1. NASA MARS ANNOUNCEMENT TONIGHT There is a buzz in the space science community this past week about a BIG announcement from NASA to do with the Mars rovers. One Viking scientists says he can see in the pictures from the rovers that they are trundling around in mud! (I'm paraphrasing.) Others think it's evidence for life, may be they photographed some fossils? (Unlikely!) But it's probably something less glitzy like particularly interesting sedimentary rocks that would be evidence for past running water for significant time periods. Hopefully it will be less controversial than when they announced life in that meteorite from Mars in 1996. Apparently everyone at NASA has been playing their cards close to their chests. But tonight, at 7pm our time, NASA holds a press conference to spill the beans as it were. You can watch it live on the net on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/ntv and I'd say Sky News "active" will carry it live and CNN or one of the others, as I saw the rumour mentioned on TV3 news this morning, though Elaine Crowley rang me today about Rosetta and never mentioned NASA. It should be fun. 2. NASA LECTURER IN DUBLIN ON 2FM Speaking of NASA. Dr Stuart Smith is to be interviewed on the Gerry Ryan Show 2FM next Monday morning in advance of his lecture to Astronomy Ireland later that evening in D.C.U. Details (and a new photo) at www.astronomy.ie/nextlecture.html 3. EUROPE'S ROSETTA COMET MISSION LAUNCHED E.S.A. successfully launched Rosetta this morning, live on TG4. Leo Enright was also on Morning Ireland this morning. The links RTE send out daily don't work today and they haven't answered my email yet but I got this link that works: www.rte.ie/rams/radio/latest/rte-morningireland.smil Then click "play" then "seek to" 44 minutes 40 seconds and you'll hear the launch, then Leo's interview. There's an excellent press notice from ESA all about what Rosetta will do for the next 10 years and beyond at: www.esa.int/rosetta for instance, it'll be coming back to Earth in 12 months time! We've updated our link to "Ireland in Space" our Easter Monday Lecture (including photo) at: www.astronomy.ie/april_lecture.html Why not book your tickets for both our NASA and our EASTER lectures now, as tickets for both are available right now. Call. Please get others to join Astronomy Ireland online and support our Irish astronomy magazine: www.astronomy.ie/sub (now secure!) ===== David Moore BSc FRAS, at Ireland's BIGGEST Telescope Shop. Tel (01) 847 0777. www.astronomy.ie info@astronomy.ie Click last line to change subscription options & see old messages: