Space Exploration news

Sandtrapped Rover Makes a Big Discovery

Sandtrapped Rover Makes a Big Discovery

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (56) | comments 11

Homer's Iliad tells the story of Troy, a city besieged by the Greeks in the Trojan War. Today, a lone robot sits besieged in the sands of Troy while engineers and scientists plot its escape.


Superior Super Earths

Superior Super Earths

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (55) | comments 15

Super Earths are named for their size, but these planets - which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses - could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life. They could also provide an answer to ...


New Study of Meteorite Provides More Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars

New Study of Meteorite Provides More Evidence for Ancient Life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (39) | comments 16

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1996, when scientists examined a meteorite from Mars previously uncovered in Antarctica, they were intrigued by what looked like microscopic fossils of ancient Martian life forms. Now, ...


Mars

Life on Mars theory boosted by new methane study

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 08, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (31) | comments 11

Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in research published tomorrow in Earth an ...


A scale model of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo

Virgin Galactic readies maiden suborbital flight

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 06, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (23) | comments 10

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson will unveil a craft on Monday that could soon carry tourists on an out-of-this-world trip into space -- for a mere 200,000 dollars. (Update: Virgin Galactic unveils commercial spaceship) ...


Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (23) | comments 21

(PhysOrg.com) -- After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon shape ...


Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (20) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system ...


Scientist uncovers relics of ancient cosmos

Scientist uncovers relics of ancient cosmos

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (19) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Manchester scientist, working as part of an international team, has uncovered an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos.


mars surface

Rare Scottish mineral may indicate life on Mars

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (22) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) scientists is looking for clues about life on Mars in an earthy clay mineral found only in Aberdeenshire in Scotland.


Pioneering images of both martian moons (w/ Video)

Pioneering images of both martian moons (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (17) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- For the very first time, the martian moons Phobos and Deimos have been caught on camera together. ESA's Mars Express orbiter took these pioneering images last month. Apart from their ‘wow’ ...


Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, ...


Kansas scientists probe mysterious possible comet strikes on Earth

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (16) | comments 8

It's the stuff of a Hollywood disaster epic: A comet plunges from outer space into the Earth's atmosphere, splitting the sky with a devastating shock wave that flattens forests and shakes the countryside.


Caltech scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Scientists explain puzzling lake asymmetry on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 29, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (14) | comments 0

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane ...


Caltech scientists discover fog on Titan

Scientists discover fog on Titan

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Dec 18, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 2

Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system—aside from our home planet, Earth—with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. ...


Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance of Saturn's Northern Lights

Cassini Captures Ghostly Dance of Saturn's Northern Lights (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness ...