SUNSET: 
The Fuzzy Face of Ceres
The first known asteroid, 1 Ceres, is also the largest body in the asteroid belt. These Hubble Space Telescope images, taken in ultraviolet light about 3 hours apart, reveal a vague, dark circular feature about 250 kilometers across. Astronomers propose to name it Piazzi, to honor the asteroid's discoverer.Courtesy Joel…
"Twin" Trojan Found
The Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus is actually two asteroids, as seen in this false-color image taken with the 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.Courtesy William Merline (Southwest Research Institute), Laird Close (University of Arizona), Amanda Baker (Cardiff University). The total of known or suspected binary asteroids grew to…
Mars in a Dust Cocoon
The Hubble Space Telescope captured a dramatic change in Mars's weather.Courtesy NASA, James Bell (Cornell University), Michael Wolff (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). The dust storm that wiped out Martian surface features in amateur telescopes last July could hardly be more dramatic than in the pair of natural-color…
Lunar Soil Reveals Solar Secrets
Samples of lunar soil collected by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972 continue to yield new findings; they contain an isotope of beryllium that is providing clues to the workings of the Sun's atmosphere. Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt (pictured here) returned to Earth with more than 100 kilograms…
Odyssey's First Look at Mars
NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft took this false-color infrared view of the red planet from a distance of 22,000 kilometers (13,600 miles). The limb-to-limb image indicates surface temperature, with blue being coldest and red warmest. The large blue area is the southern polar cap, whose carbon dioxide ice is –120°…
Turning a Keen Eye Toward Andromeda
The Subaru Telescope Eyes The Andromeda Galaxy
The End of NASA's "Goldin Era" of Space Exploration
After serving for nearly 10 years, Daniel S. Goldin's term as NASA Administrator ends today, and with it comes the end of an era. To replace him, President George W. Bush has nominated Sean O'Keefe, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, who many worry is more of…
The Heart of Omega Centauri
Left: Some 50,000 stars are individually resolved in a Hubble Space Telescope view through the center of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. Click on the image for a low-resolution view, or here for a full-resolution view. Right: The Hubble frame is only 13 light-years wide, but the entire cluster sprawls…
Looking Below A Sunspot's Surface
The Michelson Doppler Imager aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory measures the sound speed and motions of gas under and around a sunspot. Red is hot gas; blue is cooler, denser gas. The newly discovered convective cycle around and under sunspots, indicated here with arrows, is what holds a spot…
Mars Odyssey Arrives
An artist's depiction of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft firing its engine upon reaching Mars. The brightly colored landscape at upper right represents the surface-composition mapping that will be a major mission objective.Courtesy NASA/JPL. After cruising across 460 million kilometers of interplanetary space over 6½ months, NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey…
MAP Hits Its Mark
The Microwave Anisotropy Probe took a convoluted path to reach its observing post at the L2 Lagrangian point, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.Courtesy MAP/NASA. Three months ago NASA launched its newest astrophysics satellite, the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP), from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After circling Earth three times and getting a…
Chicago's Controversial Ray of Light
Chicago's Palmolive Building plans to feature a 7 billion candlepower light. Local Amateur Astronomers are concerned.
Smithsonian Debuts New Astronomy Exhibit
The National Air and Space Museum unveils its newest attraction.
FUSE in Safe Mode
The Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer has been in safe mode since December 10th due to a failing positioning system. Astronomers are currently engineering a fix to the problem.Courtesy FUSE/Orbital Sciences Corp. Just as it began its third year of observations, NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) went into safe mode…
New Eruption Offers a Taste of Io
A towering new volcano on Io, unknown prior to Galileo's close-range flyby on August 6th, created both a 700-kilometer-wide ring (left) and an umbrella-shaped plume extending to a height of at least 500 km (right). The nearby volcano Tvashtar Patera was unexpectedly dormant during the flyby.Courtesy University of Arizona and…
Deep Space 1 Spies Comet
Comet Borrelly, which orbits the Sun every 6.8 years, passed through perihelion on September 14th — just 8 days before Deep Space 1 flew past at close range. Georgia amateur Tim Puckett recorded Borrelly's coma and faint tail a half day later with his 30-centimeter telescope. After weeks of concern…
Blue-Ribbon Panel Opposes NASA Control of Ground-based Astronomy
Committee finds that NSF and NASA astronomical funding should not be combined brought under one agency.
Smoking Gun for Milky Way's Black Hole
Astronomers find conclusive evidence for a black hole in the center of the Milky Way
Moon Study Tracks Changes in Earth's Cloud Cover
Scientists are looking to the Moon to learn about Earth's climate change.
