SUNSET: 
Eta Carinae: A Supermassive Showoff
An enormous and famously erratic star in the southern sky might have demonstrated a new kind of stellar explosion during its dazzling eruption in the 1840s.
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for September 2008
Download this podcast to take a guided tour of evening sky sights — find the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and much more! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (6MB MP3 download: running time: 6m 00s)
Rosetta's "Jewel in the Sky"
European scientists are excitedly poring over results from the Rosetta spacecraft's close flyby of asteroid Steins, even though an unexpected camera glitch cost them the best views of its cratered surface.
Phoenix Surpasses 90-day Milestone
NASA's newest lander has now been scratching, digging, sniffing, baking and tasting samples of Martian polar terrain for more than three months. How long can it survive in the fast-approaching winter — and how much more can it learn?
Tour September's Sky! | September 1st, 2008
Summer's over, and cooler nights offer your eyes a rich tapestry of stars and planets for casual skygazing.
Star-Studded Black Holes
A pair of Scottish astronomers has solved the mystery of how young stars can form improbably close to the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
S&T Astronomy Day Awards for 2008
The Astronomical League has announced the winners of this year's S&T Astronomy Day Award — and this year there's a tie for the top spot!
The Great Planet Debate
A controversial vote to define "planet" two years ago created more confusion than clarity. So scientists, educators, and curious hangers-on have gathered to get a better handle on what to call the menagerie of worlds that inhabit our solar system and those of other stars.
The Astronomical League's Rising Stars
At its recent national convention in Des Moines, Iowa, the Astronomical League continued its tradition of recognizing the talents and enthusiasm of exceptional teenage stargazers.
Our "Goldilocks" Solar System
Think our planetary family is normal? Think again. It turns out that the Sun and its retinue formed when the interstellar mix was just right — not too much gas, not too little, and stirred gently for just the right amount of time.
Titan Makes a Splash
It's not covered by a global ocean, as theorists once thought. But Saturn's big moon does sport pools of liquid ethane big enough to float anyone's boat.
Tour August's Sky! | July 29th, 2008
Download this month's podcast to take a guided tour of evening sky sights — and learn what the Moon has in common with a Ping-Pong ball! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty.
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for August 2008
Download this podcast to take a guided tour of evening sky sights — and learn what the Moon has in common with a Ping-Pong ball! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (6MB MP3 download: running time: 6m24s)
S&T's Audio Sky Tour for June 2008
This month you have a chance to see three or four bright planets in the sky. June download this podcast and listen! Host: S&T's Kelly Beatty. (5MB MP3 download: running time: 5m15s)
An Electrifying Whodunit
Thanks to a quintet of identical spacecraft, space physicists have settled a decades-old debate over what triggers violent electromagnetic substorms inside Earth's magnetosphere.
Earth and Moon Dance for a Far Camera
From more than 30 million miles away, a NASA spacecraft snapped away as the Moon made a graceful pass in front of Earth's colorful disk.
Mars's Ancient Water Works
New observations from a NASA orbiter reveal that water and rock freely mingled across (or under) much of the Red Planet's surface.
Make Way for Makemake
It took three years to settle on a name for the third-largest object in the Kuiper Belt.
All Hail, King Jupiter!
The King of Planets has made a dramatic entrance into the early evening sky. Don't miss your chance to see it while it's big and bright!
Asteroids with Split Personalities
Where did the dozens of known binary asteroids come from? According to a new finding, sunlight alone can force a body to spin in such a frenzy that it literally flies apart.
