SUNSET: 
India's Chandrayaan 2 Loses Contact with Vikram Lunar Lander
India's attempt to land softly on the Moon has failed — the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter has lost contact with the Vikram lander.
Meet Barnard’s Star, Our Red Dwarf Neighbor
This faint red dwarf star is famous not because it's bright but because it's fast-moving — you can actually see it moving across the sky if you track it over several years.
Untangling Stellar Strings in the Milky Way
Long-lived, string-shaped groups of stars align with the Milky Way’s spiral arms — and they may provide clues to what those arms looked like long ago.
Volcanoes Turn Twilights Purple
A rash of unusually colorful sunsets follows in the wake of two major volcanic eruptions.
Planet WASP-12b Might Be on a Death Spiral into its Parent Star
A mere 3 million years from now — a cosmic eye-blink away — the star WASP 12 might consume its exoplanet WASP-12b.
September 2019: Triangle Time
Download September's Sky Tour astronomy podcast for tips on observing Jupiter, Saturn, and the easy-to-spot Summer Triangle.
Have Astronomers Detected Exomoons At Last?
Have astronomers detected two giant exomoons? The answer depends on how convincing you deem newly presented results — and how you define a moon.
A Possible Solution to Mars’s Methane Problem
A small amount of seepage could explain conflicting measurements of methane in the Martian atmosphere.
Be a Warrior — Tackle a Trojan Asteroid
You've seen Jupiter and its four brightest moons. Now meet the rest of the family — the Trojan asteroids.
The Supernova That Destroyed Its Star
Astronomers have discovered a real and unprecedented example of a type of supernova that was until now largely theoretical — a stellar explosion that leaves nothing behind.
Century of Amateur Observations Shed Light on Star's Evolution
The amateurs of the AAVSO monitored the star T Ursae Minoris for a century. Now, astronomers think they can explain the star's recent change in behavior.
A Nearby Stellar Stream Gets Carded
The stellar stream Pisces–Eridanus may try to pass itself off as a billion years old, but scientists are calling its bluff.
Image Sleuth Spots "Churyumoon" Around Rosetta's Comet
A tiny, 4-meter fragment dubbed Churyumoon has been spotted orbiting Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which the Rosetta mission visited in 2014–2016.
Stargazer's Corner: Adventures Under the Night Sky
Where is the Tropic of Capricorn?
A well-traveled geophysicist recounts his curious findings at a prominent geographic benchmark in the Southern Hemisphere.
Beta Pic's New Planet, Jupiter’s Fuzzy Core & An Ancient Star
Astronomers announce another planet around Beta Pictoris, simulations explain Jupiter's large and fuzzy core, and observations reveal an ancient star.
The RAC Summer Star Party
It's high summer and time to party — star party, that is. The RAC Summer Star Party offered fun, friends, and some good, clear nights this year. As is typical for New England, the spring season was wet and cloudy with few opportunities for extended observing sessions. But at least…
NASA Selects Final Four Asteroid Landing Sites for Osiris-REX
The Osiris-REX spacecraft will sample one of four sites on the asteroid Bennu in July 2020.
An “Impossible” White Dwarf Identified in Kepler Data
Meet the white dwarf that defies all expectations.
"Invisible" Galaxies Found in the Young Universe
Astronomers have discovered galaxies that have escaped detection until now, uncovering a missing link in galaxy evolution.
Maunakea Observatories Shuttered Amid Protests (Update: Observatories Have Reopened)
As protests against the construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope continue, the directors of Maunakea Observatories have taken the unprecedented move of closing all observatories atop the mountain.
