SUNSET: 
Io's Salty Secret
Volcanic activity on the Jovian moon Io stains the surface with red and yellow allotropes of sulfur. Recent observations show that the moon's frequent outpourings are seasoned with a little salt.Courtesy University of Arizona and NASA. It might not seem surprising that Io, the Jovian moon famous for its vigorous…
Astronomy Stories Dominate Prestigious List
2002 was an action-packed year for astronomy aficionados.
Astro News Briefs: December 30–January 5, 2003
Radio pioneer dies; Jupiter gains a 40th moon
Astro News Briefs: December 23–29
Silent Nights for NEAR and Contour December 24, 2002 | Two teams from Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) have made unsuccessful attempts to regain contact with two silenced spacecraft. On December 10th, engineers spent 12 hours trying to communicate with the NEAR Shoemaker probe, which has sat on…
Storm Clouds on Titan
New infrared views of Saturn's biggest moon reveal towering, fast-moving storms in a murky, methane-laced atmosphere.
Making Moons Slowly
It seems it took Jupiter's largest moons 100,000 years or more to form. That's 100 times slower than previously believed.
Astro News Briefs: December 16–22
"First Light" for Integral December 18, 2002 | In Paris, France, today, researchers from the European Space Agency (ESA) unveiled the initial images from the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral), the agency's most powerful high-energy observatory. The spacecraft, launched in October, carries four X- and gamma-ray telescopes, as well as…
Rubble-Pile Moon
One of Jupiter's moons may actually be a loosely-packed ball of broken rocks.
Double Bubble
The Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled a beautiful peanut-shaped dust cloud.
Mystery Trains
Scientists are closer to determining what causes the lingering smoke train behind some meteors.
Exoplanet's Mass Pinned Down
For the first time, astronomers have measured a star's side-to-side wobble caused by an orbiting planet.
Darkness Falls Upon Dark Continent, Outback
December 4, 2002 brought with it yet another spectacular total solar eclipse.
Martian Meteorites Made Easy
New simulations show that impacts on Mars should be blasting chunks of the Planet out into space — and eventually onto Earth — about once every 200,000 years.
Jupiter's Lovers
Eleven of Jupiter's moons have received their official names.
Astro News Briefs: November 18–24
"Tunguska" Impacts Rarer Than Thought November 21, 2002 | Over the past 8½ years, satellite sentinels operated by the U.S. Department of Defense have detected 300 powerful explosions in our atmosphere caused by asteroidal fragments from 1 to 10 meters across. That alarming statistic is relatively good news, says Peter…
Hubble Tracks a Runaway Black Hole
New observations of a binary black-hole system may shed light as to its origin.
Observing the Leonids
Here are some tips to help you observe the Leonid meteor shower.
Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Gets a Makeover
A classic radio telescope is ready for the 21st century.
Astro News Briefs: November 11–17
Send your name to Mars and name a Martian rover.
