Astronomy October 2001

Diving for Spacecraft Nearly 40 years after Gus Grissom+s Mercury spacecraft ended up on the bottom of the Atlantic, intrepid explorers found and recovered it. - Paul Perry

Heart of Darkness A black hole with more than a million times the mass of the sun wreaks havoc and triggers starbirth in the heart of our galaxy. - Robert Zimmerman

Eclipse Chasers on Safari More than three minutes of fiery prominences and a pearly white corona punctuated an incredible journey to southern Africa. - Bonnie Gordon and Richard Talcott

Sky Show Saturn and Jupiter steal the show as midnight approaches, while a pair of comets highlight the predawn sky. - Martin Ratcliffe and Alister Ling