In this exclusive to Astronomy.com, science writer Lauren Cahoon shares the sights and sounds of the 2008 Division for Planetary Science meeting. Take it away, Lauren: It’s been an eventful 5 days at the 40th Division for Planetary Sciences meeting, with roughly 800 astronomers from all over the world convening in the small town of Ithaca, New York. While there have been hundreds of intriguing talks, I’ve been forced to select a sample that looked...

Rocky, earthlike planets are way too small and dim to detect directly with today’s telescopes. Astronomers at Goddard Space Flight Center may have found a really clever way around this problem. The NASA researchers think we might be able to spot tiny planets based on their gravitational effects on interplanetary dust particles . Our solar system has dust, and you can see it as a faint glow called the zodiacal light, visible before sunrise or after...

In the November 2008 issue of Astronomy , I wrote a story called “The northern sky’s top 10 galaxies.” At the end of the report, I invited readers to submit their favorite galaxies or to comment on my list. I’ve received a couple of responses so far. Science writer John Mood suggested five of his favorite galaxies that I hadn’t listed: Pinwheel Galaxy (M33) Virgo A (M87) Sombrero Galaxy (M104) Black Eye Galaxy (M64) 3C–273 Lucky for me, M104 lies...

Last Friday the magazine’s editors, art staff, and publisher left the office to hang out at my house. It’s something we do once a year, and it’s a major component of how we bring you fresh, new ideas each year with the magazine and with our web site. Accompanied by throngs of magazines, covers, planning boards, and journals, we spread out with our pastries and orange juice and tackled the notions of what we should plan to do over the coming months...

NASA recently released its 2008 edition of Spinoff , a publication that chronicles successfully commercialized NASA technology. They have a web site to go with the print version, and it’s an easy place to lose yourself for a few hours (trust me, I did it one night last week). The 2008 issue features 50 “spinoffs” in the areas of health and medicine; transportation; public safety; computer technology; and more. My personal favorites were the spinoffs...

Three researchers who have contributed greatly to physicists’ understanding of the Standard Model of particle physics won the Nobel Prize in Physics. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Yoichiro Nambu of the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago half the prize. Makoto Kobayashi of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Tsukuba, Japan, and Toshihide Maskawa of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics at Kyoto...

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see the constellation Equuleus, the double star Albireo, and Polarissima Borealis Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS. --Start transcript-- The constellation Equuleus, the spectacular double...

Thanks to Ron Dantowitz and Marek Kozubal at the Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Massachusetts, for sending us these two images of 2008 TC3 . Related: First images of asteroid 2008 TC3

The people I’ve met who are more than armchair astronomers fall into two categories: observers and astrophotographers. The latter combine a passion for astronomy with photography to make dazzling images of distant objects in the night sky. Adam Block is one of the best of them, and people are starting to notice. Recently, the Santa Barbara Instrument Group awarded Block its Award for Excellence in Astronomical Imaging and named him to its astrophotography...

STAY TUNED FOR UPDATES This morning, the husband and wife observing team of Imelda Joson and Edwin Aguirre forwarded to Astronomy an image and an animation of the asteroid 2008 TC3 they received from amateur astronomer friends in Italy. Imelda runs an image service company and is a contributor to Astronomy magazine. The International Astronomical Union named asteroid 6282 "Edwelda" after Imelda and Edwin. "Here's a sequence of photos...