SUNSET: 
Monster Gamma-Ray Burst
A few days ago we got hit by the nearest major gamma-ray burst ever. It was bright enough that many amateur astronomers imaged it.
Hubble Captures a Protoplanetary Disk
Spiral rings appear in a young star's dusk disk that's ten times larger than our solar system.
Interstellar Reflections
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal unprecedented detail in a light echo expanding around an explosive variable star in Monoceros.
Did Pluto Take a Punch?
A Hubble Space Telescope image snapped in 1994 easily resolves Pluto and its moon, just 0.9 arcsecond apart. Charon's orbit is about 39,300 kilometers in diameter — but astronomers are surprised that it's not a perfect circle.Courtesy R. Albrecht (ESA/ESTEC) and NASA. If David J. Tholen (University of Hawaii) is…
Looking for HEROs
The light from a very distant Hyper-Extremely Red Object, designated HERO1, has been redshifted so much that it can be seen in the near-infrared (right) but not at visible wavelengths (left). HERO1 is located in the sky very close to a radio source, known as 53W002, that is more than…
Super Sunspot Images
Using adaptive optics, a new solar telescope in the Canary Islands is taking the best-ever pictures of the Sun.
Star Speeds Around Milky Way's Black Hole
Astronomers have clocked a star orbiting the black hole at the Milky Way's center, revealing its mass.
Making Millisecond Pulsars
A three-hour long burst on a neutron star has confirmed many long-suspected fact about the dense, spinning stars.
Are Dormant Quasars Throwing "Baseballs" at Us?
Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays may come from quasars that were thought to be retired.
Closing In on Neutrino Properties
The heart of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is an acrylic sphere filled with heavy water and surrounded by photomultiplier tubes. These detect flashes of light produced when neutrinos interact with the water. This fisheye view was taken from beneath the sphere before the bottom panel of detectors was installed.Courtesy Ernest…
Planet Going Up in Smoke
Like a giant comet, the "hot Jupiter" crossing the face of the star HD 209458 is blowing off vast clouds of hydrogen.
A Recent Asteroid Crackup
Most asteroids are just pieces of their former selves. Now astronomers have traced back 39 of them to one collision.
