Coming soon two new Space Mysteries sponsored by the GLAST mission.

1) Galactic Doom

If you go out on a clear, dark night, you may see a ghostly trail overhead. Called the "Milky Way", it's actually composed of billions of stars, faint and distant, blurred together to our eye. Together, these stars make up our Galaxy, a vast spinning pinwheel of 200 billion star. Other galaxies abound, many like our own Milky Way, while others pour out vast onslaughts of high-energy light from their cores. Called "active galaxies", these celestial beacons flood their stars with X-rays and gamma rays, sterilizing any life that might be there. Could the Milky Way become one of these active galaxies, endangering life on Earth? The Space Mystery "Galactic Doom" will take you into the heart of active galaxies and find out what makes them such cosmic infernos.

2) Solar Supernova

The Sun is a burning constant in our daytime sky, stable and serene. Ancient people worshipped it, and modern people use it for energy. But will it always be this way? Is it possible that our Sun, the basis for life on Earth, can actually explode, wiping out life, and even vaporizing the Earth? The Space Mystery "Solar Supernova" explores this question, first by examining what a supernova is, what causes it, what kinds of stars can explode, and then comparing the Sun to these other stars. Will our Sun continue on for billions of years, or are we poised for stellar destruction? Play "Solar Supernova" and find out!

Coming Winter 2005.

If you are interested in testing the beta versions of these games, please email Sarah Silva at sarah@universe.sonoma.edu.

Comments and Feedback to Lynn R. Cominsky, lynnc@charmian.sonoma.edu
Web site design and maintenance by:
Tim Graves, gravest@universe.sonoma.edu and Sarah Silva, sarah@universe.sonoma.edu
Web questions to: Phil Plait, phil@universe.sonoma.edu,
Artwork by: Aurore Simonnet, aurore@universe.sonoma.edu