Astronomy.com - Magazine Issue

Magazine Issue

November 2008

Astronomy magazine

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The world's best-selling astronomy magazine offers you the most exciting, visually stunning, and timely coverage of the heavens above. Each monthly issue includes expert science reporting, vivid color photography, complete sky coverage, spot-on observing tips, informative telescope reviews, and much more! All this in an easy-to-understand, user-friendly style that's perfect for astronomers at any level. Subscribe now online and get Astronomy delivered to your door.

Features

Are super-sized Earths the new frontier?

Astronomers are starting to find exoplanets not much bigger than Earth. Some scientists think these worlds could be more hospitable to life than our planet.

By Ray Jayawardhana

Web extra: The search for exoplanets

Astronomy Contributing Editor Ray Jayawardhana explains how astronomers hunt for worlds beyond our own.

By Richard Talcott

Are these space rock from Mercury?

Angrite meteorites, rare and ancient, date to the birth of the solar system. Did a large asteroid give birth to them — or did they come from the innermost planet?

By Thomas H. Burbine, Jr.

Web extra: Meteorites and meteorwrongs

How can you tell a real meteorite from ordinary rocks?

By Daniel Pendick

How scientists discovered a solar system "superhighway"

By riding planetary gravity, spacecraft can explore the solar system without using fuel.

By Francis Reddy

Web extra: Take a trip on the interplanetary superhighway

Here's how to transport a large space telescope far into space using virtually no fuel.

By Daniel Pendick

Illustrated: Inside Earth's magnetic shield

An invisible structure protects Earth from all but the Sun's worst outbursts. Scientists are starting to understand how it works.