SUNSET: 
Genesis Crashes to Earth
After collecting particles of solar wind for more than two years, a spacecraft makes a very hard landing in Utah.
Two More Neptune-mass Exoplanets
Astronomers find two low-mass planets orbiting other stars.
Astro News Briefs: August 30–September 5
Fred Whipple (1906–2004) and Beagle 2's Postmortem
Eclipse Chasers Gather near London
Patrick Poitevin welcomes participants of the 2004 Solar Eclipse Conference, held at the Open University in Milton Keynes, England. Click on the image to see a larger display of this photo.Courtesy Babak A. Tafreshi. From basic eclipse observation tips to complex solar physics, 25 presentations fascinated the more than 100…
Amateur Detects Exoplanet Transit
This artist conception depicts a Jupiter-size planet transiting its host star at a close distance. Astronomers know of six stars that are transited by exoplanets; two have been detected by amateurs, including the recently discovered planet TrES-1.S&T illustration by Steven A. Simpson. On August 24th, a team of professional astronomers…
A New Comet Machholz
Found lurking among the dim stars of the constellation Eridanus, Don Machholz's 10th cometary find will brighten steadily in the months ahead.
Tiny Telescope Finds Big Planet
An artist depicts the newly discovered extrasolar planet, TrES-1, and its host star. Because of its close proximity to the star, TrES-1 is heated to about 850 degrees C (1,560 degrees F).Courtesy Jeffrey Hall and Lowell Observatory. Until now, all of the 125 or so known extrasolar planets were discovered…
Astro News Briefs: August 16–22
Two New Moons for Saturn August 18, 2004 | Saturn's family just got a little bigger. While examining Cassini images on his laptop computer during vacation, Sebastien Charnoz (University of Paris) discovered two small Saturnian moons, raising the ringed planet's tally to 33. The moons, temporarily designated S/2004 S 1…
Sedna's Origin Solved?
An artist's conception of the large object, informally named Sedna, discovered last year at more than twice Pluto's distance from the Sun.Courtesy NASA / JPL / Caltech / R. Hurt. Last year astronomers discovered what’s probably the biggest body found in the solar system since Pluto in 1930, and they…
Astro Image in the News:
A Martian Mountain Vista
Spirit is climbing the Columbia Hills and looking down upon Gusev Crater.
Astro News Briefs: August 2–8
MARSIS Delayed August 4, 2004 | Europe's Mars Express orbiter completed its formal scientific commissioning on June 3rd, but the mission has run into a problem with one of its main science instruments. The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) was set to use long radio waves…
Solar Spicule Mystery Solved
Upward jets of gas appear as a 'lawn' of short, dark spicules on the right side of this false-color image, taken in red hydrogen-alpha light on June 16, 2003. This wavelength shows detail in the chromosphere, the lower atmosphere silhouetted on the Sun's bright surface below. Visible at upper left…
New Class of Low-luminosity GRBs
The ESA spacecraft XMM-Newton captures an X-ray light echo from gamma-ray burst (GRB) 031203. This GRB, which occurred 1.6 billion light-years away, is one of the closest and faintest bursts ever detected. The light echo is an optical illusion caused by gamma-rays from the burst scattering off dust in the…
Hubble Spectrograph Fails
A component failure leaves the Hubble Space Telescope unable to record cosmic spectra.
Stellar Vibrations Missing
New spacecraft results suggest that Procyon might not experiencing pulsations after all.
Bringing the Universe into the Classroom
About 200 teachers, educators, and scientists gathered in Massachusetts for a three-day symposium called Cosmos in the Classroom.
Mercury Bound!
NASA's Messenger spacecraft is finally on its way for a close look at the innermost planet, Mercury.
Astronomy Day 2004 Efforts Lauded
This year's celebration of Astronomy Day involved hundreds of organizations around the world and drew huge crowds.
Lensing Star Weighed
Astronomers have a new set of scales for measuring the masses of stars — by watching the way a star's gravity bends the light of a distant background star.
