The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) has detected its first neutrinos. AMANDA ( http://amanda.berkeley.edu) uses the clear ice under the south pole to provide interactions with incoming neutrinos.
A nice article, "Antarctic Dreams," about the project appeared in The Sciences, March/April 1999, pp. 19-24.
Hubble observations of a filament in the Cygnus loop show fantastic twisting and other detail. ( http://violet.pha.jhu.edu/~wpb)
Examing an image from Rosat, scientists discovered that in one of its energy bands, the bright Vela supernova remnant is less visible and another, smaller remnant is visible. The high temperature (greater than 30 million K) of the remnant indicates that it is less than 1,500 years old and its size, about 2 degrees, indicates that it is within 1 kpc. Bernd Aschenbach of the Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik in Germany thus concludes that "it may therefore be the nearest supernova to have occurred during recent human history." An associated article shows the discovery of titanium-44, which indicates an age of about 680 years and a distance of about 200 parsecs. It is therefore probably the closest young remnant to the Earth. No historical record of it is known.
