Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Red Planet Express: Mars spacecraft traces a watery tale
A Mars-orbiting spacecraft has provided new details about when and where liquid water existed on the planet.
- Planetary Science
Martian dust storm
In late October, a day after Mars and Earth were at their closest approach until 2018, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a large dust storm on the Red Planet.
- Astronomy
Ring around the galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the largest number ever of elliptical galaxies with Einstein rings, a marker of gravitational lensing.
- Planetary Science
Found and lost
Astronomers who previously announced that they had identified the likely remains of the Mars Polar Lander in images taken by an orbiting spacecraft now say that they were fooled by electronic noise in those images.
- Astronomy
Images of a fiery youth
A faint, infrared glow captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope might be light from the universe's first stars.
- Planetary Science
Mars or Bust!
Scientists are working to overcome the biomedical challenges that would hinder a human voyage to Mars.
- Astronomy
Infrared telescope spies mountains of star creation
Viewing a star-making region in the infrared, the Spitzer Space Telescope has captured mountains of gas and dust being eroded by winds and radiation from a massive star, triggering waves of star birth.
- Planetary Science
Cassini snaps icy moon Dione
Saturn's small moon Dione has a heavily-cratered, fractured surface.
- Planetary Science
Groovy Science
The Cassini spacecraft is shedding new light on Saturn's icy rings.
- Astronomy
Moon Zoom
Imagine riding a magic carpet around the moon and being able to zoom down to any point or appear magically at any location. NASA has developed software that allows you to interactively browse three-dimensional images of the moon, based on data obtained by the Clementine spacecraft. These Web pages provide information about downloading the software, […]
- Planetary Science
Protecting Earth: Gravitational tractor could lure asteroids off course
Relying solely on the tug of gravity, a proposed spacecraft could divert an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.
- Planetary Science
New Partners: Hubble finds more moons around Pluto
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have spied two tiny moons orbiting Pluto, giving this planet a total of three satellites.
