SUNSET: 
Best in League
The Astronomical League has announced its best webmaster for 2008.
Artificial Intelligence Aids Astronomers
Astronomers have designed a neural network that can determine the particulars of binary star systems by just examining their light curves — and it can do it really, really fast.
Mars's Ancient Water Works
New observations from a NASA orbiter reveal that water and rock freely mingled across (or under) much of the Red Planet's surface.
Make Way for Makemake
It took three years to settle on a name for the third-largest object in the Kuiper Belt.
August's Partial Lunar Eclipse
On August 16th, the Moon dives deeply into Earth's shadow. This one's for Europe and the Eastern Hemisphere; no one in North America gets to see it. But check out the webcast links!
August 1st's Eastern Solar Eclipse
From sunrise on the northeastern fringes of North America, to sunset in China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, the Moon's shadow sweeps across a huge area of the world on August 1st.
All Hail, King Jupiter!
The King of Planets has made a dramatic entrance into the early evening sky. Don't miss your chance to see it while it's big and bright!
Asteroids with Split Personalities
Where did the dozens of known binary asteroids come from? According to a new finding, sunlight alone can force a body to spin in such a frenzy that it literally flies apart.
Jupiter's Third Red Spot May Have Survived
Jupiter's newest red spot was disrupted during its encounter with the Great Red Spot and Oval BA, but appears to be reforming.
Are Jupiters Hard to Come By?
A recent survey of stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster reveals that less than 10% of stars there have enough material in their surrounding disks to form Jupiter-sized planets.
Faint Supernovae Remain Unexplained
A subclass of supernovae that fades much faster than expected reveals possible kinks in astronomers' theories of what causes these explosions.
Brown-Dwarf Binary Tests Theories
Recent calculations for a pair of failed stars add to astronomers' scant knowledge of brown dwarfs and will help set a reference point for future studies.
Water in Moon Dust Raises Questions
Traces of water recently found in glassy granules brought back 40 years ago by the Apollo 15 crew suggest scientists haven't quite figured out yet just how our Moon formed.
Shiny Eye for Airborne Observatory
The main mirror for the world's most advanced flying observatory has been transformed from a carefully shaped and polished piece of glass into a highly reflective optical component ready to study the infrared universe.
Little Red Spot Gone?
It's still not clear what will become of Jupiter's Little Red Spot after the recent collision with its two larger siblings.
SOHO Tallies Its 1500th Comet
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has now found more comets than all other comet discoverers put together — not bad for a spacecraft that was designed to study the Sun.
Mercury: The Incredible Shrinking Planet
During its first flyby of Mercury, NASA"s Messenger spacecraft found much less iron on the planet’s surface than expected and a cloud of ionized atoms — including water — caught up in the planet’s magnetosphere. And that’s just for starters.
Have You Seen Comet Boattini?
Comet Boattini, now faintly visible to the unaided eye from sites without light pollution, is climbing rapidly higher in the Northern Hemisphere's dawn sky.
Tour July's Sky | July 1st, 2008
There'll be fireworks this month on Independence Day — and plenty of celestial sparklers overhead too, with Saturn and Mars low in the west and Jupiter rising in the east. Download this podcast for a guided tour ! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (5MB MP3 download: running time: 5m 3s)
Regulus’s Secret Companion
Astronomers confirm a low-mass star orbits the Lion’s heart, the bright blue star imaged here to the lower right. But what exactly is it?
