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 * * * SKY & TELESCOPE's WEEKLY NEWS BULLETIN - July 23, 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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STRINGY HOLES: HAWKING CONCEDES DEFEAT

Famed Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking has finally come
around to accepting what many of his colleagues have thought for decades:
black holes preserve information about the material that falls into them.
In a lecture delivered on July 21st at a physics conference in Dublin,
Ireland, Hawking outlined his reasoning and conceded defeat in a bet he
made in 1997 with Caltech physicist John Preskill. Hawking bought a
baseball encyclopedia for Preskill and had it shipped across the Atlantic.

Although many physicists agree with Hawking's conclusion, they don't
necessarily buy his argument. Preskill himself says he does not understand
it, and Caltech physicist Kip Thorne, who sided with Hawking in the bet,
is not ready to concede defeat. Mainstream media outlets have reported
this story largely because of Hawking's celebrity status, not because his
Dublin lecture broke new ground. "I think it is a bit overhyped," says
physicist Greg Landsberg (Brown University).

What, exactly, is going on here...?

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/current/article_1308_1.asp

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MARATHON MYSTERY EXPLAINED?

One of the most famous runs in history took place in 490 BC, when a lone
messenger raced some 26 miles from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens.
He then collapsed and died, but not before blurting out news of the Greeks
' victory and warning of an impending attack by the Persian fleet on
Athens itself.

The tale has always been something of a puzzle for historians and sports
enthusiasts alike. After all, why should a trained runner drop dead when
thousands of modern-day marathoners complete their runs, exhausted but
very much alive? However, new astronomical research by Donald W. Olson,
Russell Doescher, and Marilynn S. Olson (Texas State University) appears
to change the date usually quoted for the Battle of Marathon -- and the
finding gives an unusual twist to the heroic runner's death....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1306_1.asp

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COMET SHOEMAKER-LEVY 9: A DECADE LATER

This past week marked the 10th anniversary of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
impacting the clouds of Jupiter. Here SKY & TELESCOPE contributing editor
and SL9 codiscoverer David Levy reflects on some of the events surrounding
the Great Comet Crash....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1305_1.asp

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MARS ROVERS FIND MORE EVIDENCE OF WATER

Cassini at Saturn may have grabbed the limelight, but don't forget Spirit
and Opportunity. NASA's twin Mars rovers continue to roll along despite
the impending onset of Martian winter. The vehicles are revealing new
information about the role of water in Martian history, particularly at
Opportunity's site in Meridiani Planum.

In early June, Opportunity ventured into Endurance Crater down a
moderately sloped rock face that scientists named Karatepe. As of mid-July
the rover had crept down exposed sedimentary layers several meters thick,
acquiring images and spectral data en route. Chemical, mineralogical, and
textural evidence all point to liquid water here in the distant past.
Karatepe's rocks are rich in sulfates, chemicals typically left behind
when water evaporates....

Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars in Gusev Crater, Spirit's spectromete
rs have identified the iron-rich mineral hematite in Martian rocks at West
Spur, a small knob at the base of the Columbia Hills....

> http://SkyandTelescope.com/news/article_1304_1.asp

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HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS WEEK'S SKY

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