SUNSET: 
Haumea: Dwarf-Planet Name Game
After three years of controversy over who discovered it, a large object in the Kuiper Belt has finally been christened by the International Astronomical Union — but the discovery rights are far from settled!
Rosetta's "Jewel in the Sky"
European scientists are excitedly poring over results from the Rosetta spacecraft's close flyby of asteroid Steins, even though an unexpected camera glitch cost them the best views of its cratered surface.
Phoenix Surpasses 90-day Milestone
NASA's newest lander has now been scratching, digging, sniffing, baking and tasting samples of Martian polar terrain for more than three months. How long can it survive in the fast-approaching winter — and how much more can it learn?
Perseids Hitting the Moon
Amateurs have helped lead the way in recording the flashes of meteoroids hitting the Moon's night side.
The Great Planet Debate
A controversial vote to define "planet" two years ago created more confusion than clarity. So scientists, educators, and curious hangers-on have gathered to get a better handle on what to call the menagerie of worlds that inhabit our solar system and those of other stars.
New Enceladus Closeups Now Arriving
The Cassini spacecraft is returning the data from Monday's close flyby of icy Enceladus, and NASA is putting up the first raw images.
Our "Goldilocks" Solar System
Think our planetary family is normal? Think again. It turns out that the Sun and its retinue formed when the interstellar mix was just right — not too much gas, not too little, and stirred gently for just the right amount of time.
Titan Makes a Splash
It's not covered by a global ocean, as theorists once thought. But Saturn's big moon does sport pools of liquid ethane big enough to float anyone's boat.
An Electrifying Whodunit
Thanks to a quintet of identical spacecraft, space physicists have settled a decades-old debate over what triggers violent electromagnetic substorms inside Earth's magnetosphere.
Earth and Moon Dance for a Far Camera
From more than 30 million miles away, a NASA spacecraft snapped away as the Moon made a graceful pass in front of Earth's colorful disk.
Make Way for Makemake
It took three years to settle on a name for the third-largest object in the Kuiper Belt.
Mars's Ancient Water Works
New observations from a NASA orbiter reveal that water and rock freely mingled across (or under) much of the Red Planet's surface.
Asteroids with Split Personalities
Where did the dozens of known binary asteroids come from? According to a new finding, sunlight alone can force a body to spin in such a frenzy that it literally flies apart.
Water in Moon Dust Raises Questions
Traces of water recently found in glassy granules brought back 40 years ago by the Apollo 15 crew suggest scientists haven't quite figured out yet just how our Moon formed.
Mercury: The Incredible Shrinking Planet
During its first flyby of Mercury, NASA"s Messenger spacecraft found much less iron on the planet’s surface than expected and a cloud of ionized atoms — including water — caught up in the planet’s magnetosphere. And that’s just for starters.
SOHO Tallies Its 1500th Comet
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory has now found more comets than all other comet discoverers put together — not bad for a spacecraft that was designed to study the Sun.
Martian Dirt is Friendly to Life
The Phoenix lander's first wet chemical analysis of the Martian surface confirms water’s thumbprint and finds the kinds of inorganic minerals you'd have in a backyard garden.
The Two Faces of Mars
Just about the time a Mars-size body creamed Earth with enough force to create the Moon, another big planetoid might have slammed into Mars itself. The result? A two-faced planet and the solar system's largest impact crater.
Ulysses' Space Odyssey Ends on July 1st
The only space mission ever to study the Sun’s poles directly will turn off at month’s end after a long life of trial and triumph.
The Mystery of Saturn’s Double Aurorae
New infrared observations reveal a second auroral ring on Saturn that may help astronomers understand what causes the planet's aurorae in the first place.
