SUNSET: 
May's Penumbral Lunar Eclipse
On May 26th skywatchers in the Pacific Rim region can watch the Moon pass through the outer fringe of Earth's shadow.
Asteroid Chasers Are Seeing Double
Once considered virtually impossible, binary asteroids are turning up everywhere — especially in Earth's vicinity.
Yuji Hyakutake (1950–2002)
Famed comet discoverer Yuji Hyakutake died on April 10th of a heart aneurysm.
Comet Borrelly: Dry and Hot
The experimental spacecraft Deep Space 1 caught some lucky breaks when it plunged deep into a comet's coma last September.
Quark-Matter Stars Said Found
Two groups of astronomers say they have found superdense objects even smaller and weirder than neutron stars, and made of a substance like nothing else in the universe.
Dance of the Planets Concludes
The grand and beautiful planetary lineup is drawing to a close as Venus approaches Jupiter in the western sky at dusk.
Astro News Briefs: April 8–14
Editor's Note: This week astronomers from around the world have gathered at Bristol University in Bristol, England, for the annual United Kingdom National Astronomy Meeting. The following Astro Briefs highlight news items reported at the conference. All Black Holes Sing the Same Song April 9, 2002 | Using the Rossi…
A Pretty Pair of Fuzzies
Comet Ikeya-Zhang and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) make a pretty pair in this image acquired on April 4th. Although not visually obvious, the comet sports a (blue) gas tail as well as a dust tail. North is up.Courtesy Gerald Rhemann. On April 4th Comet Ikeya-Zhang paid a visit to the…
Threatening Asteroid Aids Planetary Prognosticators
Asteroid 1950 DA may have a 1-in-300 of hitting Earth in 2880, and in deriving those odds dynamicists have learned much about all the factors that affect those long odds.
Astro News Briefs: April 1–7
Asteroid Population Doubles April 5, 2002 | Observations made in 1996–97 by the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory show that the asteroid belt contains about twice as many objects as previously thought. The new census involved tallying up the main-belt asteroids spotted in selected locations, then extrapolating those counts…
A Daily Dose of Mars
Get the latest view of the red planet from the Mars Odyssey 2001 spacecraft.
Fainter Faint Fuzzies
They're not open clusters and they're not globulars; astronomers have found a third kind of star cluster inhabiting some galaxies.
Galactic Baby Boom
The Hubble Space Telescope uncovers a galaxy teeming with young stars.
A Bonanza of Comets
In addition to Comet Ikeya-Zhang, there are 3 faint comets currently visible to Northern Hemisphere observers.
Close-call Asteroid Causes More Worries
Near-Earth asteroids pose a threat to our planet.S&T illustration by Steven Simpson. Billed as the "blind-spot" asteroid, a building-size space rock passed the Earth unnoticed two weeks ago. An automated sky survey detected minor planet 2002 EM7 on March 12th. Subsequent orbital calculations determined that the asteroid had come closest…
New Amateur Comets
A pair of amateur astronomers have visually spotted a new comet cruising through Aquila.
Radar Reveals Big Splash on Mercury
Using Arecibo's powerful radar system, astronomers have identified what may be one of the solar system's youngest craters on the Sun-scorched plains of Mercury.
Measuring Martian Radiation: Good and Bad News
An artist's depiction of the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft firing its engine to brake upon reaching Mars. The brightly colored landscape represents the surface-composition mapping that the craft will return — a major mission objective.Courtesy NASA/JPL. Mars Odyssey, the latest orbiter to start mapping the red planet, is back to…
Astro News Briefs: March 25–31
Forming Amino Acids in Interstellar Space March 29, 2002 | In two papers published in this week's Nature, scientists have come closer to understanding if amino acids are created in space. While these molecules clearly form on Earth today, some cosmochemists believe that the first fundamental building blocks for life…
Ancient Martian Lakes? Perhaps Not.
More than 1,000 evenly spaced beds have been counted in areas such as this. Their striking uniformity implies that the layering was created by cyclic events, possibly by volcanic ash deposits. Click for larger image (which is 1.5 kilometers wide).NASA / JPL / Malin Space Science Systems In December 2000,…
