The cradle used to hold Hubble in the shuttle’s cargo bay during the last servicing mission now resides in a clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center. Richard Talcott photo Over the past 2 decades at Astronomy magazine, I’ve had the pleasure to report on the Hubble Space Telescope and its findings in dozens of feature articles and news stories. So imagine my thrill when I was invited to see some of the final equipment used to service Hubble this...

It’s official: The 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C., is the largest astronomical meeting in history. The number of attendees has reached 3,400, several hundred more than the previous record crowd. All of the astronomers here consist entirely of normal matter — the protons, neutrons, and electrons that make up all that we see in the cosmos. But this morning’s press conference shied away from normal stuff and concentrated...

If you weren’t convinced NASA made the right decision to service the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009, the latest Hubble Ultra Deep Field may change your mind. The new image, dubbed HUDF09, made its debut Tuesday morning at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held in Washington, D.C. The image targeted a tiny part of the southern sky with observations through 10 filters ranging from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths...

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has discovered five new planets orbiting stars beyond the Sun in its first 6 weeks of science observations. The planets — designated Kepler 4b, 5b, 6b, 7b, and 8b — orbit their host stars in periods ranging from 3.2 to 4.9 days. All are significantly larger than Earth and have surface temperatures hotter than molten lava. The smallest planet, Kepler 4b, is about the size of Neptune. But Kepler 7b is the strangest: It has a...

For something so dark it could define the word, black holes sure seem to be generating a lot of light at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C. At a press conference yesterday morning, several scientists spoke about their recent research into these objects, whose gravity is so strong that not even light can escape them. Fortunately for astronomers, a black hole can radiate lots of energy when surrounding matter...

Longtime astroimager and Astronomy magazine contributor Tony Hallas thinks about his upcoming acceptance speech. The Advanced Imaging Conference committee awarded Hallas its most prestigious award, the Hubble Award, for his service and the advances he brought to astroimaging. Michael E. Bakich photo In my previous blog, I described the first day at the 2009 Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC), which occurred October 30 through November 1 at the San...

Renowned astroimager Adam Block of the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter presented a pair of workshops at the 2009 Advanced Imaging Conference. Michael E. Bakich photo As part of my duties as photo editor for the world’s most popular astronomy publication, I attended the sixth annual Advanced Imaging Conference (AIC) October 30 through November 1 at the San Jose, California, Doubletree Hotel. If you’re one of our many readers who love the “eye candy” that top...

Please enjoy this guest post from Astronomy magazine Columnist Stephen James O’Meara: Just wrapped up with a successful and fun George Moore Astronomy Workshop at Camp Maskepetoon near Pigeon Lake in Alberta. The Edmonton Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada sponsors the event and hosted me. Aside from meeting old friends, like Astronomy magazine Contributing Editor Alister Ling, who gave a wonderful presentation on how best to use the...

Thursday was a short day at the conference. I had to check out of the hotel in the late morning, so I had time only to jump between two sessions (another exoplanet one, and one about near-Earth asteroids [NEAs]). E ditor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com/AstronomyMag . The exoplanet session focused on what I’ve noticed to be an extremely popular topic here at the conference — modeling exoplanet atmospheres. That...

I started off Wednesday at a lunar science session where presenters focused on results from the Japanese Kaguya mission and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) . Robert Reedy of the Planetary Science Institute discussed Kaguya maps of the Moon. The probe measured gamma rays to study the distribution of elements, and it produced the first global uranium map of the Moon. E ditor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com...