Welcome to
SPACE.com's coverage of the 202nd meeting of the American Astronomical
Society (AAS), which was held in Nashville from May 24-29, 2003.
SPACE.com's
Senior Science Writer Robert Roy Britt reported live from the
Nashville Convention Center.
May 29, 2003
 Earth-Sized Planets Confirmed, But They're Dead Worlds
There are three planets beyond our solar system about the same size as Earth. Found more than a decade ago, you might not have heard about them as their discovery was clouded in controversy.Read the complete
story.
 Astronomers Burst Bubble on Shape of Nearby Space
Objects in space seldom conform to the neat shapes
mapped out in theoretical models. Upon close examination of the real thing
-- whatever it is -- bumps, wiggles, bulges and even stranger structures
are often found.Read the complete
story.
May 28, 2003
 New Clues to Nature's Greatest Explosions
Researchers
have been trying for decades to learn the cause of incredible explosions
from deep space called gamma ray bursts. New research into two recent
events has managed to rule out one theoretical model and provide support
for another, while also hinting at the mechanism behind the
bursts.Read the complete
story.
May 27, 2003
 Supernova Factory Discovered Where Galaxies Collide
Astronomers have peered through a secretive
cloak of dust to find five exploded stars in a region of space believed to
be among the most energetic in the universe. They're calling it a
supernova factory, the first of its kind ever witnessed.
Read the complete
story.
Mystery Object is Student's Discovery of a Lifetime
Thin and polite, Roger
Cohen looks young, as though he might still be in college. In fact, he
just graduated Sunday from Wesleyan University. Yet, not even in graduate
school, Cohen has nailed the discovery of a lifetime.
Read the complete
story.
May 26, 2003
 Strangest Star Known is the 'Talk
of Astronomy'
A handful of
astronomers first learned about a crazy star called V838 Monocerotis in
January 2002, when an unusual outburst was detected. And though several
research teams have been investigating the star since the initial
outburst, no one can explain it. Today, things got even
stranger
Read the complete
story.
 New Evidence for a Stop-and-Go Universe
In their quest to understand a mysterious force that rules
the universe, astronomers today announced further results of an ongoing
investigation into ancient stellar explosions that reveal the stop-and-go
nature of cosmic evolution.
Read the complete
story.
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