Star Formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud

One of the largest galaxies which orbit the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud is a great place - in many ways better than the Milky Way - to study how stars form and die inside galaxies. Go here to read about some recent results courtesy of data from the Spitzer space telescope.

NASA's new Solar Satellite

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, was successfully launched last week (Feb. 11). Go here to read all about it.

The Curious Case of the Fading Star

I never knew this, but apparently one of the brighter stars in the sky, Epsilon Aurigae, had a peculiar habit of fading for a short period of time every 27 years. While changes in a star's brightness are normal, regular 27 year variations are peculiar. Go here to read how, using Spitzer observations, astronomers might have just been able to figure out what is going on. Enjoy!

A Valentine's Day present for the Astronomer in your life

Well, at least according to Dennis Overbye. Go here for details. Enjoy!

New exoplanets from Kepler

I definitely plan to have a future show on this (yes, I still plan on doing those. One day. Hopefully soon. When I get a chance. Sorry) but, until then, read this article about five!! new extra-solar planets discovered already by Kepler. These are not the Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits that Kepler was designed to discover (those, by definition, orbit their star once a year so Kepler hasn't been in space long enough to detect those - yet) but still very interesting. Enjoy!

Slow and steady...

but ALMA, the new sub-mm radio interferometer currently being constructed in the Atacama Desert in Chile, is coming online. Go here to read about a major milestone. Enjoy!

Spirit Fades

This is probably old-ish news by now, but all good things must come to an end, and unfortunately the NASA Mars rover Spirit is one of them. Go here for more details, and here for a moving send-off.

New Radio Astronomy Website

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the NSF-funded organization responsible for running some of the largest radio telescopes in the World (e.g. the Very Large Array, Very Long Baseline Array, the Green Bank Telescope, and the upcoming Atacama Large Millimeter Array) has a new snazzy-looking website. Enjoy!

The Sun is mass of incandescent gas

but there is much more to it then that. Go here to read more about NASA next Sun-studying satellite, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, scheduled to launch today!

Astronomy Desktop Wallpaper

Courtesy of JPL, the NASA facility responsible operating many of its astronomy spacecraft (especially the ones which study the Solar System), here is a collection of gorgeous astronomy pictures suitable for computer desktops. Enjoy!