Used by permission

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 * * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - November 12, 2004 * * *

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Welcome to S&T's Weekly News Bulletin. Images, the full text of stories
abridged here, and other enhancements are available on our Web site,
SkyandTelescope.com, at the URLs provided below. (If the links don't work,
just manually type the URLs into your Web browser.) Clear skies!

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MARS METHANE BOOSTS CHANCES FOR LIFE

Tantalizing new evidence possibly suggestive of current life on Mars has
just been reported by two independent teams. The groups, led by Michael J.
Mumma (NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) and Vladimir A. Krasnopolsky
(Catholic University of America), have found the spectral signature of
methane (CH4) in the Martian atmosphere. Mumma's team found significant
enhancements of methane near the equator, while Krasnopolsky's results
show a global level of atmospheric methane....

Methane gas is a potential biomarker because various photochemical and
other processes destroy it on Mars. Without being continually replenished,
it would disappear from the atmosphere in about 340 years or less. On
Earth, microorganisms are by far the dominant source of methane gas....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1389_1.asp

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THE DWINDLING KUIPER BELT

Objects in the (telescope) mirror are smaller than they once appeared --
at least in the case of the small, icy bodies beyond Neptune forming the
debris zone known as the Kuiper Belt. Observations by several teams have
led astronomer to realize that Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) are generally
smaller than previously thought. This, in turn, lowers the estimated total
mass of the belt by a factor of 5 or 10....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1388_1.asp

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THIS IS A QUIET SUN?

We're two years from the estimated minimum of the 11-year solar cycle, and
the average number of sunspots has decreased as predicted. But the
sunspots that remain continue to pack quite a wallop. A series of major
solar flares from sunspot 10696 has kept geomagnetic activity near or
above "storm" level ever since November 7th. Intense auroral activity has
been reported for three consecutive nights, reaching as far south as
Borrego Springs, California, just north of the Mexican border....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1387_1.asp

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MORE SCIENCE FINDINGS FROM CASSINI

Hundreds of scientists around the world continue to pore over images and
data from the Cassini spacecraft following its successful July 1st
insertion into Saturn orbit and its October 26th close flyby of the
cloud-enshrouded moon Titan. The latest results, presented on November 8th
at the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences
meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, include a mysterious circular feature on
Titan and mountains on Iapetus that might be the highest in the solar
system. "It's an embarrassment of riches," says Carolyn Porco (Space
Science Institute), principal investigator of Cassini's camera system....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1386_1.asp

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JUPITER'S DAYTIME DISAPPEARANCE

Observers across the eastern part of North America were treated to a
daytime occultation of Jupiter by the thin crescent Moon on November 9,
2004. Fortunately, most observers had either clear skies or scattered
clouds, allowing some excellent views of the event....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1385_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

* New Moon on Friday, November 12th.
* Leonid meteor shower should peak early on the morning of November 17th.
* First-quarter Moon on November 18-19th.

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