Saturn

Stargazers want skies to clear quickly behind yesterday's cold front passage. At 9:15 tonight the full Hay Moon (or Thunder Moon) rises in the east over Baltimore. Turn around to see Venus and Saturn slow-dancing in the west, less than a degree apart (the width of your pinky held at arm's length). Venus is the very bright "evening star." Far-dimmer Saturn is sliding past, just above Venus, for the next few nights. They're a treat in binoculars or a small telescope. Jupiter gleams in the southeast.

Astronomers at the University of Central Florida have spied what may be the hottest planet ever observed. Physicist Joseph Harrington, using NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope, measured the amount of reflected light that disappears as the planet ducks behind its star. From that, he calculated its temperature. Called HD 149026b, the Saturn-sized orb registers a steel-melting 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit. "It would look like an ember in space, absorbing all incoming light but glowing a dull red," he said.

Saturn Corp., dogged by slipping sales and a solitary line of aging subcompacts, unveils its first midsize sedan today at the New York International Auto Show.The debut of the 2000 L-Series sedan and wagon, which go on sale in July, comes at a time of unusual turmoil for Saturn, the small-car unit of General Motors Corp. and a one-time pioneer in new technologies, no-dicker pricing and freer labor-management relations.The L cars -- to be built at a dedicated plant in Wilmington, Del. -- will be the first Saturns assembled away from the company's Spring Hill, Tenn.

A grandmother, her daughter and her grandson died yesterday afternoon at a Thurmont intersection when their car ran a stop sign and hit a State Highway Administration truck, Maryland State Police said.Nuala M. Rigby, 69; her daughter, Michelle Lorraine Rigby, 39; and Michelle Rigby's son, Samuel, 3, all of Frederick, were pronounced dead at the scene.Police said their Saturn was northbound on Stottlemeyer Road shortly after noon when the car crossed onto Route 77 without stopping and struck an eastbound 1-ton highway truck driven by Randy Plunkert, 43, of Hagerstown.

DETROIT -- United Auto Workers members at General Motors Corp.'s Saturn plant in Tennessee, where pay is falling because of slow sales, could soon scrap the innovative labor teams that are part of the unit's folksy advertising image.Saturn is unique within GM because of its extensive use of team-based labor groups, which give workers more responsibility for monitoring quality and costs. More than 6,000 workers in Spring Hill, Tenn., will decide Feb. 23 on whether to schedule a referendum on changing to a traditional contract.

As if he didn't have enough to worry about with crime, welfar reform and suburban flight, Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has a more cosmic concern: the Cassini mission to Saturn.The mayor is part of a growing chorus of protests by anti-nuclear activists and environmentalists as NASA prepares to launch the Cassini spacecraft that will be powered by radioactive plutonium."It is my hope that you will intervene to question NASA officials about the potentially harmful environmental impact that could result from this project," Schmoke wrote in a letter Thursday to Vice President Al Gore.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Howard County.Ellicott City: 9000 block of Chevrolet Drive: A construction trailer was broken into Tuesday. Drywall was kicked in, but nothing was taken.Ellicott City: 2300 block of McKenzie Road: Someone broke into a garage Monday or Tuesday. A planner was stolen from a car in the garage.Ellicott City: 9900 block of Springfield Drive: A bicycle was stolen from a a garage Monday or Tuesday.Ellicott City: 8400 block of U.S. 40: A red 1998 Saturn SW with no tags was stolen Thursday.

The car of the future passed through Baltimore this week, and on the surface, anyway, it looked more like something you would expect to see running in the Daytona 500 than crossing the bridge into the 21st century.All you had to do was pop the hood of this multicolored four-door sedan decorated with corporate logos, the names of sponsors contributing to its construction and the number 24 painted on the door, to see that this was not an off-the-assembly-line 1991 Saturn.The four-liter stock engine was gone.

The parent company of the Heritage Automotive Group, already one of Maryland's largest new-car retailers, announced yesterday that it has acquired two Saturn dealerships in the Baltimore area, the rights to a third in Annapolis and has taken on a new partner to help finance future expansion.Steven B. Fader, president and chief executive of Summa Holdings, Ltd., said the company's Heritage unit acquired Saturn of Glen Burnie and Saturn of Ellicott City from Griffith Auto Investments.Fader declined to disclose the purchase price.

ANTI-NUCLEAR ACTIVISTS who want this month's scheduled Cassini spacecraft mission to Saturn canceled overstate the danger. That includes Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, whose voiced concern brought five NASA and Department of Energy officials to Baltimore recently. They didn't erase his fears, but Mr. Schmoke conceded he has "a much higher comfort level."Cassini is controversial because it will be fueled by the heat produced from the radioactive decay of 72 pounds of plutonium, the largest amount ever used on a spacecraft.

Almost 400 years after Galileo spied Saturn's iconic ring system, a University of Maryland astronomer has discovered another gigantic but invisible ring around the planet. More than 14 million miles in diameter, it is by far the largest in the solar system. Maryland's Douglas P. Hamilton and two University of Virginia astronomers spotted the dark, dusty ring using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which is orbiting the sun 66 million miles from Earth. They reported their find Wednesday in the journal Nature.

General Motors Co.'s deal to sell Saturn to the Penske Automotive Group has fallen through, forcing the automaker to shutter the brand altogether. The sale had been expected to be completed as soon as this week. "Penske Automotive Group ... has decided to terminate discussions with General Motors to acquire Saturn," GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson said in a statement. As a result, "we will be winding down the Saturn brand and dealership network." The news is a blow to GM, which had made selling three of its brands, along with shutting Pontiac, a key component of its post-bankruptcy restructuring efforts.

Today's weather comments, like Seinfeld's show, are all about nothing. Tonight, Saturn's rings are positioned exactly edge-on to our view from Earth for the first time since 1996. That makes them invisible to our gaze. Saturn itself is too deep in the sun's glare this week to see anyway, and you can't see much there without a telescope. So until late this month, Saturn, too, is all about nothing.

GM to sell Saturn to Penske, saving up to 13,000 jobs General Motors Corp. has reached a deal to sell its Saturn auto unit to Penske Automotive Group, a dealership chain owned by former race-car driver Roger Penske. The bankrupt automaker said the deal to sell Saturn and its distribution network would save up to 13,000 jobs and hundreds of dealerships. It did not release financial terms of the arrangement. It's the latest in asset sales from the Detroit automaker. GM has had Saturn on the block since December 2008.

Hospitals, insurers unveil price plans As consumers and employers struggle with soaring health costs, hospitals and insurers unveiled sharply contrasting proposals for hospital price increases Wednesday before the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. Hospitals proposed an average increase of 3.84 percent for the year beginning July 1 while insurers want 0.8 percent. There is always a gap between the two sides' proposals, "but rarely one of this magnitude," said Robert Murray, the commission's executive director.

A woman and a child were killed and four other people were injured last night in a crash involving three vehicles on Harford County's Bel Air Bypass. The accident occurred about 5 p.m. on U.S. 1 just north of the Vale Road overpass. It took rescue workers until nearly 9 p.m. to retrieve the woman's body from the Saturn Relay minivan, said Elena Russo, a state police spokeswoman. According to Russo, Christopher Lentz, 37, of Glen Arm was southbound on the shoulder of the road when he lost control of his Jeep Cherokee.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes from police reports in Baltimore and Baltimore County. Baltimore Central Shooting: A man, 28, was seated in his parked car in the 1300 block of Guilford Ave. about 1:30 a.m. Monday when he was shot in the left arm by an unidentified man who fled on foot. The victim drove himself to Mercy Medical Center, where he was treated. Eastern Shooting: Moments after a man, 32, and his 3-year-old son were leaving a store in the 1800 block of E. Lafayette Ave. about 2:15 p.m. Sunday, two men assaulted the father.

Space Cadets! Launch your bones from bed before 6 a.m. tomorrow. A feast awaits. At 5:50 a.m. (standard time) the International Space Station and maybe shuttle Discovery will rise in the southwest, passing the bright star Sirius. They'll climb more than halfway up the southeastern sky, brushing Saturn at 5:53 a.m. before zipping off to the northeast. Mars gleams, reddish, just west of straight up. Look east. The crescent moon stands beside brilliant Venus. Elusive Mercury shines below them, to the left.

Rise and shine before the sun tomorrow, grab your binoculars and head outside for some planet-gazing. Skies should be clear an hour or so before sunrise (6 a.m. will do). Look east and find Venus, still brilliant three weeks after its brightest appearance. Close by - to the left and a bit higher - is Saturn. (The bright star Regulus shines above the pair.) Now look straight up and find reddish Mars, gleaming almost directly overhead. That's three of the five naked-eye planets. Enough. Back to bed.

An unidentified driver struck a police prisoner transport van early yesterday on Interstate 83 in Baltimore, causing the vehicle to flip over. The driver of the van was bringing a single prisoner from the Police Department's Northwestern Precinct to the Central Booking and Intake Center in Downtown Baltimore, according to Agent Donny Moses, a department spokesman. Witnesses told police that a 1996 Saturn sedan traveling at high speed approached the van about midnight near the 28th Street exit, Moses said.