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MOON & SPICA: Giant, blue Spica is 11 times more massive than the Sun and 13,000 times brighter. One day, it might go supernova, but not tonight. Tonight it's just having a harmless close encounter with the Moon. Look for the pair in the southwestern sky after sunset: sky map.
BEWARE THE MARS HOAX: Just when you thought it was safe to read your email, a new Mars Hoax is spreading. The widely-circulated message tells us "the Red Planet is about to be spectacular. On August 27th, Mars ... will look as large as the full Moon." Really? (continued below)
Here are the facts: On August 27, 2006, Mars will be on the other side of the solar system, 385 million km from Earth. It'll look tiny and dim, nothing like the full Moon. So forget about Mars. If you want to see something truly astronomical on August 27th, look east before dawn for a pretty conjunction of Venus and Saturn: sky map.
GENESIS MOVIE: The inflatable Genesis satellite is orbiting Earth and starting to make conspicuous evening passes over North America. It glows about as brightly as a 3rd-magnitude star. On July 28th, Kevin Fetter videotaped Genesis passing over his home in Brockville, Ontario, Canada: 2 MB movie.
Genesis 1, photographed July 28th by one of the satellite's exterior cameras.
Developed by Bigelow Aerospace, Genesis is on a mission to test the idea that inflatable modules could be used to build future space stations or even orbital hotels. So far, so good: Genesis is working fine.
Genesis flyby alerts
from Spaceweather PHONE