned by the rovers as all three previous landers combined: Viking 1, Viking 2, and Mars Pathfinder. Both rovers have completed their three-month primary missions, and first extensions; they started their second extensions on Oct. 1.

As the Earth rushes to the point in its orbit known as the Winter Solstice, those in the Northern hemisphere see the days getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. This is good news for sky watchers, especially those willing to rise before dawn. This November offers a chance to witness a beautiful and somewhat rare sight, a close conjunction between the planets Venus and Jupiter.

Researchers from the University of Michigan have recently published their findings about methane in the Martian atmosphere. The methane was discovered using the planetary Fourier spectrometer, which is one of seven instruments on board the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, which was launched to Mars in 2003. The spectrometer has detected methane at an average of 10 parts per billion by volume; a very small amount compared to 1700 ppbv found here on Earth. Earth-based methane is created almost entirely by life, so the researchers hope that the same process is happening on Mars.

Researchers from the European Space Agency are considering ways that astronauts could hibernate on the 6-9 month trip to Mars, consuming significantly less food, air and water. The researchers have been studying mammals which hibernate, and it turns out, they do their tricks in different ways. A dormouse goes into a deep sleep; its temperature drops nearly to zero, and its metabolism is dramatically suppressed. A brown bear hibernates at almost its regular temperature, and slows its heart rate slightly, but it still doesn't need to eat or drink for 3-7 months. A chemical called DADLE has been able to induce a hibernation-like slowdown in rats.

This image of Titan was taken when Cassini reached the closest point of its flyby on October 26. At this point, it was only 1,600 km (994 miles) above the surface of Titan. The brighter areas are thought to be rougher terrain on the surface, while the darker areas are probably smoother; the interconnected dark spots could be lakes.

Today is only a short moment from the future. To get there from here, you can follow a preset path that leaves little margin or opportunity for error. Another route is to strike out on your own toward a destination that has few signposts showing the way. John Spencer and Karen Rugg are heading in a very new direction and in their book Space Tourism - Do You Want to Go?, they present a comprehensive, near term space industry focused entirely on space tourism. After all, the future is what you make of it.

The Sun is more active today than it has been in 8,000 years, according to new research from the Max Planck Institute. Researchers discovered that a certain isotope of carbon, C-14, depends on the amount of cosmic rays that reach the Earth's surface. When solar activity is high, the Sun's magnetic field provides a shield against these cosmic rays, and when it's low, the Sun lets more cosmic rays reach the Earth. By measuring C-14 levels in dead trees which were buried in the ground, the scientists were able to build up a historic record of solar activity. Scientists have found that solar activity levels only slightly influence the Earth's climate and global temperature.

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have located what they think is the burned out star at the heart of Tycho's Supernova Remnant, which exploded in 1572. This discovery provides the first direct evidence that these kind of supernovae, called Type 1a, occur when a white dwarf consumes material from a binary companion until it reaches a certain point and explodes. They discovered the star, which is similar to our own Sun, because it's moving away from the explosion three times faster than other objects in the region - it was sling shotted away when its dancing partner vapourized.

This image of Titan was taken yesterday during Cassini's 1,200 km (750 mile) flyby past its surface. It's actually a false colour image of the moon, built by merging together four images taken in different wavelengths of light. The red and green colours show areas revealed in infrared light, and the blue is ultraviolet wavelengths. Full colour visible light images are still in processing, and should be released later this week.

Astrophysicists using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio observatory have revealed new details about a puzzling object called SS 433; a microquasar with bizarre corkscrew-shaped jets blasting out. SS 433 is probably a black hole or neutron star that's feeding on material from a normal companion star. Some of this material is consumed, but much of it is blasted back out at a quarter the speed of light. SS 433 wobbles like a child's top every 162 days, which causes the unusual corkscrew shape of the jets.