NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander began sending photos of the planet's surface on the first day of its three-month mission "to taste and sniff the northern polar site's soil and ice," the space agency said.
The first pictures from NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, which successfully touched down near Mars' north pole Sunday, showed a pattern of brown polygons as far as the camera could see.
In the wake of the wildly successful Spirit and Opportunity rover missions, you would think NASA would approach the landing of the next Martian probe with high confidence.
NASA's Phoenix lander is set to touch down in the Martian Arctic on Sunday, where it will start chewing through the permafrost in search of life
NASA sent conflicting signals Monday evening about what an official told CNN is a planned $4 million budget cut in NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program.
Can everyone be an astronomer? It certainly seems that way, especially with some of the latest tools at our fingertips, like Google Sky, which allows Internet users to navigate through a digitized map of space. But some say virtual astronomy is not just for amateurs and should also be the way forward for professional space exploration. A future of virtual astronauts, too.
Scientists peek into a newly forming solar system 1,000 light years away and discover five times the water on Earth -- plus some unexpected tidbits about our own solar system's past
Tiny grains of ice or particles of space dust could significantly damage the Cassini spacecraft when it passes close by Saturn's moon Enceladus next March, scientists said on Thursday.
Popular mapping service Google Earth will launch a new feature called Sky, a "virtual telescope" that the search engine hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers.
"I never think of the future" Albert Einstein once said, "It comes soon enough". But at the beginning of the 21st Century even the great scientist might have been taken aback by the pace of scientific and engineering advances of recent times.
NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander began sending photos of the planet's surface on the first day of its three-month mission "to taste and sniff the northern polar site's soil and ice," the space agency said.
The first pictures from NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander, which successfully touched down near Mars' north pole Sunday, showed a pattern of brown polygons as far as the camera could see.
In the wake of the wildly successful Spirit and Opportunity rover missions, you would think NASA would approach the landing of the next Martian probe with high confidence.
NASA's Phoenix lander is set to touch down in the Martian Arctic on Sunday, where it will start chewing through the permafrost in search of life
NASA sent conflicting signals Monday evening about what an official told CNN is a planned $4 million budget cut in NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program.
Can everyone be an astronomer? It certainly seems that way, especially with some of the latest tools at our fingertips, like Google Sky, which allows Internet users to navigate through a digitized map of space. But some say virtual astronomy is not just for amateurs and should also be the way forward for professional space exploration. A future of virtual astronauts, too.
Scientists peek into a newly forming solar system 1,000 light years away and discover five times the water on Earth -- plus some unexpected tidbits about our own solar system's past
Tiny grains of ice or particles of space dust could significantly damage the Cassini spacecraft when it passes close by Saturn's moon Enceladus next March, scientists said on Thursday.
Popular mapping service Google Earth will launch a new feature called Sky, a "virtual telescope" that the search engine hopes will turn millions of Internet users into stargazers.
"I never think of the future" Albert Einstein once said, "It comes soon enough". But at the beginning of the 21st Century even the great scientist might have been taken aback by the pace of scientific and engineering advances of recent times.
They helped open the public's eyes to the wonders of space when they were first photographed in 1995, but a new study suggests the famous Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula might have already been toppled long ago, and that what the Hubble Space Telescope actually captured was only a ghost image.
With so many modern wonders to choose from, it is hard to whittle the list down to a mere seven or eight. Here are a selection of other contemporary marvels that reflect the engineering, design and technical achievements of our times.
When, after an eight-month voyage, NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft beamed back the first images of Mars in 1965 -- to score a victory over Russia's Mars 1 in the Cold War space-race -- it changed the way scientists thought about the Red Planet.
Astronomers might have seen the very first stars in the universe. If so, these are incredible stars, some 1,000 times as massive as the sun.
The "Comeback Kid" of astronomy has dodged yet another bullet. Come May of 2008, a crew of seven astronauts will strap themselves into the space shuttle Discovery and carry the fire into orbit for a fifth and final repair and refurbishment mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA has announced plans to send astronauts on a final mission to repair the aging Hubble Space Telescope. The mission would extend Hubble's life until about 2013. Without a servicing mission, the powerful telescope is expected to deteriorate in the next few years.
The shuttle Discovery will pay the Hubble Space Telescope a final servicing call in 2008, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announced Tuesday.
The poet Robert Frost wondered if Earth would wind up a world of fire or ice. Astronomers have discovered that a distant planet is both.
An ambitious project to build the world's largest radio telescope high in the Chilean Andes looks set to give astronomers their best ever view of deep space -- and provide them with a dramatic window back through time to the formation of the universe itself.
Despite the success of NASA's second shuttle flight since the 2003 Columbia tragedy, the decision to launch astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope remains uncertain as top agency officials debate its safety.
Newly detected dust found around the burst remains of a dead star could help reveal how planets and stars formed and how life began.
Saturn's moon Enceladus might have rolled over on its side sometime in the past, a suggestion that would account for a strange finding made by the Cassini spacecraft.
Three medium-sized planets of roughly the same mass as Neptune have been discovered around a nearby sun-like star, scientists announced today.
NASA and the European Space agency have released new images from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the dramatic breakup of comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3. The comet's nucleus has shattered into more than 33 pieces, and is likely to continue to disintegrate.
A European probe bearing down on the planet Venus is set for a Tuesday arrival to take a close look at the world's soupy atmosphere.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, on a two-year mission to study the Martian atmosphere and surface, and search for water, pulled off a dangerous and tricky maneuver known as "orbit insertion" and began circling the red planet Friday.
The Cassini space probe has found evidence of geysers erupting from underground pools of liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus, scientists announced on Thursday.
NASA's latest mission to Mars could eclipse all previous ones if it can get into orbit on Friday.
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin defended his agency's budget Thursday before the House Committee on Science against charges it guts science missions to pay for the shuttle program, international space station and a new generation of manned spacecraft.
The Bush administration's 2007 budget calls for $16.8 billion for NASA, a 3.2 percent increase over this year's allocation. But the space agency still finds itself having to make tough funding choices in order to accomplish all the tasks on its "to-do list."
Scientists have long known that a major ingredient in comets is water ice, but they were unsure whether the ice was contained mainly inside or if it could be found on the surface as well.
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show the planet Uranus has two additional moons and two faint rings never observed before.
A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals stars in the process of being born amid a fantastic scene of wispy space structures and intense radiation.
Giant clouds of gas and dust harboring embryonic stars rise majestically into space in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
After the sun and the moon, Venus is the third brightest body in our sky, and because of this it received lots of attention from all the great ancient civilizations, including the Mayans, the Egyptians, and the Greeks.
Use this explainer to help students understand the history of the space shuttle program, a topic relevant to current news.
A star explodes every second or so, somewhere in the universe. It's how they die, and astronomers call the events supernovas.
A NASA space probe slammed into a comet early Monday, capping a six-month mission that researchers hope will give them new clues about the birth of our solar system.
Six months after it blasted off from Earth, the Deep Impact spacecraft is poised to meet its cosmic fate -- in a hyper-speed smashup with a comet.
Many scientists believe comets are harbingers of life, responsible for bringing precious water and organic material to Earth.
A date has been set for the launch of the first ever solar sail-powered spacecraft.
The Cassini spacecraft's most recent flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, found that its upper atmosphere is full of complex organic material, a discovery that could help unlock the mystery of life on our own planet, scientists said Monday.
The Hubble Space Telescope has taken about 750,000 images in its 15 years in space. Celebrating the launch on April 24, 1990, Hubble officials released two more pretty pictures on Friday.
Wherever there might be Earth-like planets, there are likely to be asteroids, too. And now astronomers have found evidence for an asteroid belt around another star similar to our Sun.
A major review last week of servicing the Hubble Space Telescope has led NASA officials to a "deorbit only" position.
After a few close calls, astronomers have finally obtained the first photograph of a planet beyond our solar system, SPACE.com has learned.
The glow of planets outside our solar system have been spotted in the first direct detections of light emitted by alien worlds.
Carolyn Porco was 13 years old when she experienced her first 'cosmic connection.'
The Cassini spacecraft is making its fourth flyby of Saturn's moon Titan on Tuesday, passing just 982 miles (1,580 kilometers) above the moon's surface, according to NASA.
A White House decision to cut funding for a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission and dump the observatory into a remote stretch of ocean waters at a future date is sure to incite debate in scientific, engineering, and policy making circles.
The first three images from the surface of Titan, largest of Saturn's 33 moons, show what appear to be drainage channels, a shoreline, flooded regions surrounded by elevated terrain and a plain strewn with what may be large ice boulders.
The Huygens probe will plunge through the orange clouds of Saturn's moon Titan Friday, offering scientists their first glimpse of the mysterious moon.
The two spacecraft of NASA's Deep Impact mission, dubbed Flyby and Impactor by their makers, launched Wednesday afternoon atop a Boeing Delta 2 rocket, their mission: To unlock the inner secrets of comets.
A small space probe launched from NASA's Cassini spacecraft late Friday is making a beeline for the surface of Saturn's hazy moon Titan, taking an historic trip to unlock the stubborn mysteries of a perplexing place -- discoveries that might even shed light on Earth's own origins.
Scientists in the United States and Europe may get what they want for Christmas if the Huygens probe successfully separates from the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn on Christmas Eve.
The Opportunity Mars rover has turned into a junkyard dog, prowling ever closer to a hunk of space litter at Meridiani Planum -- a discarded heat shield.
NASA's infrared eyes are probing the beginnings of both stars and planets. In two separate observations, the Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered a possible stellar infant and an icy disk where planets may one-day form.
New observations of dust around young stars suggest collisions of large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent. But that doesn't likely stop the formation of rocky planets like Earth, a process that may well be common, the results suggest.
Our planet is not alone. It may not even be lonely.
The Cassini spacecraft has spotted two previously unknown and small moons orbiting Saturn in an unexpected location.
A committee of experts told NASA today that it should not give up on the idea of a space shuttle mission to service and improve the Hubble Space Telescope.
A mission to smash into a space rock to deflect it and study its structure has been given priority over five other potential asteroid projects by the European Space Agency.
After a seven-year journey, NASA's Cassini probe has become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the giant ringed planet Saturn.
NASA's Cassini probe has threaded through a gap between two of Saturn's rings and fired its engine in a critical maneuver towards becoming the first spacecraft ever to orbit the giant planet about 930 million miles (1.44 billion km) away from Earth.
As the Cassini-Huygens mission prepares to go into orbit around Saturn, project scientists are eager to begin an eye-opening look at the planet and its environment.
The Cassini spacecraft will execute a close flyby of Saturn's moon Phoebe on Friday, snapping pictures and making science observations as it passes.
NASA released new Spitzer Space Telescope images and data Thursday that show regions of intense star and planet formation in our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers said the new findings support the idea that our solar system is likely one of many.
After years of whittling away prospective designs for a NASA mission to search for earth-like planets around stars, the space agency narrowed the choice to two very different observatories.
A shower of hot gas from a distant star-forming galaxy has opened up a window into the violent life of the early universe for scientists.
The Chandra Space Telescope has gathered further evidence the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, scientists at NASA and Britain's Institute of Astronomy announced Tuesday. The finding sheds new light on a force known as "dark energy."
Steven Beckwith, who oversees operation of the Hubble Space Telescope, said the other day that the observatory could be knocked out of commission the next day by a meteoroid. It wasn't. But the situation reflects the precarious nature of any satellite.
In a preliminary analysis of new data, astronomers say they may have imaged a planet outside our solar system for the first time by using a tricky new method to ferret out dim objects from the light of a star.
The Cassini spacecraft has returned its first images of the smog-shrouded moon Titan that reveal surface features, including a bright area euphemistically named Xanadu that so far eludes explanation.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe told U.S. lawmakers worried about the Hubble Space Telescope's future that robotic servicing of the orbiting observatory appears to be more feasible than agency officials initially believed.
During its life in orbit, the Hubble Space Telescope has delivered transporting views of the heavens, pictures that fire the imagination of an unimaginably vast portion of the universe that we can't otherwise see.
NASA is reviewing over two dozen proposals to extend the useful scientific life of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as safely dispose of the Earth orbiting observatory at the end of its life in space.
A trio of research teams independently probing the martian atmosphere for signs of methane have confirmed the presence of the gas and raised a host of explanations for how it got there.
Astronomer Philip Plait is tired of radio personality Richard Hoagland's claims.
Those on-the-prowl Mars robots -- Spirit and Opportunity -- are sending back extraordinary images and science data about the Red Planet and its history of climate and water.
Scientists may have discovered the solar system's most distant object, more than three times farther away from Earth than Pluto.
A fresh salvo was fired Tuesday in the fight to save the Hubble Space Telescope. Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski accused NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe of making a unilateral decision to let the observatory die prematurely against the wishes of astronomers.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) unveiled the deepest look into the universe yet, a portrait of what could be the most distant galaxies ever seen.
The most dramatic stellar explosion witnessed in centuries just got more interesting. New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show a dying star's "ring of fire" entering a new phase of brightness.
The European orbiter Mars Express detected ice at the Red Planet's south pole, mission officials at Darmstadt, Germany, said Friday.
The Spirit rover has stopped transmitting data from Mars, NASA mission controllers said Thursday, but there were signs it is still operating at a basic level.
The Mars rover Spirit stretched its robotic arm over Martian soil Friday, and its microscopic imager is capturing even-higher-resolution images than the ones sent back after landing.
As Voyager II ended its stunningly successful 12-year grand tour of the outer planets with its flyby of Neptune and its moon Triton (shown above), funding for America's civilian space program seems...
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