SUNSET: 
Has Iapetus Finally Been Solved?
Saturn's bicolored moon, snowy white on one side and coal-black on the other, has puzzled astronomers for three centuries. Planetologists now think they have it all figured out.
"Free Spirit" Effort Hits a Snag
The bad news is that NASA engineers aren't having much luck freeing one of their Mars rovers from a quagmire of soft sand. But the good news is that it's gotten stuck in a remarkable deposit where steam and molten rock once mingled.
A Great Year for Geminid Meteors
When nature puts on a great show, why not watch? The Geminid meteors, which peak on December 13-14, may not be as famous as August's Perseids, but they're just as bountiful.
January 11th's Morning Antares Occulation
On the morning of January 11, 2010, people in northeasternmost North America can watch the Moon cover Antares for the last time until 2023.
A Super-Duper Supernova
A much anticipated new type of exploding star lights up a distant galaxy.
Nova in Eridanus
Japanese amateur Koichi Itagaki, of recent comet fame, has just discovered a nova near Rigel on November 25, 2009.
Tour December's Sky! | November 26th, 2009
After listening to this podcast, you'll have no trouble spotting Jupiter, Orion, the Pleiades star cluster, and much more in the evening sky! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (7.3MB MP3 download: running time: 8m 00s)
A Rogue Star Going Wild?
Is Eta Carinae, the famously erratic star in the southern sky, tipping off astronomers that its demise might come sooner than later?
Cassini Visits a Science-Fiction World
NASA's Cassini probe grabbed three-dimensional views of a landscape of geysers, as the craft sped above an evening twilight zone on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Comet Theory Faces Mammoth Confusion
Did a comet wipe out the giant mammals of North America — or were they already on the way out before the comet arrived (if it arrived)? Two apparently contradictory findings add fuel to the debate.
Rosetta Bids Earth Adieu
A European comet-chaser has made its third and final flyby of its home planet, taking a few snapshots when it was nearby.
Bird's-Eye View of Tranquility Base
Did Armstrong and Aldrin really walk the Moon? An incredible new image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter should erase any naysayer's lingering doubt.
LCROSS Impact Kicked up Lunar Water
It took more than a month of fevered analysis, but NASA scientists are at last convinced that October 9th's crash by the LCROSS spacecraft on a shadowed lunar plain vaporized at least 100 kg of water.
The 2009 Leonids Are Coming!
The Leonid meteor shower peaks near new Moon in 2009, making this a fine year for any meteor lover. Observers in the Americas are ideally placed for the traditional peak, and a brief, unusually intense burst is forecast for Asia.
Is the End of the World Coming? Not Quite
Will the world end on Friday? Probably not. Noted archaeo-astronomer E. C. Krupp explains the cause of Maya mania in a free download.
And in another free download, Editor in Chief Robert Naeye explains the absurdly unlikely possibilities of the world ending on December 21, 2012 after all.
Supernova Mystery Solved
Is there a neutron star lurking at the heart of the spectacular supernova remnant or something much weirder? A new analysis of observations suggests a surprising answer.
Phoenix Amid the Winter Snow
An orbiting camera has spotted NASA's Phoenix lander amid deepening dry-ice snow in the Martian arctic. Hardly anyone expects the craft to have survived the long, dark, bitterly cold winter — but engineers will attempt to reestablish contact anyway in a few weeks.
Kepler's Twitchy Detectors
NASA's new planet-hunting spacecraft, launched seven months ago, has a few noisy detectors that make the stars under study appear to flicker. It's a problem the mission team knew about — and decided not to repair before sending the craft irretrievably into space.
Mercury Throws Geologists a Curve
When NASA's Messenger spacecraft zipped past the innermost planet for a third and final flyby on September 29th, a glitch caused half of the planned observations to be lost. Scientists are thrilled to have the other half — but they're not entirely sure what to make of them.
Strange Brew at LCROSS's Crash Site
NASA scientists haven't said much since a spacecraft and its carrier rocket slammed into a lunar crater on October 9th. One reason might be that they can't believe what they're finding there.
