SUNSET: 
S&T Rocks!
Four more asteroids were named for Sky & Telescope staffers, bringing the total of S&T current staff and alumni with asteroids to 24.
Mount Stromlo: A Status Report
The Near-Infrared Integral-Field Spectrograph (NIFS) was only months from completion when a bush fire roared across the Mount Stromlo Observatory and destroyed the instrument as well as five major telescopes and thier buildings. The cost to reconstruct the spectrograph will be covered by insurance, and the Australian National University plans…
National Dark-Sky Week Begins
A high-school student has begun a grassroots movement to save the night sky.
Martian Gullies Revisited
The 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft captured this image showing Martian gullies and a 'pasted-on' feature that has been interpreted to be snow on the shadowed sides of the crater.Courtesy NASA/JPL/ASU. Mars Odyssey, the latest orbiter to map the red planet, is continuing to earn its stripes. In a recent paper…
Bending Light
Hubble's new camera has taken the deepest-ever look through a gravitational lens, getting a fun-house view of the early universe.
A New Way to Find Planets
Astronomers announce the first confirmation of a "hot Jupiter" discovered by its silhouette crossing the face of its star.
Coolest Star Ever
A super-dim brown dwarf in Eridanus glows in the infrared at a temperature of only 410° Celsius.
Belly of the Beast
The center of our Milky Way galaxy swarms with gas clouds and millions of stars and is anchored by a supermassive black hole. Only objects that emit X-rays appear in this new image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory satellite. The black hole is embedded in the brightest point at center.…
Ring Around the Galaxy
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) is being carried out with a 2.5-meter (100-inch) telescope in New Mexico, seen here at sunset with project director John Peoples. When finished, the SDSS will be a fundamental resource used by astronomers worldwide for many years to come. The newly discovered ring around…
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.
Darkness Falls Upon Dark Continent, Outback
December 4, 2002 brought with it yet another spectacular total solar eclipse.
In Search of the First Star
This 16th-magnitude star in Phoenix contains the lowest metal content of any giant star known. It has less than 1/200,000 the metallicity of the Sun and is most likely a second-generation star.Courtesy European Southern Observatory. Details aside, the story is simple. The universe began with the Big Bang. From this…
Contour: Missing in Action
The Contour spacecraft (seen here in an artist depiction) will encounter at least two comets during its lifetime — assuming engineers can reestablish contact with it.NASA/Contour At 4:49 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, the Contour spacecraft was to fire its engine, leave its Earth orbit, and head off into interplanetary space.…
Another One Bites the Dust
Comet 57P/du Toit-Neujmin-Delporte has broken apart into 20 fragments.
Amateur Astronomers Discover Dozens of Supernovae
The amateur astronomer run Puckett Observatory Supernova Search has uncovered more than 50 supernovae.
An X-ray of the Whirlpool
The Chandra X-ray Observatory captured a stunning view of one of the classic objects in astronomy.
The Case of the Missing Comets
It appears that 99 percent of all distant comets break apart into dust.
A Close Asteroid Flyby
Hurtling out of the “blind spot” between the Sun and crescent Moon, asteroid 2002 MN skimmed about 120,000 kilometers above the Earth’s surface during the early hours of Friday, June 14th. Nobody saw it until three days later, despite the fact that it penetrated to within 30 percent of the…
Tensions Erupt on Mauna Kea
A pending lawsuit could mean disaster for the Keck outrigger project.
11 More New Moons for Jupiter
Scientists at the University of Hawaii have discovered 11 new moons for the King of Planets.
