Space Exploration news

Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 18, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (33) | 20

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using ...

First images of solar system's invisible frontier

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jul 02, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (35) | 5

NASA's sun-focused STEREO spacecraft unexpectedly detected particles from the edge of the solar system last year, allowing University of California, Berkeley, scientists to map for the first time the energized ...

Phoenix Returns Treasure Trove for Science

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 27, 2008 | 4.8 / 5 (31) | 3

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander performed its first wet chemistry experiment on Martian soil flawlessly yesterday, returning a wealth of data that for Phoenix scientists was like winning the lottery.

Camping on the Moon Will Be One Far Out Experience

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Feb 23, 2007 | 4.5 / 5 (33) | 0

If Earth had a mountain so incredibly high that its peak poked through the outermost layer of our atmosphere, mountain climbers smart enough and hardy enough to reach the top would have some idea what it will ...

Mars Express Probes Red Planet's Unusual Deposits

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 01, 2007 | 4.2 / 5 (35) | 0

The radar system on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has uncovered new details about some of the most mysterious deposits on Mars: the Medusae Fossae Formation. It has provided the first direct ...

Titan's icy climate mimics Earth's tropics

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Oct 02, 2007 | 4.4 / 5 (33) | 0

If space travelers ever visit Saturn's largest moon, they will find a tropical world where temperatures plunge to minus 274 degrees Fahrenheit, methane rains from the sky and dunes of ice or tar cover the ...

SMART-1 impacts Moon (Update 2)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 03, 2006 | 4.6 / 5 (32) | 0

At 07:42:22 CEST (05:42:22 UT) today, the SMART-1 spacecraft impacted the Moon's surface as planned, ending ESA's first solar-powered mission to another celestial body and Europe's first mission to the Moon. ...

NASA engineer quits 5 days before launch

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Jun 28, 2006 | 4.3 / 5 (34) | 1

A 30-year NASA veteran and one of the agency's top shuttle engineers has reportedly angrily resigned only five days before Saturday's Discovery launch.

Mars Lander Sees Falling Snow, Soil Data Suggest Liquid Past

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Sep 29, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (32) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil tests experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, ...

Key molecule discovered in Venus's atmosphere

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

May 15, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (32) | 1

Venus Express has detected the molecule hydroxyl on another planet for the first time. This detection gives scientists an important new tool to unlock the workings of Venus’s dense atmosphere.

Building a Ship Outside a Shipyard

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Aug 15, 2006 | 4.6 / 5 (31) | 0

It’s not your typical shipbuilder’s site. In fact, it’s not your typical ship. There are no outfitting piers or full-service bulkheads. No sights of yellow hard hats or sounds of beeping trucks with back-up ...

Cassini Finds Mysterious New Aurora on Saturn

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 12, 2008 | 4.3 / 5 (33) | 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Saturn has its own unique brand of aurora that lights up the polar cap, unlike any other planetary aurora known in our solar system. This odd aurora revealed itself to one of the infrared ...

The M2-F1: 'Look Ma! No Wings!'

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Aug 19, 2008 | 4.1 / 5 (35) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- The planned retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2010 will bring to a close an era that opened in the Antelope Valley nearly a half century ago.

Evidence of vast frozen water reserves on Mars: scientists

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 20, 2008 | 4.5 / 5 (31) | 2

Vast Martian glaciers of water ice under protective blankets of rocky debris persist today at much lower latitudes than any ice previously identified on Mars, says new research using ground-penetrating radar ...

NASA says Phoenix Mars mission has ended (Update 2)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

Nov 10, 2008 | 3.9 / 5 (36) | 19

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has ceased communications after operating for more than five months. As anticipated, seasonal decline in sunshine at the robot's arctic landing site is not providing ...