SUNSET: 
Explore the Night with Bob King
Action-packed Sky: Saturn, Comet Nishimura, and More
September is Saturn's time to shine. We also check on Comet Nishimura — now at 5th magnitude and still brightening — and look forward to a dramatic asteroid occultation. Not to mention that Jupiter just took another hit.
Rubble-Pile Asteroid Bennu Has Layers
The asteroid Bennu is a so-called rubble pile, but new results from NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission indicate this heap of rubble has layers.
Solar Cycle May Trigger Clouds on Neptune
Nearly 30 years of observations indicate that Neptune’s clouds and brightness vary with the Sun’s activity.
New Comet Nishimura May Become Naked-Eye Bright
Comet Nishimura is quickly brightening in the morning sky and may be faintly visible with the naked eye next month. And on August 24th observers in North America will be treated to an occultation of Antares.
India’s Chandrayaan 3 Lands on the Moon; Russia's Luna 25 Crashes
In a first, India’s Chandrayaan 3 soft-lands in the lunar south pole region of the Moon.
What Mud Cracks Mean for Life on Mars
Mud cracks are evidence for sustained wet-dry cycles on ancient Mars, which might have provided conditions amenable to life (with caveats).
Get Ready for a Great Perseid Meteor Shower
The Perseids are here! With no Moon to spoil the show it's time to break out the lawn chairs, sit back, and watch the comet dust fly.
Comet 46P/Wirtanen: All Dust, No Ice
Where is all of the water around hyperactive comets coming from? A recent article asked if it could be “Ice, Ice, Maybe?” and concluded that it likely isn’t.
Perseverance Finds Complex Organics (Not Life) on Mars
NASA's Perseverance has sniffed 10 rock samples and found signatures of organic molecules, a sign of a complex geochemical past.
Astronomy in Pictures: Saturn and the Milky Way
The James Webb Space Telescope offers a new view of Saturn, while the IceCube Observatory creates a neutrino-painted picture of the Milky Way.
Did an Asteroid's Collision Make the Geminid Meteor Shower?
Parker Solar Probe data offers new insight on the puzzle of how debris from an asteroid produces one of the brightest annual meteor showers.
Phosphates Swim in the Ocean of Saturn's Moon Enceladus
Scientists detected phosphorous in an extraterrestrial ocean for the first time when they analyzed data from Saturn's moon Enceladus.
Parker Solar Probe Detects Source of Solar Wind
The Sun flings charged particles and accompanying magnetic fields into the solar system, but how? NASA's Parker Solar Probe dives in to find out.
The Sun Gets Its Close-up: Images from New Solar Telescope
The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope shows some stunning detail on the Sun, including sunspots, fibrils, granules, and other solar textures.
New Photos from NASA's Perseverance and Juno
NASA spacecraft are constantly sending back images from across the solar system. Here are two that caught our eye.
Explore the Night with Bob King
Scientists Confirm: Meteorite Crashed Into New Jersey Home
A rock that crashed through the roof of a house in New Jersey proved to be the real thing — a chunk spalled from a 4.5 billion-year-old asteroid.
New Discoveries Double Number of "Irregular" Saturn Moons
The Minor Planet Center is announcing a bevy of new moons for Saturn that will bring its total to 145 (and break Jupiter's record).
The Moon Deimos Might Be a Piece of Mars
Surprising new results from the United Arab Emirates' Hope probe call the origin of Mars's smaller moon into question.
Second Ring Around Quaoar Puzzles Astronomers
There's a second ring around the far-out dwarf planet Quaoar, adding to the mystery of how this world hosts rings at such wide orbits.
Four of Uranus's Moons Might Contain Briny Oceans
Four of Uranus's five icy moons likely contain a thin layer of briny (or otherwise enriched) water, astronomers have concluded from Voyager 2 data.
