Seasonal Jets Darken the Surface of Mars
Scientists now have an answer for the strange dark spots near the south polar ice caps on Mars. As the…
Astrophoto: Plato and the Alpine Valley by Mike Salway
For many years, there were three popular theories that tried to explain why Earth's satellite hangs in our skies. One…
A Magnetically Backwards Sunspot
Astronomers have been waiting to see a very special kind of sunspot, and this week, they saw what they were…
Why Old Stars Seem to Lack Lithium
Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope think they've found a solution to the "cosmological lithium discrepancy". A specific amount of…
Orion Revealed by Spitzer
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured this image of the Orion Nebula using its Infrared Array Camera. In this infrared view,…
Officials Propose 12 Planets in the Solar System
The International Astronomical Union, currently meeting in Prague, has announced a proposal that would boost the number of planets in…
What’s Up this Week: August 14 – August 20, 2006
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! I hope everyone had an excellent Perseid weekend? With the Moon further and further from early evening,…
Nothing But Rings
This photograph is a close-up view of Saturn's A ring taken by Cassini. Look closely and you'll see that the…
Hourglass-Shaped Magnetic Field Discovered
Astronomers have finally discovered an object that has long been theorized: an hourglass-shaped magnetic field in a star forming region.…
Book Review: Beyond Earth
Does humanity have a destiny? Are we to accomplish a task before ending as a species, or do we perhaps…