... Bright Stars and Dark Clouds . ... Well don't feel bad - this even happened to the bright young stars of the open cluster NGC 6520. On the left are the cluster's bright blue stars. Beneath Venus' Clouds . ... If the thick clouds covering Venus were removed, how would the surface appear? ... Comet Hale-Bopp Fades . ... Comet Hale-Bopp has faded in the past few weeks. For Hale-Bopp, promised as the Great Comet of 1997, this was a bit of a disappointment -- but not entirely unexpected. ...