The entire universe is astronomy. That’s because it has the entire universe to explore. So it’s no surprise that astronomy news is so popular. Here are some recent, tantalizing tidbits of space information.

Astronomy magazine is a great source of astronomy news. One of the stories it covered was NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft. IBEX is like a weatherman interested in fronts and their interaction with the medium they encounter. To be exact it is the solar wind and how it interacts with space beyond the reach of the sun. IBEX is also set to map the boundaries of our solar system.

Astronomy news has also covered the discovery of a unique aurora on Saturn. An aurora is formed when charged particles stream along planetary magnetic field. The solar winds create the auroras on earth. Jupiter’s aurorae come from interactions within Jupiter’s own magnetic field. But Saturn’s new aurora, seen in the infrared spectrum, is something completely new which could teach scientists a lot about the solar wind and magnetic fields.

Universe today is another source of astronomy news. On November 13, 2008 it carried the story of contact reestablished with the Mars rover. A dust storm had cut off the rover from communications. But the rover came through with shining colors even though it lacked power. Scientists believed it would go into shutdown after a long period of dust blocking energy from reaching the solar panels and never again communicate. But it recovered and now it’s back on the job.

Contact with intelligent life may be a matter of less than 15 years thanks to the Allen telescope array, at least that’s what’s in astronomy news. The array is set to grow up from its current 42 antennas to over 350. It’s only a matter of a short time before it hears signals from deep enough in space that intelligence is sure to be found.

There could be no bigger astronomy news than actual contact with intelligence.