Thanks to painstaking observations and computer modeling, astronomers have discovered that the Milky Way Galaxy is littered with the debris of stellar cannibalism. Small galaxies unlucky enough to be captured by our powerful gravity get torn to shreds and consumed. It’s sometimes hard to sort out our galaxy’s complex history because we are buried in the midst of it — an astronomical “can’t see the forest through the trees” dilemma. So astronomers...

Now that your July 2009 issue of Astronomy is in the mail or already in-hand, we’ve updated Astronomy.com with our newest web extras to give subscribers exclusive complementary information to the magazine. Take a sneak peek inside the July 2009 Astronomy magazine . If you subscribe to Astronomy , make sure you’re registered with Astronomy.com so you can access these great extras. And if you're not a subscriber, why wait? Subscribe today ! Here...

Loyal podcast listeners, Starting June 4, Michael Bakich's weekly observing podcast will be available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains free, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode! We now return to our regularly scheduled program... --- Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the star known as La Superba, globular cluster M80, and Abell 1656 this week. Check out the...

Amateur astronomer Ted Schaar, from nearby Brookfield, Wisconsin — not far from Astronomy headquarters — sent us a letter about an observatory that's part of a public library in Pewaukee, a village just a few miles west of Brookfield. We're thankful to Ted for letting us share this great story with all of you: Like similar repositories, the new public library in Pewaukee connects people to the cosmos through its collections. Perhaps uniquely...

Loyal podcast listeners, Starting June 4, Michael Bakich's weekly observing podcast will be available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains free, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode! We now return to our regularly scheduled program... --- Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the star V Hydrae, globular cluster NGC 5634, and the Ursa Minor Dwarf this week. Check out...

***Images updated.*** Next week, you can check out the rich collection of astronomical instruments at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the telescope, the planetarium opens its a new exhibition, “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass,” on May 22. The show spotlights technology used to gather information about our universe since Galileo’s day and includes hands-on interactive exhibits. The trumpet-shaped telescope...

SETI Institute astronomer, intrepid alien hunter, and Astronomy magazine author Seth Shostak will appear as the primary guest tonight on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report , starring Stephen Colbert. Check your local listings and be sure to tune in to see Seth battle it out with Colbert, who will no doubt have some crazy things to say about SETI and the existence of life in the cosmos. More SETI news from Astronomy.com: SETI's "Earth Speaks"...

On May 15, the SETI Institute — the planet’s leading extraterrestrial searchers — launched “ Earth Speaks .” The project invites the public to submit proposed messages to alien civilizations. According to Thomas Pierson, CEO of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, “By submitting text messages, pictures, and sounds from across the globe, people from all walks of life will contribute to a dialogue about what humanity might say to intelligent...

Today NASA celebrates the Apollo program on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 10 , the fourth manned mission of the program. An interactive feature on NASA’s web site includes photos, video, and even animated comics from the manned lunar missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s. On May 18, 1969, Gene Cernan, John Young, and Thomas Stafford (left to right in picture) launched from Earth to become the second crew to orbit the Moon. While Young stayed...

Those of you who are fans of Microsoft Corporation’s WorldWide Telescope (WWT) software will soon have some new friends. At the fifth annual Latin American Faculty Summit in Buenos Aires May 13, Microsoft announced the global availability of WWT’s Spanish user interface release. WorldWide Telescope is a virtual observatory that allows you to explore the universe from your computer. You can study celestial objects in multiple wavelengths, thanks to...