SUNSET: 
T Pyxidis Finally Blows Again
A very overdue recurrent nova is having its long-awaited outburst. You can follow it with binoculars right after dark.
Kepler's Bonus: New Insights on Stars
Using observations from NASA's Kepler spacecraft, astronomers have found that about one-fourth of stars like the Sun slowly throb in ways that reveal their sizes and masses as never before.
The Coolest Stars Ever Found?
Astronomers have found what could be the first-ever members of a new stellar class — "stars" with surface temperatures lower than that of a hot cup of coffee.
Best-yet Value for Universe's Expansion
A new study with the Hubble Space Telescope pins down the universe's expansion rate with unprecedented accuracy.
The Sun Has Nothing to Hide
For the first time, scientists can examine the front and back sides of our star at the same time, thanks to a pair of distant Sun-watching spacecraft.
The Crab Nebula Flickers!
A recent study shows that the Crab Nebula, long considered a steady source of X-rays, actually fluctuates.
10-Year-Old Girl Spots Supernova
With a click of a computer mouse, Kathryn Gray helped discover an exploding star 240 million light-years away.
Two New Celestial Photo-Ops
This week two major observatories — one in space, one on the ground — engaged in a little one-upsmanship by releasing gorgeous views of a backyard staple and a graceful galaxy
The Pillars of Carina
Larger and brighter than the more famous one in Orion, the Carina Nebula is a southern-sky showpiece that boasts several huge tongues of cold gas and dust.
A Ghostly Cosmic Pinwheel
Somewhere in Pegasus, a swollen, aging star has begun its death spiral figuratively and literally — throwing off matter that's taken the shape of a delicate yet perfect spiral.
A Runaway Star with a Story To Tell
Now streaking away in the Milky Way's outermost halo, HE 0437-5439 had a very close run-in with the galaxy's central black hole. And that was just the beginning.
Home Computers Dredge Up Weird Pulsar
The Einstein@Home project logs its first discovery, 17,000 light-years away in Vulpecula, through a computer in a couple's basement.
A Solar Tsunami
On August 1st, the Sun let loose with a mighty belch that rippled across its face, sent a torrent of high-energy particles racing into space, and triggered a burst of auroras on Earth.
R136a1: New Heavyweight Champion?
Astronomers think they have identified a star with 265 times the Sun's mass — a heft once believed to be theoretically impossible.
WISE Takes a Look (All) Around
NASA's latest space observatory has just completed a six-month-long sweep of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths.
A Cauldron of Newborn Stars
The Hubble Space Telescope has returned its high-definition gaze to a spectacular bubble of glowing hydrogen known as N 11 in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
A New Type of Supernova?
A pair of exploding stars, witnessed in 2005, apparently represent the first examples of a new class of supernova. But astronomers don't yet agree on what triggered these tremendous events..
The Hidden Face of M83
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is already famous as a gorgeous deep-sky showpiece. Now astronomers have probed its structure with a high-resolution infrared view.
Herschel's Cold, Wonderful Universe
European astronomers are ecstatic about the results they're getting from an infrared space observatory launched a year ago.
One Supernova, Many Camera Angles
"Light echoes" off dust clouds far from an old supernova are still providing replays of the explosion — as seen from different directions. They show that the explosion was asymmetric.
