SUNSET: 
NASA Eludes Martian Ghoul, Again
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter began aerobreaking in the Martian atmosphere on March 10th.NASA / JPL Score one more round for humanity against the dreaded Martian Ghoul ... at least for now. At 5:16 p.m. EST (22:16 UT) today, NASA received a signal from its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) confirming that…
Astronomy & Observing News
Astro Image in the News:
Enceladus's Leaky Seas?"}'>
Astro Image in the News:
Enceladus's Leaky Seas?
In this week's Science scientists working with the Cassini orbiter published a suite of papers detailing the story behind the active volcanism on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Jupiter's New Red Spot
Both the Great Red Spot and the new 'Red Spot Junior' (the formerly white oval known as BA) are recorded in this exquisite webcam image taken by Christopher Go on February 27, 2006, at 19:37 UT. North is up. Click on the image to view a larger version.Photo by Christopher…
Solar Cycle Solved?
Researchers tracking material deep inside the Sun think that they have solved the mystery of the 11-year sunspot cycle — and they they can predict the next cycles' strength.
NASA Science in Free Fall
NASA's astronomy program is in a state of crisis as a growing number of space missions are falling to the budgetary ax.
A Surprise Comet in the Dawn
Comet Pojmanski has brightened more than expected as it enters the dawn sky for Northern Hemisphere observers. Can you spot it with binoculars?
Near-Earth Asteroid Flyby, March 6–10
Catch the 12th- to 13th-magnitude asteroid 2000 PN9 (23187) crossing the northern sky.
Astro Image in the News:
M101: A Hubble Mosaic
A 192-megapixel Hubble view shows the spiral galaxy M101 in more detail than astronomers once thought possible.
Astronomers Agog Over Stellar Explosion
This artist's conception depicts the violent pair of jets emitted by a typical gamma-ray burst (GRB). Astronomers now think that some supernovae channel some of their energy into jets of material traveling at near light speed. The GRB arises from shock waves within the jets. Click on the image for…
London Planetarium to Close
Built in the 1950s, the 330-seat London Planetarium will go dark for good this July.
Galactic Glow Gleaned
The perfect match between an X-ray image obtained by the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite (contours) and a near-infrared image of the galaxy taken by the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (color coded) indicates that X-ray emission traces the distribution of stars. This result, in turn, suggests that the galactic X-ray…
Moon Occults Spica February 17th
The waning gibbous Moon will cover 1st-magnitude Spica for parts of eastern North America on Friday night, February 17, 2006.
Peering into Planetary Graveyards
Using the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to examine the neighborhood around a dead star, astronomers may have glimpsed our solar system’s ultimate fate.
Notes from the Spirit World and the Land of Opportunity
While encamped at Erebus Crater, the Opportunity rover imaged this curious rock, Overgaard, which is highlighted by its small layers of ripples. On Earth, ripples like these form in shallow water, as gentle waves deposit small amounts of sand. Opportunity has found similar ripple patterns in other rocks at Meridiani…
A Stripped-Down Globular
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) captures the central region of globular cluster M12 (also known as NGC 6218). VLT observations show that the cluster is extremely deficient in low-mass stars. The image covers an area of sky 3.5 arcminutes on each side, which translates to a physical size of 23…
Asteroids from the Kuiper Belt
Artist Lynette Cook depicts the Trojan asteroid 617 Patroclus and its companion, which has been tentatively named Menoetius. The two bodies are 122 and 112 kilometers (76 and 70 miles) wide, respectively, and orbit each other every 4.3 days. They are separated by about 680 km. Click on the image…
Pluto Bound
The New Horizons spacecraft has begun its decade-long voyage to Pluto and beyond.
Surprise! Most Star Systems Are Single
An artist's conception of the outer giant planet orbiting the red-dwarf star Gliese 876. The inner planet is the tiny dot close to the star. Though redder and dimmer than the Sun, red dwarfs still have temperatures and surface brightnesses great enough to make them appear as dazzlingly white as…
Going Deep in Virgo
Astronomers found the boxed dwarf galaxy in the Virgo IntraCluster Stars (VICS) deep field. The image was taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys over the course of 37 orbits. The box is about 3,000 light-years across. The small red objects are background galaxies. You can click on all of…
Low-Mass Exoplanet
Astronomers have no direct information about the composition of the newly discovered exoplanet OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb. But based on its low temperature and its mass, the planet probably consists mostly of ice and rock with a thin atmosphere. This artist's rendering depicts the planet as an overgrown version of Pluto. Click on…
