SUNSET: 
Earth Sciences Gain in New NASA Budget
Satellites that look down are the biggest winners, but plans to look — and to go — up and away also do well.
Experts Brainstorm Humanity’s Future
A lively conference near Harvard discussed interstellar travel, the search for life in the galaxy, the menace of various cataclysms, and humanity's control of its future evolution.
More of Mercury Revealed
Scientists crunching data from the January and October 2008 Messenger flybys of Mercury have just announced a flurry of new results.
Life, the Universe, and Everything:
A Conference Looks to Ultimate Origins
The biggest questions in the universe drew crowds of thousands to the Origins Initiative symposium in Arizona.
Tour May's Sky — By Ear and Eye!
Enjoy the sights offered by May's evening skies by listening to Sky & Telescope downloadable guided tour.
NASA to Abandon Plan for Moon Base?
Comments from NASA's acting administrator hint that the agency may decide to skip building a Moon base and send humans farther out into the solar system instead.
Our New Blogger: Ivan Semeniuk
Sky & Telescope is pleased to announce a new blogger for our website: Canadian science writer and broadcaster Ivan Semeniuk.
U Scorpii: Recurrent Nova About to Blow Up?
The recurrent nova U Scorpii leaps from 18th to 8th magnitude in just a few hours about every decade. A new prediction method says it's likely to blow in 2009. Here's where to keep watch.
Introducing "Himiko," the Primordial Blob
An international team of researchers has turned up a galaxy-size object at the dawn of the universe.
Finding Fomalhaut's Lesser Fleas
Is a recently imaged exoplanet giving birth to its own system of moons?
How Space Makes You Smarter
What motivates the next generation of space observatories
The Farthest Thing Ever Seen
NASA has announced finding a gamma-ray burst with a redshift of about 8.2. That puts it 95% of the way back to the Big Bang.
Auroras from "Space Tornadoes"
Another confusing piece of the puzzle has been added to the picture of how the Northern Lights work.
Hubble Telescope's 19th Birthday
The greatest of NASA's Great Observatories rocketed into space 19 years ago. After a rocky start, it fulfilled its promise as Astronomy's Discovery Machine.
NEAF 2009 Videos Are Here!
Huge numbers of amateur astronomers flocked to the 18th annual Northeast Astronomy Forum to attend talks by world-renowned astronomers — and to sample (and often buy) the wares at one of the world's largest telescope shows. For the first time, Sky & Telescope was able to videotape the event, including interviews with many of the exhibitors . . .
What's Going on Inside Enceladus?
One of Saturn's icy moons has a tummy ache, causing it to spew jets of gas and icy particles hundreds of miles into space. Researchers aren't sure of the cause — but they have some interesting guesses!
Bantamweight Planet and Three Dwarfs
Observing teams have turned up the lowest-mass planet yet detected around a Sunlike star — and a clutch of objects too small to be stars but not really planets either.
Equipment: Guides & Recommendations
NEAF 2009 a Huge Success
Great numbers of amateur astronomers flocked to the 18th annual Northeast Astronomy Forum & Telescope Show to see displays from more than 100 exhibitors, new and old.
Why the future could be a BLAST
A balloon ride around Antarctica reveals how the Milky Way is like an avalanche.
Fomalhaut's Disk and Fomalhaut's Spin
Way out in the circumstellar cold, a planet and a rubble disk orbit bright Fomalhaut. Does this have anything to do with the star's own rotation?
