SUNSET: 
Tour December's Evening Sky
Brave the cold and take in the winter's beautiful stars! Download this MP3 file to your iPod or other handheld device to learn how to view the Geminid meteors, Cassiopeia and her dysfunctional family, and more! (5.4MB file; hosted by Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine.)
Tour November's Evening Sky
Download this MP3 file to your iPod or other handheld device to learn how to view the transit of Mercury on November 8th, the Leonid meteors, and more! (5.6MB file; hosted by Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine.)
Tour February's Sky — By Ear and Eye!
Sure it's cold outside, but on February evenings you can spot wonderful Saturn rising in the east. To find out how, download our podcast to your iPod or other handheld device!
Pluto-bound Craft Nears Jupiter
With 1 year down and 8 to go until it reaches Pluto, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is preparing for a flyby of Jupiter and crucial tests of its instruments. That flyby will occur 1.4 million miles from the giant planet, far enough away to avoid a strong dose of the lethal charged particles trapped in its magnetosphere but close enough to study the planet and its moons in detail.
Long Island Gets a Big Scope
A nonprofit group has purchased a research-grade telescope for a planned public observatory in a dark-sky site.
Tour October's Evening Skies in 2006
Why is this month's full Moon called the "Harvest Moon"? And what two star patterns form a sandwich with Polaris, the North Star? Find out when you download this MP3 file to your iPod or other handheld device. (5.1MB file; hosted by Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine.)
Tour September's Evening Sky in 2006
This is a great time of year to do a little stargazing. Just download this MP3 file to your iPod or other handheld device, and you'll get a guided tour of the evening sky. (4.9MB file; hosted by Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine.)
Tour August's Evening Sky in 2006
Download this MP3 file to your iPod or other handheld device, and you'll be guided to Jupiter, the constellation Scorpius, the Milky Way, and more! You'll also get tips on when and how to watch the Perseid meteor shower. (5.5MB file; hosted by Kelly Beatty, editor of Night Sky magazine.)
Ceres: The Wet Look
Mounting evidence suggests that the largest asteroid is hiding a large cache of water ice beneath its surface.
What happened to the "spokes" in Saturn's rings?
In 1979 the Voyager spacecraft revealed “spokes” in Saturn’s rings. Yet recent images from Cassini have shown no spokes. What happened to them? Those spokes have kept planetary scientists scratching their heads for decades. It’s thought that the spokes are radial fingers of dark, extremely fine dust particles that become…
Take a "Sat-seeing" Tour
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s the International Space Station! Learn how to spot Earth's artificial satellites.
What determines a moon's atmosphere? (Why is Titan's atmosphere so dense?)
Why is it that Saturn’s moon Titan has a dense atmosphere, yet Jupiter’s Ganymede and Callisto (about the same size as Titan) do not? Blame it on their parent planets. All three moons are a mixture of rocky materials and water ice, and the crystalline structure of ice is particularly…
How much space debris falls into Earth's atmosphere every year?
Has anyone ever calculated the combined tonnage of meteroids and space debris falling into our atmosphere yearly? Yes, but it's hard because different methods are needed for different particle sizes. Ground radar and exposed spacecraft surfaces are best for detecting the very smallest bits, whereas photographic surveys have been used…
History of Pro-Am Collaboration
Despite decades of observing in relative isolation from one another, professional and amateur astronomers began to come together in the 1980s.
Martian Ice: Wide and Deep
Mars Express's onboard radar sounder has spotted vast "glaciers" of ice under the Red Planet's surface.
Asteroid Smashup Yields Dust Shower on Earth
Deep-sea sediments provide conclusive evidence that the collision of two large asteroids about 8 million years ago showered Earth with a gentle rain of dusty debris.
Hayabusa Hits Paydirt
After several close calls that threatened to end the mission, a Japanese craft has landed on an asteroid and grabbed a sample of its surface.
Astro Image in the News: Massive Meteorite Found
A mammoth stony-iron meteorite, found buried on a Kansas farm, ranks among the world's largest.
Asteroid Lander Lost in Space
The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa is ready to grab samples of asteroid Itokawa, but a tiny hopping lander failed to make it to the surface.
Hayabusa Closes In on Asteroid Itokawa
Now hovering just 7 km from its target, a Japanese spacecraft is readying to sample the surface — amid growing concerns about the craft's stabilization system.
