Evidence is mounting of a widespread yet faint signature of water on Earth’s moon that is strongest near the poles. See the signature in the Astro Bulletin from October 19, 2009 along with recent images from NASA’s water-seeking LCROSS mission, which crashed part of its spacecraft into a frozen crater at the Moon’s south pole on October 9, 2009. We’ll be keen to know if LCROSS mission scientists confirm traces of water ice in the faint plume of debris kicked up by the impact. NASA will reveal results in the coming weeks.

This Astro Bulletin from July 21, 2008 highlights a previous discovery of lunar water dissolved inside tiny, glassy rocks that astronauts on the Apollo missions brought back from the Moon about 40 years ago. Clues to the water content in these volcanically formed beads have turned up since the 1980's, yet technology is only now sufficiently advanced to detect such trace amounts.

To learn about other recent astronomical discoveries, visit the Science Bulletins website.

Like Earth, Jupiter has auroras that gleam at its poles—a result of the planet’s magnetic field interacting with energetic particles streaming from the Sun. In recent years astronomers have noticed that Ganymede and Io, two of Jupiter’s moons, each add their own personal stamp to the planet’s auroras. Pick out these planetary footprints in Jupiter’s swirling aurora on an image series from the Hubble Space Telescope in the newest Astro Bulletin, below.

Check out some of the archaeological traces in Andromeda Galaxy in the recent Astro Bulletin below.

To learn about other recent astronomical discoveries, visit the Science Bulletins website.

Although neighboring Andromeda Galaxy may look tranquil, scientists are realizing the extent of its tumultuous history. After taking the widest survey yet of faint stars in Andromeda’s neighborhood, a team of astronomers led by Alan McConnachie at the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, British Columbia, discovered signs of ancient mergers and near-collisions with smaller galaxies, all of which helped shape the Andromeda we see today.

Check out some of the archaeological traces in Andromeda Galaxy in the recent Astro Bulletin below.

To learn about other recent astronomical discoveries, visit the Science Bulletins website.