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he article presents information about several of the rare astronomical events which occurred in 2004. During the year, robotic spacecraft landed on Mars, slid into orbit around Saturn, whizzed past a comet, and brought solar samples to Earth. Millions watched as Venus glided across the Sun for the first time in 122 years. Discoveries of planets around other stars plus all unusual icy body found orbiting our own Sun ignited imaginations around the world. And astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope imaged galaxies less than 1 billion years old, heralding a new era in the study of the early universe. On April 28, a multi-billion-ton cloud of plasma launched from the Sun during October and November passed the Voyager 2 spacecraft, more than 73 AU away, or 73 times Earth's distance from the Sun. Scientists hope the plasma will generate radio waves when it interacts with the heliopause -- the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space -- and that both Voyagers will detect them. The activity began when the largest and most complex sunspot groups in more than a decade appeared on the Sun. The largest group -- named Active Region 10486 -- fired off two record flares and hurled billion-ton coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, toward Earth, which triggered vivid auroral displays as far south as Florida. On September 8, the Genesis space capsule was to enter the atmosphere and float toward Earth on a parafoil, then waiting helicopters would snatch it in midair. Instead, the capsule hit the desert at 193 mph. Early findings indicate a badly engineered deceleration sensor was at fault. Skywatchers in Asia, Australia, and on Pacific islands were the first to see Venus nudge its way onto the Sun, and observers in the Midwestern United States were among the last to see it leave.