ISSN 0951-9726
Star clusters
Astronomers are now beginning to understand better how open star clusters form, evolve and eventually disperse. But there are still some questions surrounding those dense balls of stars, globular clusters. Do they possess black holes, and where do they come from? Studying their stars will provide the answer. We also explore the super-size clusters, and find that the most massive stars group together in these giant conglomerations.
Features
• Relive AstroFest 2011 • Friend or foe? • Riddle of the rings • Stardust's second date success •
Relive AstroFest 2011
See the sights and the moments that made AstroFest 2011 one of the biggest and best yet. Perhaps you can spot yourself in one of the photographs, or if you didn't attend this year, find out what you missed and perhaps tempt yourself into attending in 2012!
Friend or foe?
Jupiter has been hailed in the past as Earth's protector, sweeping up comets that might otherwise crash into our planet. But Barrie Jones and Jonti Horner have discovered that Jupiter isn't as benevolent as we had thought.
Riddle of the rings
What is the origin of Saturn's majestic rings? Keith Cooper reports on both sides of the argument: that either they are extremely ancient, or formed within the last few hundred million years.
Stardust's second date success
On Valentine's Day 2011 NASA's Stardust-NExT probe flew past comet Tempel 1 to witness the crater that had been formed almost six years previous by the Deep Impact mission. Emily Baldwin describes the excitement of the fly-by, and what it found.