IYA News
Welcome to the International Year of Astronomy!
The kickoff event for the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) in the United States took place on Tuesday January 6th, 2009 at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, California. Beginning and ending with sidewalk observing, the proceedings featured introductory remarks by U.S. IYA leaders Doug Isbell and Steve Pompea, followed by NASA IYA lead Hashima Hasan, who unveiled a sneak peak of mural-sized images of the spiral galaxy Messier 101 from NASA’s Great Observatories. NASA’s contribution to the event also included a display of images from the "From Earth to the Universe" global cornerstone project and the "Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery" exhibit for libraries.
Visit the U.S. IYA Newscenter for the full scoop – including a virtual ribbon cutting of the IYA presence in Second Life and news on the world premier of the new PBS television documentary "400 Years of the Telescope".
Hubble's Next Discovery, You Decide
"Hubble's Next Discovery — You Decide" is part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations. People around the world can vote to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope will view. Choose from a list of objects Hubble has never observed before and enter a drawing for one of 100 new Hubble pictures of the winning object. The winning image will be released between April 2 to 5, during the IYA's 100 Hours of Astronomy, a global astronomy event geared toward encouraging as many people as possible to experience the night sky. Vote by March 1 to swing Hubble towards your favorite target: http://youdecide.hubblesite.org/
Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery - the Tour Begins!
Visions of the Universe: Four Centuries of Discovery, a traveling exhibit for public libraries, opened at eight libraries across the U.S. on January 21, 2009. The exhibit celebrates the International Year of Astronomy by using dramatic images from NASA space science missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope, along with historic drawings and diagrams to explore how our views of the universe have changed over the past 400 years. Visit http://www.ala.org/visionsoftheuniverse to view the tour itinerary, and http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/visions to view and download poster-sized versions of the exhibit panels.
Student Ambassadors Program
Student Ambassadors have been selected! » View NASA release.
The NASA International Year of Astronomy Student Ambassadors Program is intended to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to participate in NASA’s IYA activities and to help generate excitement about NASA scientific discoveries in astrophysics, planetary science and solar physics within their local communities and beyond. These students will serve as role models to others in the community.
A list of student ambassadors and program details are available at: http://www.spacegrant.org/niya/
Monthly Feature
During each month of the International Year of Astronomy, we'll highlight some key NASA missions, space science discoveries, and night-sky wonders that you can discover with your own observations and explorations, and we'll connect you to related NASA resources and events.
Join us each month of 2009 as we explore:
| 2009 | » Hot Topics | » Go Observe! |
|---|---|---|
| January | Telescopes and Space Probes: Today's Starry Messengers | Venus |
| February | Our Solar System | The Moon |
| March | Observing at Night... and in the Day | Saturn |
| April | Galaxies and the Distant Universe | The Whirlpool Galaxy |
| May | Our Sun | The Sun |
| June | Clusters of Stars | The Hercules Cluster |
| July | Black Holes | Our Galaxy: the Milky Way |
| August | Rocks and Ice in the Solar System | Perseids |
| September | Planets and Moons | Jupiter |
| October | What is the Fate of the Universe? | Andromeda |
| November | The Lives of Stars | The Crab Nebula |
| December | Discovering New Worlds | The Orion Nebula |
Additional News
Additional IYA related News & Events can be found on the official IYA News and Press Releases pages.
Galaxies Collide
Galaxies are in constant motion. This pair of crashing galaxies is called "The Antennae" because the long streamers of stars thrown off early in the collision resemble an insect’s antennae.