A Familiar Orbit in a New Crop of Exoplanets
A well-behaved giant planet orbits the Sunlike star 55 Cancri at the same distance Jupiter orbits the Sun.
Moon Pairs with Jupiter and Venus
The crescent Moon forms two beautiful conjunctions with the two brightest planets during twilight Wednesday and Thursday.
Hubble's Infrared Camera Back in Business
Dead for three years, the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS camera is again providing infrared views of the universe.
Big Bang Picture Sharpens Up
New, sharper maps of the cosmic microwave background radiation are telling astronomers they're on the right track.
A Cyclic Universe?
Maybe the Big Bang wasn't the beginning, but only the latest in an endless cycle of destructions and rebirths.
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.
OGLEing Possible New Planets
By carefully watching the brightnesses of 52,000 stars, astronomers have found 43 that have small, dark objects periodically crossing their faces.
Mars Odyssey Pays Early Dividends
After successfully settling into orbit around the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Odyssey has begin its 2½-year mapping mission.
A Galaxy Turning Backward?
A spiral galaxy's arms trail behind when it rotates, right? Not always.
Giant Eye Views the Horsehead
The cosmic chess piece, the Horsehead Nebula, is seen in all its glory through the eyes of the VLT.

Close-Up of an Alien World
The lunar surface consists of more than just craters and mare. Here's a guide to some of the other lunar features.