The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of a supernova exploding in a relatively nearby galaxy. The star that became supernova SN 2004dj was probably 15 times the mass of our own Sun, but only 14 million years old - the larger the star, the shorter and more violent its life is. The star was located in a galaxy called NGC 2403, which is only 11 million light-years from Earth, so this makes it the closest supernova seen in more than a decade. Astronomers will continue to study SN 2004dj for years to understand how certain kinds of stars explode, and what chemicals they're made up of.

Hurricane Frances has swept past Puerto Rico and is now on a path that could strike the Bahamas, and eventually even hit Florida. NASA workers at the Kennedy Space Center are powering down the space shuttles, closing their payload doors, and stowing away their landing gear to prepare for the storm. Frances is now a dangerous category 4 hurricane, with winds as high as 225 kph (140 mph), and it will reach the coastal US later this week. This photograph of the hurricane was taken by NASA's Terra satellite on August 31.

Despite a series of delays, a Lockheed-Martin Atlas IIAS rocket lifted off Tuesday night, carrying a secret payload for the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). The rocket lifted off at 2317 UTC (7:17 pm EDT) from Cape Canaveral's Pad 36A; payload separation of the satellite into its transfer orbit happened 73 minutes later. This was the last Atlas 2 rocket that will fly. After this launch, both the class of rocket, and Pad 36A will be retired.

The European Space Agency's Envisat earth observation satellite is getting ready for the arrival of an annual event - the opening of the hole in the Earth's ozone layer. Since a hole first opened up in the mid-1980s, satellites have been tracking its arrival and shape for years, and scientists have gotten quite good at predicting the conditions that will create the gap. The ozone hole should open up in about a week's time, and then close up again in November or December when higher temperatures around the South Pole will mix ozone-rich air into the region.

Famed astronomer, Dr. Fred Whipple, passed away on Monday at the age of 97 after a prolonged battle with illness. He was Phillips Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Harvard University and a Senior Physicist at Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Perhaps best known for his research into comets, Whipple discovered six, and one of the first to suggest that they were icy conglomerates (aka "dirty snowballs"). He went on to direct the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory from 1955 to 1973, and the Mt. Hopkins Observatory was renamed the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in 1981.

Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new class of extrasolar planets which are between 10 and 20 times the mass of the Earth - roughly the same size as Neptune. Two planets were discovered orbiting smaller stars: one around Gliese 436 and another around 55 Cancri. Both planets orbit their parent stars in about 3 days. They were discovered using the radial velocity method, which finds planets because of how they wobble their parent star. Because these planets are much smaller than Jupiter, they're probably made of rock and ice, rather than gas.

The view from the International Space Station is great, but the window is a little small. But a new observation module - or "cupola" - under development by the European Space Agency will change all that. It's an observation and control tower that will give astronauts a panoramic view for observing and guiding operations outside the station. The 1.8 tonne module has been completed in Italy, and now it'll be transported to Cape Canaveral, Florida to launch to the station in 2009.

NASA's X-43A prototype has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's fastest air-breathing aircraft. The unpiloted aircraft made an experimental flight earlier this year, and reached Mach 6.83, or 8,000 kph (5,000 mph) over the Pacific Ocean. The record will go into the 2006 edition of the book; however, NASA expects to have broken this record by the time the book goes to print. The X-43A is expected to make another flight this October, and if all goes well, it'll reach Mach 10.

Scientists have figured out how they can use special instruments on board two NASA satellites to detect the early stages of plankton "blooms". These blooms are caused by excessive runoff of industrial fertilizer which makes marine algae grow - sometimes so thickly that water looks black. Bacteria consume the algae and use up oxygen in the water. This can kill fish in large quantities. The MODIS instruments on NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites can detect the glow in plankton's chlorophyll from orbit, and pinpoint exactly where large blooms are forming.

When a huge asteroid slammed into the Earth 65 million years ago, it began a catastrophic chain of events that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, and 75% of the species on Earth. One devastating aspect of the event was when hot debris rained down, starting enormous wildfires across the entire planet. Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute have come up with a model that calculates how large an impact had to be to cause massive fires. A crater 85 km (52 miles) across probably caused continent-wide fires, and a crater 135 km (83 miles) across could ignite fires around the whole world.

This image, taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express, is of a region on Mars called Eos Chasma; it's on the southern end of the Valles Marineris. The highest point of the plateau is 5,000 metres (3.1 miles) above the valley floor. Scientists know the higher plains are a much older feature because they have a number of ancient large impact craters that have remained for billions of years.

Here's a 1024x768 desktop wallpaper of Hurricane Frances, which was taken by astronaut Mike Fincke aboard the International Space Station. He took this photo on the morning of August 27, 2004 from an altitude of 370 km (230 miles). Frances is currently east of the Lesser Antilles in the Atlantic Ocean, and slowly moving west-northwest. Fincke and Commander Gennady Padalka are in the fifth month of their six-month stay aboard the station.

Although they were designed to track the height of the world's oceans, a few NASA satellites are working surprisingly well at measuring the height of inland lakes and reservoirs as well. This additional tracking ability allows scientists to monitor water levels in out-of-the-way places. For example, TOPEX/Poseidon satellite can measure water height to within 4-5 cm (2 inches), and surveys the entire Earth together with the Jason-1 satellite. By knowing water levels, scientists can predict if there will be water shortages or problems with crops long in advance.

Two radars installed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center tracked the recent launch of the Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft, and demonstrated they can be of assistance when the space shuttle returns to flight next year. During the launch, the radars "saw" the rocket's nine solid rocket boosters separate, as well as the jettison of its first stage and payload fairing - they could even see pieces of ice falling away. This means that the radars will be able to track the space shuttle as it launches, and spot any debris that falls off, regardless of visibility, darkness or cloud cover.

NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has now completed all of its assigned scientific duties, so controllers are letting it get some extra credit. The spacecraft was originally tasked with mapping the surface of Mars, and searching for various substances, including water - it found huge deposits of water ice just a few metres under the surface. Odyssey will now be continued to at least September 2006, giving controllers another Martian year (686 Earth days) to watch how the planet changes through the seasons. The spacecraft will also be able to assist the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, due to reach the planet in March, 2006.

A team of European astronomers have used the European Southern Observatory's HARPS Instrument to find the smallest extrasolar planet ever discovered; it's believed to be only 14 times the mass of the Earth. The planet orbits a star called mu Arae every 9.5 days, which is located 50 light-years away in the southern constellation of the Altar. A planet this size lies right at the boundary between rocky planets and gas giants. But since it's so close to its parent star, it's probably rocky, with a relatively small atmosphere, so it would be classified as a "super Earth".

Phosphorus is central to life on Earth for many reasons; it forms the backbone of DNA and RNA, and it's an important element in many chemical processes. The questions is, how did the Earth get so much of it? Researchers from the University of Arizona believe that the meteorites that rained down early on during the formation of the Earth could have been the source. They found that many iron-nickel meteorites are rich with minerals that contain phosphorus, and propose that life could have formed around a spot where a meteorite struck the Earth.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft completed a 51-minute engine burn that raised its orbit away from Saturn. When it first arrived at the Ringed Planet, Cassini passed very close to the planet and went right through the rings. On its next flyby, it'll pass outside the rings and make its first close-up flyby of Titan at a distance of only 1,200 km (746 miles) - nearly 300 times closer than its previous flyby. Cassini is expected to make 45 visits to Titan over the next 4 years, and some will be even closer.