The largest dust storm observed on Mars in 25 years is now engulfing the Red Planet. (p. 53)

The sharpest radar image ever of an asteroid shows features on 1999 KW4 as small as 7.5 meters—about the length of a stretch limo. (p. 57)

Gamma rays detected by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft after it landed on asteroid 433 Eros add to evidence that the rock is unaltered since the birth of the solar system. (p. 38)

A new study reveals that the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way, is a cannibal, devouring its tiny galactic neighbors. (p. 5)

Observations of warm dust swaddling a young, nearby star suggest that astronomers may have found evidence of a massive asteroid belt outside the solar system. (p. 375)

Early reports from the most mammoth sky surveys ever conducted are yielding a trove of findings, including the two most distant quasars known in the universe, new knowledge about the large-scale clumping of galaxies, and more evidence about the size and distribution of asteroids in our solar system. (p. 356)

Two experiments examining the detailed structure of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang, have confirmed the basic model of how cosmologists believe the universe evolved. (p. 261)

Measurements with a magnetometer aboard the NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft a few days after it landed on the asteroid 433 Eros confirmed a major puzzle: The rock has no detectable magnetic field. (p. 341)

Astronomers have found evidence that a star has swallowed one or more of its own planets. (p. 310)

Several recent studies have escalated the debate about what exactly constitutes a planet. (p. 312)

Recording the X-ray flashes emitted by matter as it plunges into one of these gravitational beasts, astronomers last week reported strong evidence that black holes spin like whirling dervishes, dragging space-time along with them. (p. 294)

Astronomers may finally have glimpsed a key step in the construction of a planet. (p. 278)