Number 243 (Story #4), October 5, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein A LASER IN THE SKY has been detected by the aircraft-mounted Kuiper Observatory. Although astonomers has previously detected celestial masers---coherent microwave emissions coming from gas clouds surrounding certain stars---the higher energy laser equivalent has been difficult to spot until now. The laser emission (at a near IR wavelength of 169 microns) originates at a star about 4000 light years away, probably from hydrogen in a circumstellar disk. (Science, 8 September 1995.)