Vishnu Reddy, a University of North Dakota graduate student is the
recipient of the 2007 Eugene M Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award. The
award is presented by the Planetary Geology Division of the
Geological Society of America to support graduate research worldwide
in the fields of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, or
biology. The award was announced at a special session during the GSA
annual meeting in Philadelphia honoring UND Space Studies professor Dr
Michael Gaffey, who was awarded the Gilbert Award.

Named after the famed planetary geologist Gene Shoemaker, the award,
which includes $2000, supports research on impact cratering processes,
the bodies (asteroidal or cometary) that make the impacts, or the
geological, chemical or biological results of impact cratering.
Reddy's research involves determining the diameter of
potentially- hazardous asteroids using near-infrared spectroscopy and
thermal modeling. The research will be conducted using the NASA
Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawai'i. Reddy's proposal is
the first astronomically- based research selected by the selection
committee for the award.

Reddy is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth System
Science and Policy and works with Dr Gaffey in Space Studies.

Happy Sky Watching
Ratnesh Pandit

Hello friends,
    I hope so all ur read this msg. there is no way to contact with u.
So Im only remind u about FEB 2007 In that month a very big
opportunity we ve to operate!!!

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So you want to get involved in the science side of astronomy... .

...but you don't have the sophisticated CCD rig (end experience, and
dark sky site, etc.) to collect good data.

Opportunity knocks! See the email below from Arne Henden, the
director of the American Association of Variable Star Observers
(AAVSO) http://www.aavso. org/

Arne is a professional astronomer that for years has used the 1-
meter telescope at Flagstaff, Arizona, and is recognized as one of
the best photometrists in the world. The data he takes is second to
none.

But he has a problem. Now that he's taken the directorship of
AAVSO...he doesn't have much time to analyze the data he's taken and
publish papers.
That's where you come in!

You can contact Arne at arne@...

Good luck on your scientific journey!

(Please feel free to pass this to schools, astronomy clubs, and
interested
individuals. )

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

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Sept. 7 brings us a Full Moon.  Some calendars and almanacs might
make reference to this Moon as the Harvest Full Moon, but they would
be incorrect. Although many might associate the September Full Moon
with the Harvest Moon, this is not always the case.

The first event, at 16:42 GMT is the Moon entering the penumbra, the
faint outer extremity of the Earth's shadow.  But this shadow is so
light that the Moon doesn't begin to change appearance until the
Moon's diameter has penetrated it by at least 70 percent (17:40
GMT). Around that time, look for a very slight shading or smudginess
on the upper left portion of the Moon.  As the minutes pass, the
penumbra becomes more obvious.

The next event to watch for is at 18:05 GMT, as the Moon enters the
umbra, the dark inner part of the Earth's shadow.  This is the
beginning of the partial eclipse.  The umbra is much darker than the
penumbra and fairly sharp-edged.  The partial eclipse only lasts 1
hour 33 minutes.  Maximum eclipse will come at 18:51 GMT.  After
maximum eclipse, the Moon will soon exit the umbra at 19:38 GMT.
About 25 minutes later, the faint penumbral shading should gradually
fade away.

The next lunar eclipse will be a total eclipse on March 3 of next
year and will be visible from Europe, Africa and western Asia.  That
event will also be visible from the eastern half of North America;
for many localities the eclipse will already be underway as the Moon
rises.

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

Astronomers have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

About 2,500 scientists meeting in Prague have adopted historic new
guidelines that see the small, distant world demoted to a secondary
category.

The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the
Sun in the same way as the other planets.

The International Astronomical Union's (IAU) decision means textbooks
will now have to describe a Solar System with just eight major
planetary bodies.

Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh,
will be referred to as a "dwarf planet".

There is a recognition that the demotion is likely to upset the
public, who have become accustomed to a particular view of the Solar
System.

Teary-eyed

"I have a slight tear in my eye today, yes; but at the end of the day
we have to describe the Solar System as it really is, not as we would
like it to be," said Professor Iwan Williams, chair of the IAU panel
that has been working over recent months to define the term "planet".

was deemed necessary after new telescope technologies began to reveal
far-off objects that rivalled Pluto in size.

Without a new nomenclature, these discoveries raised the prospect
that textbooks could soon be talking about 50 or more planets in the
Solar System.

Amid dramatic scenes in the Czech capital which saw astronomers
waving yellow ballot papers in the air, the IAU voted to block this
possibility - and in the process took the historic decision to
relegate Pluto.

The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a
planet:

it must be in orbit around the Sun
it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
it has cleared its orbit of other objects
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its highly elliptical
orbit overlaps with that of Neptune. It will now join a new category
of dwarf planets.

Icy reaches

Pluto's status has been contested for many years. It is further away
and considerably smaller than the eight other "traditional" planets
in our Solar System. At just 2,360km (1,467 miles) across, Pluto is
smaller even than some moons in the Solar System.

Its orbit around the Sun is also highly tilted compared with the
plane of the big planets. In addition, since the early 1990s,
astronomers have found several objects of comparable size to Pluto in
an outer region of the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt.

Some astronomers have long argued that Pluto would be better
categorised alongside this population of small, icy worlds.

The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago
of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. After being measured
with the Hubble Space Telescope, it was shown to be some 3,000km
(1,864 miles) in diameter: it is bigger than Pluto.

2003 UB313 will now join Pluto in the dwarf category, along with the
biggest asteroid in the Solar System, Ceres.

Named after the god of the underworld in Roman mythology, Pluto
orbits the Sun at an average distance of 5.9 billion kilometres (3.7
billion miles) taking 247.9 Earth years to complete a single circuit
of the Sun.

An unmanned US spacecraft, New Horizons, is due to fly by Pluto and
the Kuiper Belt in 2015.

Happy Sky Watching.

Ratnesh Pandit

Astronomers meeting in Prague have decided by a wide margin that
Pluto no longer merits consideration as a full-fledged planet. The
historic decision follows a week of sometimes contentious debate over
how to define a planet.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, an expert on neutron stars at the University of
Oxford in England, moderated the proceedings with the help of some
playful visual aids. A blue toy balloon stood in for Neptune, while a
plush toy of Disney's cartoon dog Pluto played the ninth rock from
the Sun. Applause followed this morning's critical vote at the
International Astronomical Union's General Assembly meeting.

"I was relieved," says Caltech's Michael Brown. Brown's January 2005
discovery of Xena (officially, 2003 313), which is larger than Pluto,
forced the IAU to address this long-simmering issue. "Scientifically,
there is no question this is the right way to go," he says. "Eight is
enough."

However, not everyone is as happy as Brown. "I just think the IAU has
embarrassed itself," says Alan Stern, principal investigator for
NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto. "If you read the definition
that they have adopted in that room today, it is scientifically
indefensible." The American Astronomical Society 's 1,300-member
Division of Planetary Sciences — the world's largest group of
planetary scientists — recommended acceptance of the original
proposal.

"I think there's going to be a protest that is at least asserted,"
says Mark Sykes at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson. "A
minority of the astronomical community passed this."

So, what is a planet?
Following fractious public and closed-door discussions, Pluto no
longer makes the cut. Astronomers agreed to define a planet as "a
celestial body that is in orbit around the Sun, has sufficient mass
for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes
a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its
orbit."

Objects that meet all but the last requirement — like puny Pluto and
asteroid Ceres — are to be classed as "dwarf planets." But a proposal
that would give these objects and the "classical" planets — Mercury
through Neptune — equal solar-system stature failed.

Everything else in the solar system — comets, moons, and the rest of
the asteroids — will be known as "small solar system bodies."

"Tell me where else in astronomy we classify objects by what else is
around them?" objects Stern. "It's ridiculous."

"I think there will be a lot of people who just choose to ignore it,"
Sykes adds.

Nature vs. nurture
A week ago, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) presented its
first attempt to define the word planet. If an object orbited the Sun
and had enough mass that its own gravity forced it into a nearly
round shape, it would qualify. If passed, this meant Charon, Pluto's
largest moon; Ceres, the largest asteroid; and the Kuiper Belt object
nicknamed Xena would immediately join the rank of planets.

But at least a dozen additional objects orbiting in the Kuiper Belt
beyond Neptune also would qualify under this definition — and
possibly as many as 53. "Many more Plutos wait to be discovered,"
Richard Binzel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology noted.

Many astronomers found this potential explosion of planets
troubling. "Maybe planets shouldn't be so special," Sykes counters.

Others said that pushing the moon Charon to planetary status went too
far. "There was a little over-reaching with this thing
about 'plutons' and making Charon a planet," Stern says, "but the
core ... was all pretty good." The term proposed for Pluto-like
objects — "pluton" — was roundly rejected in early discussions,
largely owing to its well-established use in geology.

But scientists who study how planets interact were the most
perturbed. The original definition looked only at an object's
physical nature without regard to its orbital environment.

During Friday's debate, Julio Fernández of the University of the
Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay, suggested an alternative that
defined a planet as "by far the largest body in its local
population." This would keep Pluto, Charon, Ceres, and the Kuiper
Belt objects from graduating to planets.

Debate continued Tuesday when the IAU's planet-definition committee
put forward only a slightly modified version of the original
definition — one that avoided any reference to a planet's orbital
environment. "They have presented practically the same resolution as
before," Fernández complained during the discussion.

"They've put together a hastily drafted definition that's purely
dynamical," explains Sykes. "Perhaps there could have been a more
dynamical definition that achieved their goal that would be better
crafted, but unfortunately they just didn't have the time."

Sykes argues that, under the adopted definition, a Mars-mass planet
discovered at 200 astronomical units would be classed as a dwarf. (An
astronomical unit is the average distance between Earth and the
Sun.) "There are some common-sense issues with this," he adds.

"Pluto should never have been called a planet," Brown says. "The only
reason Pluto exists in its current orbit is that Neptune keeps it
there and protects it." Neptune forces Pluto — and many other icy
objects, called plutinos — to go around the Sun twice for every three
Neptune orbits.

"Pluto and Xena never fit in," Brown notes, although he admits he's
wistful about missing the opportunity of having discovered the tenth
planet. "We have a chance now to actually educate people on how the
solar system really works. I think that's exciting."

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

To be a planet, the assembly ruled, a world must meet three criteria: (1) It must have enough mass and gravity to gather itself into a ball.

(2) It must orbit the sun.

(3) It must reign supreme in its own orbit, having "cleared the neighborhood" of other competing bodies.

So, e.g., mighty Jupiter, which circles the sun supreme in its own orbit, is a planet--no adjective required. Pluto, on the other hand, shares the outer solar system with thousands of Pluto-like objects. Because it has not "cleared its own neighborhood," it is a dwarf planet.

This decision clarifies the vocabulary of planetary astronomy while simultaneously upturning 76 years of "Pluto is a planet" pop-culture. Will non-specialists heed Pluto's demotion? That remains to be seen. Meanwhile, according to the IAU, the Solar System has eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; and three dwarf planets: Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313.

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

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Firstly Let me tell that I am putting one photograph of our New Solar
System so please,check it in the Photos Option.

If the world's astronomers agree to a plan announced this morning,
our solar system would have 12 planets, not 9. The proposal stems
from a panel's 2-year effort to define what, exactly, the
word "planet" means.

"Our goal was to find a scientific basis for a new definition
of 'planet' and we chose gravity as the determining factor. Nature
decides whether or not an object is a planet," says the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology's Richard Binzel, a member of the group
proposing the definition.

Under the plan, a planet would be any object that orbits a star, is
neither a star itself nor the moon of another planet, and contains
enough matter that gravity forces it into a nearly round shape.
Pluto, whose planetary status some astronomers have questioned in
recent years, meets these requirements. But if astronomers approve
the proposal, three objects not now classed as planets would also
join the club: Ceres, the largest asteroid; Pluto's moon Charon; and
the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Xena.

"I feel that they have made the most rational and scientific choices —
  namely ones which are physically based and can be most readily
verified by observations," says Gibor Basri, an astronomer at the
University of California at Berkeley.

"I'm pretty happy with it," says Alan Stern, principal investigator
on the recently launched New Horizons mission to Pluto.

The proposal comes from a seven-member panel the International
Astronomical Union (IAU) charged with defining where to draw the line
between planets and the solar system's numerous smaller bodies. Some
2,500 astronomers now gathered in Prague for the IAU's General
Assembly meeting will vote August 24 on whether the organization
should accept the new definition. The IAU is the scientific body
empowered with classifying and naming space objects.

"I'm impressed. This group really did a very creative job," Alan
Boss, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, tells
Astronomy. "It's very controversial."


Name game
Everyone agrees that the largest worlds circling the Sun — Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — make the
cut in any planet definition. But lowly Pluto, less than 1/400th
Earth's mass, has been a source of contention for years. When Clyde
Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, astronomers estimated it might be
as massive as Earth. But with ever-improving observations, Pluto
looked less and less like it belonged in the club.

Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered hundreds of icy objects
that, like Pluto, course through the fringes of the solar system in a
zone astronomers call the Kuiper Belt. Many began regarding Pluto as
little more than the region's largest object.

Then came Xena.

A team led by Caltech astronomer Michael Brown discovered the object —
  officially dubbed 2003 UB313 but better known by its TV-inspired
nickname — in January 2005. Xena is slightly larger than Pluto. It
seemed reasonable that If Pluto is a planet, and Xena is bigger than
Pluto, then Xena must be a planet, too.

But the IAU decided not to approve a formal name for Xena until the
object's planetary status could be determined. This meant waiting for
the panel's proposed definition and its acceptance by the
astronomical community.

"I credit the IAU with trying, but I think they sort of blew it on
this one," says Brown. He explains that potentially 50 objects in the
Kuiper Belt could be large enough to meet the panel's roundness
criterion.

"What's the value of [a definition] when you add on another 50
bodies? I think it sort of cheapens the word 'planet,'" says Boss.


Planet Charon?
Under the new plan, Charon, regarded as Pluto's moon since its 1978
discovery, becomes a planet itself. Charon is so large relative to
Pluto that the pair's center of mass lies between the two worlds. For
this reason, astronomers frequently refer to Pluto and its outsize
satellite as a "double planet." If approved, the new definition would
formalize this idea.

"For me, Charon as a planet doesn't really pass the smell test, but I
think that is simply a gut reaction," Brown tells Astronomy. He would
have preferred a definition that takes away Pluto's planetary status
and recognizes only eight planets. "Scientific decisions should be
based on science, not sentiment," he says.


Plutons and dwarf planets
"[O]ur committee felt that the time was ripe to recognize Pluto as
the prototype of a different sort of planet," writes Owen Gingerich,
who chairs the IAU panel. "Consequently, we propose to distinguish
between the eight classical planets discovered before 1900, and a new
class of trans-neptunian objects, for which we recommend the
name 'plutons.'"

So, while Pluto is a planet under the proposed definition, Gingerich
notes, "[I]t will generally be preferable to call it a pluton to
emphasize its role as the prototype for a physically distinct
category of planetary bodies."

The panel's proposed definition also crowns Ceres, the largest
asteroid, as a planet and warns that others — notably Pallas, Vesta,
and Hygeia — may follow if further study proves them nearly round.
The committee suggests astronomers apply the informal term "dwarf
planet" to Ceres and other asteroids that meet the definition's
requirements for planethood.

"It does mean some adjustment for the public — particularly the
inclusion of Ceres as a planet again," Basri notes. Ceres, the first
asteroid discovered, was originally thought to be a new planet, but
astronomers quickly found other bodies in similar orbits between Mars
and Jupiter.

"This is going to be the talk of Prague this week and the next," says
Boss. "There'll be a lot to discuss."

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

Space shuttle Discovery got clearance from NASA's senior managers to
fly to the International Space Station on mission STS-121 following a
Flight Readiness Review that included safety training and exercises
for the crew.

The seven astronauts slated to navigate Discovery into space on its
upcoming 12-day mission spent June 14 participating in safety
training at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Shuttle commander Steven Lindsay introduced crew members to the media
Wednesday morning on Launch Pad 39 B. After fielding questions that
included flight-readiness inquiries, crew members familiarized
themselves with fire-suppression procedures, an emergency escape
walkdown, and launch-pad escape routes.

A complete dress rehearsal for Discovery's July launch was on
Thursday's agenda for the crew, which includes commander Steven
Lindsay, pilot Mark Kelly, European Space Agency astronaut Thomas
Reiter, and mission specialists Mike Fossum, Stephanie Wilson, Piers
Sellers, and Lisa Nowak.

Discovery mission STS-121 is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy
Space Center in Florida July 1 at 3:48 P.M. EDT.

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnsh Pandit

Last November the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa made the first ever
attempt to land on an asteroid and collect a sample to bring back to
Earth. Although it is not yet known whether the sampling was
successful, the mission has provided scientists with an
unprecedented close-up view of a near-Earth asteroid, detailed in
several papers published today in the journal Science.
The asteroid Itokawa is typical of the thousands of asteroids with
Earth-crossing orbits. "This mission is so important because it's
the first visit we've ever had to an asteroid of this size. It's the
smallest, most common type of asteroid. It's the size that we care
about. If one of these strikes the earth, it could potentially cause
a global catastrophe," says Erik Asphaug, an asteroid expert at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, who is not associated with the
mission.


Roughly 500 meters long, Itokawa is composed of loosely packed rocky
rubble, barely held together under the asteroid's own gravity.
Despite predictions by some experts that most asteroids should have
such a rubble-pile structure (the result of millions of years of
deep space collisions), this is the first time an asteroid of this
type has been directly observed. Those studied previously were all
found to be solid chunks of rock. Itokawa, however, probably
coalesced out of the debris from collisions between these larger
objects. Like all asteroids, its mineral composition offers a
glimpse of the building blocks of the solar system. Earth and the
other inner planets formed from chunks of rock that were similar to
Itokawa, made up of the silicates olivine and pyroxene, as well as
iron.

Though the Hayabusa mission's data collection was a tremendous
success, the scientists at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) are less certain about the sampling attempts. A small amount
of debris may have been captured as the spacecraft bounced off the
asteroid in the first of two touchdowns, so the JAXA team is now
attempting to steer it back to Earth. The craft, however, was
seriously crippled in a series of setbacks; with no battery power
and very little fuel, it will no longer arrive next summer as
originally planned. Scientists will have to wait until 2010 to
examine what could be the first bits of asteroid ever brought to
Earth. --Karen Schrock

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

India's inaugural mission to the Moon is scheduled to launch in early
2008. When India launches its unmanned Chandrayaan-1 mission, two
NASA instruments will be aboard: the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and the
Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar. The Chandrayaan-1 mission also
marks NASA's first partnership with India.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and Indian Space Research
Organization Chairman G. Madhavan Nair agreed to conduct research
together and signed two Memoranda of Understanding in Bangalore,
India, May 9. "It is my hope and belief that as we extend the reach
of human civilization throughout the solar system, the United States
and India will be partners on many more technically challenging and
scientifically rewarding projects," said Griffin at a ceremony held
in Bangalore after the signing.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is an imaging spectrometer.
Scientists will use M3 to map the composition of mineral resources on
the lunar surface. M3 will evaluate the primary components of the
lunar crust and investigate how they are distributed across the lunar
highlands — light-colored mountainous areas. The instrument will also
attempt to characterize the different types of basaltic volcanism
that comprise the lunar maria — dark low-lying areas — as well as
determine how many small recent impacts there are on the Moon.

M3's orbit will cross the Moon's poles at a height of 62 miles (100
kilometers). The instrument's 25-mile (40 km) field of view will
provide two types of high-resolution images: global images with about
459-foot (140 meters) resolution and targeted images with about 230-
foot (70m) resolution.

The Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar (miniSAR) is the second
instrument NASA will supply for India's Moon mission. MiniSAR will
search for ice deposits near the lunar poles. MiniSAR weighs less
than 30 pounds (14 kilograms).

The European Space Agency (ESA) will support three Chandrayaan-1
mission instruments — an X-ray spectrometer, the SARA atom reflecting
analyzer, and the SIR-2 near-infrared spectrometer — that are
identical counterparts to its SMART-1 mission. ESA will also provide
hardware support for the High-Energy X-ray (HEX) spectrometer.

The U.S. won't return to the Moon until 2018, so collaborating with
India on its 2008 Chandrayaan-1 mission will provide an opportunity
to continue research on our nearest neighbor.

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

HEY PLANETEERS...

HAVE YOU HEARD  THAT WWW.AVAKASHVEDH.COM GOT BEST MARATHI WEBSITE IN ASTRONOMY AWARD BY GOVT. OF MAHARASHTRA.IT HS BEEN DESIGNED BY MR.SACHIN PILANKAR,AN AMATEUR ASTRONOMER & WEB SESIGNER.

WE ARE HEARTLY CONGRATULATE HIM...& WE WISH ALL THE BEST FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING...

GOOD LUCK SACHIN...

NOTE:PLEASE,VISIT WWW.AVAKASHVEDH.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

HAPPY SKY WATCHING

RATNESH PANDIT

I'm doing a little something about global warming, I'm
inviting my friends to join me:

http://friends.earthscreen.com/?r=YSGUNwkWgBNWBGIIBSMH&i=yh&ml=aac_dhule03@yahoo\
groups.com&p=1&z=1&tc=11






Happy Sky Watching
   Ratnesh Pandit


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Regards,

ratnesh_pandit <ratnesh_pandit@...>

This campaign is about Human beings, Democracy, UNHCR, Refugees, The Iraqis,
Islam, Kurds, Human rights, Respect, Money, Donations, Angelina Jolie,
Pavarotti, Giorgio Armani, Donors, Peace, History, Campaigns and about you if
you care about these words.

Hi there,

I am SAM, an Iraqi refugee living in Lebanon at the moment; I have spent the
last 10 years of my life as a refugee registered with the UNHCR in Beirut. The
last 4 years, I have spent as an activist for peace and human rights (especially
refugees and asylum seekers) on the Internet; I'm also books author and ebooks
publisher. I have launched many campaigns to improve our situation as refugees
in Lebanon and hopefully bring more understanding to our problems worldwide. I
helped make many changes and improvements at the UNHCR office in Beirut; I used
the Internet as the field for my activities (you can read more about that in my
free ebook 'MY CAMPAIGNS'). All my ebooks are free and could be download from my
sites.

This is my newest campaign, it's about the illegal and humiliating actions of
the UNHCR, who using photos of refugees as banners and human-buttons to collect
money. This is an abuse of the dignity and humanity of the refugees and must
stop immediately and a clear public apology present by The United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees. My friends, I am talking about the pictures you can
see here: http://lebanon.b0x.com/human-buttons.htm

Also you can read my new campaign 'Urgent, we need smile' here:
http://www.angelfire.com/un2/unhcrlebanon/smile.html

For more info about UNHCR and life of refugees you can read my free ebooks. I
invite you as fellow humans and members of the world community to support my
campaign by reading my article on my site and see the human-buttons. The
campaign is to support and improve the UNHCR http://www.unhcr.org especially
after the last scandals in the UN and UNHCR, just for example:
http://www.mizzima.com/archives/news-in-2005/news-in-april/12-April05-22.htm

"We make demonstration and fast because the UNHCR office in Cairo did nothing
for our problem..." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4440730.stm

Together we will build better world.

You could reach me fast via this form:
http://g.1asphost.com/lebanon1/email_me.htm
  and if you like to know more about me, you can google for my name 'osam
altaee'.

Thanks
THE TRUTH WARRIOR
http://unhcrlebanon.9cy.com
  http://www.unhcr.us

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Researchers say they've filled in a key piece of the map of our local
universe, by discovering a mighty wall of galaxies that may be
the "Great Attractor" astronomers have been trying to identify for
years.

The "Great Attractor" is a distant, mysterious entity that seems to
be tugging millions of galaxies, including ours, rapidly toward
itself.

The new findings suggest these motions are the result of
gravitational forces from not one, but two things: the wall, and a
conglomerate of galaxies far beyond it.

It seems "roughly 50% of our galaxies' motion through space is due to
[the wall] and about 50% is due to structures behind it," wrote Dale
Kocevski of the University of Hawaii in an email. Kocevski is a
member of one of the research teams that reported the findings.

Astronomers have known for years that something seems to be pulling
our Milky Way and other galaxies toward itself at a breakneck 22
million kilometers (14 million miles) per hour.

But they couldn't before now pinpoint exactly what or where it is.

Although it's tugging on us, we'll never reach it, said David Radburn-
Smith the University of Durham, U.K., whose team identified
the "wall." That's because the expansion of the universe is
stretching the wall's neighborhood away from ours about nine times
faster than the speed with which gravity is drawing them together.
The stretching effect would be still swifter for further objects.

Radburn-Smith and colleagues described the "wall" in a new paper
accepted for publication in the research journal Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society. It "does appear to be a wall-like
slab of galaxies," he wrote in an email, though its precise shape
is "tricky to define" because the dust of our Milky Way galaxy
obscures much of it.

Radburn-Smith, a Ph.D. student, is the paper's lead author.

He added that the wall contains the weight equivalent of some 12,000
Milky Way galaxies, and is around 200 million light-years away. A
light-year is the distance light travels in a year.

The wall seems to sweep over an angle of about 100 degrees near the
top of the Southern Hemisphere sky, the astronomers wrote; this
distance corresponds to some 400 million light-years. One end would
be roughly in the direction the star Mu Velorum in the constellation
Vela, the other in the vicinity of Al Dhanab in the constellation
Grus.

In between, the structure curves into the silvery strip of the Milky
Way, they reported, where it merges with a cluster of galaxies called
Norma—roughly in the direction of the star Beta Trianguli Australis
in the Southern Triangle constellation. One member of the team,
Patrick Woudt of the 3University of Cape Town, South Africa, proposed
previously that Norma marks the core concentration of the Great
Attractor's mass.

The researchers drew their results from an array of galactic distance
measurements based on redshift—the reddening of light from galaxies.
Further-off galaxies are redder because as the universe expands, it
pulls objects apart from each other, "stretching" light waves
traveling between them. The greater the distance between objects, the
stronger the effect.

Surveys of the universe at its largest scales have found that
galaxies are arranged into a sponge-like structure, with sheets and
filaments of galaxies surrounding nearly empty voids. Places where
these sheets and filaments intersect are sometimes called "knots," as
they tend to have dense concentrations of galaxies that are merging.

Radburn-Smith said his findings help clarify our place in this sort
of structure.

The Milky Way and its neighboring Andromeda galaxy, along with some
30 smaller ones, "form what is known as the Local Group," he
explained in an email. This lies on the outskirts of a "supercluster"—
a grouping of thousands of galaxies—known as Virgo, which is also
pulled toward the Great Attractor.

The Virgo Supercluster is centered on a "knot," he added. The Local
Group lies on a broad filament protruding from this knot. Another
filament also branches off from it—at right angles to ours—and
extends to a second knot, known as the Centaurus cluster, he added.

From there, yet another filament stretches toward a third knot,
the "Norma Cluster," which is part of the Great Attractor wall, he
explained. "There's no direct connection between our galaxy and the
Great Attractor."

Astronomers have previously found other sheet-like conglomerations of
galaxies described as "Great Walls." This newfound structure may be
similar, Radburn-Smith suggested.

But Kocevski said his own work shows the wall and associated
structures lack enough mass to provide the gravitational pull
hitherto attributed to the Great Attractor. Thus, he proposes that
more mass lies beyond the wall.

In findings presented Jan. 11 at the American Astronomical Society
meeting in Washington, D.C., Kocevski, also a doctoral student, and
other researchers at his institution said a major concentration of
galaxies lies beyond the Great Attractor. They're near the so-called
Shapley Supercluster, 500 million light-years away—the most massive
known supercluster.

Kocevski wrote in an email that his and Radburn-Smith's findings
could both be correct; in fact, "our work mapping X-ray luminous
galaxy clusters in the Great Attractor region has reached the same
conclusion" as Radburn-Smith. "The pull our galaxy is feeling is most
likely due to both the nearby Great Attractor and these more distant
structures."

The researchers are using the name "Great Attractor" only for the
wall and related structures, not these much further objects. The
naming is in line with past practice: astronomers had long suspected
the Great Attractor lay in the neighborhood now being fingered as the
abode of the wall. Thus they called that zone, but not the area
behind it, the "Great Attractor region."

Happy Sky Watching

Ratnesh Pandit

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HELLO PLANETEERS,
I GOT ONE MAIL OF MR. MANISH PANJWANI WHO IS LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD
ASTRONOMY WRITERS.I AM GIVING HERE THE DETAILS WHAT HE WANT.IF
ANYBODY IS INTERESTED IN THAT THEN,HE/SHE CAN CONTACT HIM,PERSONALLY
TO HIS E-MAIL ADDRESS.

DETAILS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

My name is Manish Panjwani and I run a small, US-based online
astronomy business (www.AgenaAstro.com). I am originally from Mumbai
and I was very active in the amateur astronomy circuit in the 1980s
and 90s. Ajay Talwar (many of you know him) is a very old friend of
mine.

I am looking to grow my astronomy business aggressively and want to
hire some amateur astronomers in India on a part-time basis (a few
hours every now and then) to help me with astronomy related
writing/research tasks.

Typical tasks:
- Write small ads for online classified sites
- Write ads/listings for selling products on eBay
- Write product page descriptions for my web site or catalog
- Write simple product how-to-use instruction sheets
- Write FAQ (frequently asked questions) responses or small articles
(less than a page). For example, a paragraph or two on understanding
telescope mirror accuracy, use of various camera adapters, different
types of mirror/lens coatings, etc.
- Do other astronomy related internet research I specify (like survey
of competitors products and prices, etc.)

I will, of course, provide technical info and necessary support.

Candidate Requirements:
- EXCELLENT english writing skills (this is most important)
- Creative writing skills a plus
- Very good knowledge of astronomy products (telescopes and
accessories). Need practical observers/imagers. Not looking for
theoretical people.
- Willing to research the internet. I don't expect you to know all the
answers but you should understand basic astronomy terms, be willing to
research the internet, learn, and write up what is required in simple
but perfect english.
- Must have regular internet access and be online frequently (at least
once everyday).
- HTML/web design experience a plus, but not necessary.

I can discuss compensation based on expertise/tasks assigned. Agena is
still a small side-business but I am putting a lot of effort into
growing this very aggressively.

If you are interested, please write to me at manish@...
with a paragraph describing your background and astronomy experience.
Please do not broadcast responses to this group.

HAPPY SKY WATCHING

RATNESH PANDIT

A cometary "string-of-pearls" will fly past Earth in May 2006 giving
astronomers a fantastic view of a dying comet.

In 1995, Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 did something unexpected:
it fell apart. For no apparent reason, the comet's nucleus split
into at least three "mini-comets" flying single file through space.
Astronomers watched with interest, but the view was blurry even
through large telescopes. "73P" was a hundred and fifty million
miles away.

We're about to get a much closer look. In May 2006 the fragments are
going to fly past Earth closer than any comet has come in more than
twenty years.

"This is a rare opportunity to watch a comet in its death throes—
from very close range," says Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near Earth
Object Program at JPL.

There's no danger of a collision. "Goodness, no," says Yeomans. "The
closest fragment will be about six million miles away--or twenty-
five times farther than the Moon." That's close without actually
being scary.

The flyby is a big deal. "The Hubble Space Telescope will be
watching," says Yeomans. "Also, the giant Arecibo radar in Puerto
Rico will 'ping' the fragments to determine their shape and spin."
Even backyard astronomers will be able to take pictures as the mini-
comets file through the constellations Cygnus and Pegasus on May 12,
13 and 14.

Ironically these comets, so nearby, will not be very bright. The
largest fragments are expected to glow like 3rd or 4th magnitude
stars, only dimly visible to the unaided eye.

"Remember," says Yeomans, "these are mini-comets." They're not like
the Great Comets Hayutake and Hale-Bopp of 1996 and 1997. Those
could be seen with the naked eye from light-polluted cities. The
fragments of 73P, on the other hand, are best viewed from the
countryside--and don't forget your binoculars.

The number of fragments is constantly changing. When the breakup
began in 1995 there were only three: A, B and C. Astronomers now
count at least eight: big fragments B and C plus smaller fragments
G, H, J, L, M and N. "It looks as though some of the fragments are
themselves forming their own sub-fragments," says Yeomans, which
means the number could multiply further as 73P approaches. No knows
how long the "string of pearls" will be when it finally arrives.

Bonus: There could be a meteor shower, too.

This is very uncertain, indeed, forecasters consider it unlikely.
But an expanding cloud of dust from the 1995 break-up of the comet
could brush past Earth in May 2006 producing a display of meteors.

Astronomer Paul Wiegert at the University of Western Ontario has
studied the possibility:

"We believe the cloud is expanding too slowly to reach Earth only
eleven years after the break-up," he says, "but it all depends on
what caused the comet to fly apart—and that we don't know."

"The most likely explanation is thermal stress, with the icy nucleus
cracking like an ice cube dropped into hot soup: the comet broke
apart as it approached the Sun after a long sojourn the frigid outer
solar system," he explains. "If this is truly what happened, then
the debris cloud should be expanding slowly, and there will be no
strong meteor shower."

On the other hand, what if "the comet was shattered by a hit from a
small interplanetary boulder?" A violent collision would produce
faster-moving debris that could reach Earth in 2006.

Wiegert expects to see nothing, but he encourages sky watchers to be
alert. It wouldn't be the first time a dying comet produced a meteor
shower:

"One outstanding example is comet Biela, which was seen to split in
1846, and had completely broken apart by 1872," he says. "At least
three very intense meteor showers (3000-15000 meteors per hour) were
produced by this dying comet in 1872, 1885 and 1892."

Assuming a thermal breakup for 73P, Wiegert and colleagues have
calculated the most likely trajectory of its dust cloud. Their
results: dust should reach Earth in 2022, "producing a minor meteor
shower--nothing spectacular. However," he adds, "the ongoing
splitting of the comet means new meteoroids are being sent in new
directions, so a future strong meteor shower from 73P remains a real
possibility."

The watch begins on May 12th.

Happy Sky Watching.

Ratnesh Pandit

HELLO PLANETEERS,

IT'S ME ,RATNESH.THERE WAS A SPAECTACULAR EVENT WAS HAPPENE ON 29TH
AMRCH 2006 AS SOLAR ECLIPSE.IT WAS VISIBLE FROM TURKEY SO INDIAN
AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS' HAD GONE TUREKY TO OBSERVE IT.I AM PUTTINH ONE URL
LINK.I SUGGEST YOU TO FOLLOW THIS LINK...

http://www.space-india.org/gallery/slideshow.php?
set_albumName=heliodyssey

HAVE A NICE DAY...

HAPPY SKY WATCHING

RATNESH PANDIT