SUNSET: 
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for April 2012
April stands to be a great month for planet-watching. Venus and Jupiter are over in the west, Mars is high up in the southeast, and Saturn pairs with the bright star Spica low over the eastern horizon.
Tour April's Sky! | March 29th, 2012
April stands to be a great month for planet-watching. Venus and Jupiter are over in the west, Mars is high up in the southeast, and Saturn pairs with the bright star Spica low over the eastern horizon.
Vesta: A Study in Black and White
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is scrutinizing the second-largest asteroid from close range. Yet some aspects of Vesta's surface — especially splashes of very bright and very dark material — are puzzling.
Did the Moon Come From Earth?
New findings show that the Moon might have incorporated more of Earth when it formed than previously thought — a problem for the widely accepted "big splat" hypothesis.
March Madness on Mercury
After a full year of scrutiny by NASA's Messenger orbiter, the innermost planet is revealing itself to be unique — and downright confounding — to the project's scientists.
WISE's Grand View of the Infrared Sky
In just 10 months during 2010, an orbiting observatory meticulously recorded a "heat map" of the entire celestial sphere, revealing unseen beauty in the Milky Way and providing astronomers with a catalog of more than a half billion celestial objects.
Portrait of an Angry Sun
The source of titanic flares this past week, active region 11429 has just rotated off the Sun's disk. But it didn't escape before being captured in all its angry glory by Alan Friedman from his backyard in Buffalo, New York. Here's how he did it.
A Potpourri of Lunar Results
It's been nearly 40 years since Apollo astronauts last set foot on the lunar landscape. Yet, as a sampling of recent research efforts shows, we're a long way from answering all our questions about the Moon's formation and evolution.
May 20th's Annular Eclipse of the Sun
On Sunday afternoon, those in central or western United States will have a "ringside" seat to the annular eclipse. Look here for links to last-minute planning tools — including weather forecasts along the track!
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for March2012
Venus and Jupiter form a dazzling pair after sunset, but they're just the opening act in a sky full of bright planets and late-winter stars.
Tour March's Sky! | February 28th, 2012
Venus and Jupiter form a dazzling pair after sunset, but they're just the opening act in a sky full of bright planets and late-winter stars.
Old S&T Buildings: Going, Going, Gone!
The converted homes that housed Sky & Telescope's editorial offices for six decades bit the dust yesterday, literally, as demolition crews tore them down.
Mars and Moon: Not Dead Yet?
The Martian and lunar surfaces were thought to be geologically dead. But twitches of recent activity are turning up in extreme closeups from orbiting spacecraft.
GJ 1214b: A Steam-Bath World
Ever since its discovery in 2009, an exoplanet orbiting a nearby, red-dwarf star has attracted lots of attention from astronomers. New Hubble observations confirm that GJ 1214b is most likely enveloped in a steamy, superheated atmosphere.
Closure Looms for Keck Interferometer
With NASA funding ending, astronomers will soon shut down the optical plumbing that links the giant Keck telescopes — the most powerful interferometer of its kind on the planet.
New Evidence for Ancient Martian Ocean
For decades planetary scientists have speculated about whether a huge depression that dominates the northern hemisphere of Mars was once flooded with water eons ago. Now radar soundings are showing that the answer might be "yes".
Comet Garradd Stays the Course
Comet Garradd (C/2009 P1) was closest to Earth in early March. So the moonless period in mid-March is your best remaining chance to view this remarkable comet, which is now conveniently placed in the evening sky.
Show Your Support for Pluto's Probe
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now just 3½ years from its historic flyby of Pluto. Mission scientists have launched a petition to have the spacecraft commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp — and they want you to sign it!
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for February 2012
The sky's brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, serve as anchors in a wintertime sky full of bright stars and familiar constellations.
Tour February's Sky! | February 1st, 2012
The sky's brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, serve as anchors in a wintertime sky full of bright stars and familiar constellations.
