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When Planetaries Meet Planets, by Arsen
R. Hajian
Bloating to hundreds of times
their original size, doubling their body temperatures, flinging
pieces of their bodies around, squirting out their guts, pulverizing
their dependents. The death of mid-size stars is such a pretty
sight. |
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Have Observatory, Will Travel, by James
C. White II
College astronomy labs, for want
of other fun, typically turn into a game: get the instructor
to tell us the answers so that we can get out of here. And then
the poor teacher has to go home and grade the scribbles and
scrawls of two dozen disaffected students. Project CLEA offers
a better way. |
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Relativity in the Palm of Your Hand,
by Neil Ashby
Relativity. The word
strikes horror into mortal minds. But as esoteric as Einstein's
theories seem, we all use them whenever we fly a plane, make
a phone call, survey a plot of land -- or do anything else that
depends on the Global Positioning System. |
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28 |
The Shapes of Things to Come, by Peter
C. Thomas
Take some Dramamine the next time
you visit Vesta or Ida. Asteroids are giant Mystery Spots where
you have to climb uphill to go down. The bizarre gravity of
oblong objects can also yank satellites out of orbit, as controllers
of the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous are bracing for.
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The World of Radio Astronomy, Part
2, by Michael Dahlem and Elias Brinks
Communications engineers gasp
when they hear how weak cosmic radio signals are. Picking those
faint signals out of the cacophony of the airwaves, and discerning
the fine details they contain, has pushed radio technology to
its limits. |
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Departments
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Editorial,
by George Musser |
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4 |
Letters to the Editor |
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Society News |
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World
Beat: China, by John
R. Percy
Chinese astronomers are still
picking up the pieces from the Cultural Revolution, not to mention
Tiananmen Square. Can they maintain their enthusiasm during
the upheavals the next decade is likely to bring? |
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Black Holes to Blackboards, by Jeffrey
F. Lockwood
When your students speak of "the
stars," wouldn't it be nice if, for once, they meant Arcturus
rather than Aniston? After all, stars (the shining type) have
lives that would keep "Entertainment Tonight" abuzz. |
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Echoes of the Past, by Katherine Bracher
In our bodies, dead stars live
on. It is a story of resurrection that astronomers read in the
colors of starlight. |
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Guest
Observer, by James C.
White II
(Re)discovering the asteroid Vesta.
This month's column also features some spiffy photos of Comet
Hyakutake. |
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SkyChart and SkyTalk, by Robert A.
Garfinkle |
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37 |
Book Review, by John Isles
Sky Phenomena by
Norman Davidson. The Binocular Stargazer by Leslie
C. Peltier. Turn Left at Orion by Guy Consolmagno
and Dan M. Davis. |
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Last Page, by Yervant Terzian
"The most outstanding thing I
have learned is that quantum mechanics has proved that no matter
how accurate you are, you can never completely focus a slide."
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