Join SPACE.com's Senior Science Writer Robert Roy Britt for complete coverage of the 199th American Astronomical Society Conference in Washington, D.C.

Friday, January 11:

Backyard Astronomy: Study Uncovers 12 Nearby Stars
With astronomers finding galaxies that are billions of light-years away and spotting stars thousands of light-years distant in our own galaxy, you'd think they'd know about all the stars in our backyard.

Chandra Reveals Features of 30-year Galactic Mystery
The Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured the sharpest images yet of a mysterious X-ray-emitting ridge that lurks within the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

Thursday, January 10:

Search for Planets Instead Yields Bevy of Stellar Triplets
An astronomer who was looking for signs of planet formation around young, double-star systems instead found a third star in about half the cases.

Johns Hopkins Reveals Color of the Universe: It Doesn't Go With Anything
The universe, once a stunning, radiant blue color, has in its middle years settled into rather dreary green hue not unlike that used on household appliances during the 1970s.

Wednesday, January 9:

Where The Action Is: Heart of Milky Way Unveiled
A new mosaic of images produced by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals a stunningly crisp view of the chaotic center of our galaxy, where stars are born and die with remarkable frequency.

New Observatory to Probe Unexplored 'Cold' Cosmos
Astronomers announced today the inauguration of an array of telescopes that will span an area equal to five football fields and represents a new way of looking at the universe by peering through dust that thwarts other observations.

Bush Official to Scientists: Expect More Scrutiny
The Bush Administration's top science advisor gave a soothing pep talk Tuesday to a group of astronomers, punctuating it with a stern message from the President: Get your scientific house in order and develop a more managerial approach to the business of doing science.

Tuesday, January 8:

Ghost-Busting, Astronomy Style: Chandra Finds Ancient Celestial Eruption
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered "ghostly" relics of an ancient eruption that ripped through a cluster of galaxies. The find, announced today by scientists, suggests that galaxy clusters are the locales of powerful and recurring explosions, and may help explain why galaxy clusters act as giant cosmic magnets.

Hint of Earliest Stars: Greatest Fireworks Ever Still Beyond View
The grandest fireworks display in the history of the universe played out in reverse is how researchers are describing data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope that shows that most stars were formed in a brief period early in the Universe's history that was followed by a relative drought of activity that continues today.

Planet Found Around Giant Star Gives Clues to Earth's Fate
Astronomers have found evidence for the first known planet orbiting a giant star that is aged and swollen the way our Sun will one day be, hinting that planets can survive the latter stages of a star's life.

Star Wars: What Happens When Stellar Winds Collide
A pair of stars some 4,500 light-years from Earth engage in a titan battle every few years, when their odd orbits bring them so close they can practically smell each others' breath.

Not So Fast: Stellar Development Slower than Previously Thought
The heavenly task of building a star is now thought to be much like any other: it takes longer to accomplish than expected. A team of scientists reached this conclusion after studying clouds of gas and dust in the sky that serve as stellar incubators.

Strange Object Found, Defying Ideas of Solar System Formation
Solar system creation theorists got more to chew on Monday when astronomers announced the discovery a huge object called a brown dwarf orbiting a star nearly as closely as Saturn is to our Sun.