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Harvard College Observatory
The main clearinghouse for astronomical discoveries has a new address.

Pluto's colorful face
The New Face of Pluto — February 4, 2010
Planetary scientists scratching their heads over the dramatic face-lift that this distant little world underwent sometime between 1994 and 2002.

ATST solar observatory on Haleakala
World's Largest Solar Scope — February 1, 2010
If one final permit can be obtained — and some Hawaiian preservationists won over — construction on the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope should begin later this year.

"Comet" P/2010 A2 from Hubble
Astronomers are still trying to piece together the story of an object that's looking more and more like the aftermath of the collision between two small asteroids.

Orion Crew Expedition Vehicle
New Plan for NASA — February 1, 2010
The Obama administration abandons NASA's Constellation Moon program, but sets its sights farther afield.

Discoverer Barbara Harris with her scope
Astronomers worldwide were waiting — but two remarkable amateurs in Florida turned out to be the ones watching at just the right time.

Martian rover
NASA managers have decided to halt attempts to free a Martian rover that's been stuck in sand for 10 months and to concentrate instead on "stationary science" that doesn't require mobility.

Andrew Lange
The Passing of Andrew Lange — January 25, 2010
One of the leading lights of cosmology died on January 21st. Andrew Lange's observations of the cosmic microwave background using the balloon-borne Boomerang experiment revealed that the universe has a flat geometry.

Asteroid Itokawa
A new analysis reveals that asteroids with "fresh" surfaces may have been disrupted by near-Earth encounters in the last few hundred thousand years.

Apophis in 2029
A meaty review of the impact hazard facing Earth has just been released by the U.S. National Research Council. The bottom line? If Congress and NASA are serious about finding all the truly threatening asteroids in our planet's vicinity, they'd better fund the search properly.

Comet P/2010 A2 from WIYN Observatory
It looks a comet, or at least parts of one, in high-power telescopic images. But in the two weeks since the discovery of P/2010 A2, astronomers are still wondering what's going on with this unusual object and its asteroid sidekick some 95 million miles from Earth.

Spacecraft Imaging for Amateurs — January 14, 2010
An international community of space enthusiasts has become adept at reinterpreting images from planetary spacecraft.

Great Comet of 1910
The Great Daylight Comet of 1910 — January 13, 2010
Wouldn't it be great to have a comet appear that's bright enough to be seen in broad daylight? That's exactly what happened 100 years ago this week.

IYA 2009 Comes to a Close — January 12, 2010
An unprecedented yearlong celestial celebration — the International Year of Astronomy 2009 — officially came to a close on January 9th and 10th in Padua, Italy.



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