Scientists Strengthen Case For Life On Earth More Than 3.8 Billion Years Ago - Ten years ago, an international team of scientists reported evidence, in a controversial cover story in the journal Nature, that life on Earth began more than 3.8 billion years ago - 400 million years earlier than previously thought. July 22, 2006

Nuclear Explosion On A Dead Star - A team of astronomers from the UK and Germany have found that a nuclear explosion on the surface of a star 5,000 light years from Earth resulted in a blast wave moving at over 1,700 km per second. July 21, 2006

Cassini Radar Sees Earth-like Features On Saturn's Moon Titan - New radar images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal geological features very similar to Earth on an Australia-size, bright region on Saturn's moon Titan. July 20, 2006

MIT Team Envisions Exploring Mars with Mini Probes - MIT engineers and scientist colleagues have a new vision for the future of Mars exploration: a swarm of probes, each the size of a baseball, spreading out across the planet in every direction. July 19, 2006

Cold Gas In The Andromeda Galaxy - A new radio frequency map of the Andromeda galaxy has been made by a German-French research team of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn and the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) in Grenoble. July 18, 2006

Pluto-Bound, Student-Built Dust Detector Renamed "Venetia," Honoring Girl Who Named Ninth Planet - The student-built science instrument on NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto has been renamed to honor one of astronomy's most famous students - the "little girl" who named the ninth planet more than 75 years ago. July 17, 2006

Taking Soil Science To Outer Space - The answer to the question about life on Mars may very well come from analyzing an unsuspecting source - the soil, specifically the icy layer of soil underneath the red planet's surface. July 16, 2006

Flying Over The Cloudy World - Science Updates From Venus Express - On 20 April 2006, after its first 9-day, elongated orbit around Venus, ESA’s Venus Express started to get closer to the planet, until it reached its final 24-hour long orbit on 7 May ... July 15, 2006

The SMART-1 Way - Giving the Moon Some Great New Looks - During its 15-month science mission at the Moon, ESA's SMART-1 returned up to 1000 images per week, whose analysis is still keeping the scientists busy. July 14, 2006

After The Big Bang: Project Explores Seconds That Shaped The Universe - Kent State faculty and graduate students are among a team of physicists who recreated the material essence of the universe as it would have been mere microseconds after the Big Bang-a quark-gluon plasma. July 13, 2006

Controlling Robots That Search For Mars Life - As part of ESA's ambitious, long-term Aurora exploration programme, ExoMars will search for traces of life on Mars. July 12, 2006

High-Energy Fireworks Linked To Massive Star Cluster - Call it the Bermuda Triangle of our Milky Way Galaxy: a tiny patch of sky that has been known for years to be the source of the mysterious blasts of X-rays and gamma rays. July 11, 2006

NASA's Micro-Satellites Complete Technology Validation Mission - NASA's three orbiting micro-satellites known as Space Technology 5 have completed their planned 90-day mission. July 10, 2006

Supernova Leaves Behind Mysterious Object - Thanks to data from ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite, a team of scientists taking a closer look at an object discovered over 25 years ago have found that it is like none other known in our galaxy. July 09, 2006

Was There Life On Mars? - A mysterious shiny coating found on rocks in many of Earth's arid environments could reveal whether there was once life on Mars, according to new research. July 08, 2006

Sky Shade Could Reveal Planets - A gigantic, daisy-shaped space shield could be used to block out pesky starlight and allow astronomers using an orbiting telescope to zero in on Earth-like planets in other solar systems, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder study. July 07, 2006

Saturn's Faint Rings Share Some Of Their Secrets - NASA Cassini spacecraft images of Saturn's diaphanous G and E rings are yielding new clues about their structure and formation. July 06, 2006

Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A - Why is peculiar galaxy Centaurus A so dusty? July 05, 2006

Planemos May Give Rise to Planets, Moons - The textbook account of where planetary systems come from-namely, disks of dust and gas that encircle stars-may require an addendum. Researchers have found that comparable disks girdle distant exoplanets far less massive than our sun. July 04, 2006

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Marks Mission Halfway Point - As the Cassini spacecraft reaches the halfway mark in its four-year tour of the Saturn system, discoveries made during the first half of the mission have scientists revved up to find out what's in store for the second act. July 03, 2006

New Way Suggested To Search For Life On Mars - A shiny coating found on rocks in many of Earth's deserts suggest a new way to search for signs of life on Mars, scientists said. July 02, 2006

Mysterious Lunar Swirls Stump Scientists - Lunar swirls are strange markings on the Moon that resemble the cream in your coffee - on a much larger scale. What are they? "We don't know," says Bob Lin of UC Berkeley, who has been studying the swirls for almost 40 years. "These things are very strange." July 01, 2006

New Image Of Supernova In Interacting Galaxy - Life is not easy, even for galaxies. Some indeed get so close to their neighbours that they get rather distorted. But such encounters between galaxies have another effect: they spawn new generations of stars, some of which explode. June 30, 2006

Hubble Reveals Two Dust Disks Around Nearby Star - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed not one but two dust disks circling the nearby star Beta Pictoris. June 29, 2006

Double Vortex At Venus South Pole Unveiled - ESA’s Venus Express data undoubtedly confirm for the first time the presence of a huge 'double-eye' atmospheric vortex at the planet's south pole. June 28, 2006

Evidence For Ultra-Energetic Particles In Jet From Black Hole - An international team of astronomers led by researchers at Yale has obtained key infrared observations that reveal the nature of quasar particle jets that originate just outside super-massive black holes ... June 27, 2006

Cluster Satellites Discover Space Bubbles Near Earth - Above our heads, where the Earth's magnetic field meets the constant stream of gas from the Sun, thousands of bubbles of superheated gas are constantly growing and popping. June 26, 2006

Scientists Find The Reason Behind Black Holes' Light Shows - A team of astronomers led by the University of Michigan may know how black holes are lighting up the Universe. June 25, 2006

Pluto's Newly Found Moons Named Nix, Hydra - Meet the newest kids in the solar system: Nix and Hydra. The pair of moons orbiting Pluto were officially christened last week by the International Astronomical Union, which is in charge of approving celestial names. June 24, 2006

NASA'S Cassini Spacecraft Captures Saturnian Moon Ballet - The cold, icy orbs of the Saturn system come to life in a slew of new movie clips from the Cassini spacecraft showing the ringed planet's moons in motion. June 23, 2006

Space Telescope Sees Billions Of Years Back In Time - Astronomers take a peek through a NASA telescope and see how space was 9 billion years ago. June 22, 2006

When Galaxies Collide: Supercomputers Reproduce Fluid Motions Of Cosmic Duet - A wispy collection of atoms and molecules fuels the vast cosmic maelstroms produced by colliding galaxies and merging supermassive black holes ... June 21, 2006

Arctic Studies Shed New Light On Mars - When scientists examined a meteorite from Mars under a microscope, they discovered tiny mineral spheres that, some argued, were produced by living organisms. June 20, 2006

The Striking Ratios Gas Planets To Their Moons - Each of our Solar System's outer gaseous planets hosts a system of multiple satellites, and these objects include Jupiter's volcanic Io and Europa with its believed subsurface ocean ... June 19, 2006

Astronomers Discover Universe's 'Smoking Gun' - Massive star supernovae have been major "dust factories" ever since the first generations of stars formed several hundred million years after the Big Bang ... June 18, 2006

Three New 'Trojan' Asteroids Found Sharing Neptune's Orbit - Three new objects locked into roughly the same orbit as Neptune-called "Trojan" asteroids-have been found by researchers from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (DTM) and the Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. June 17, 2006

Humans Must Colonize Space To Survive - Humans must establish a base on the moon and colonize Mars within the next 40 years if we're to avoid extinction from global warming or another catastrophe, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said. June 16, 2006

Galaxy Evolution In Cyber Universe Matches Astronomical Observations In Fine Detail - Scientists at the University of Chicago have bolstered the case for a popular scenario of the big bang theory that neatly explains the arrangement of galaxies throughout the universe. June 15, 2006

Startling Galactic Highway Found In Milky Way - A newly detected stream of stars festoons the northern sky in a sweeping arc that cuts across the entire constellation of Ursa Major ... June 14, 2006

Corkscrew Asteroid Leaving The Neighborhood - A tiny asteroid looping around Earth for the past seven years is about to leave the neighborhood. June 13, 2006

NASA's Future Is In Discovery's Hands - After another yearlong suspension of flights, NASA is about three weeks away from launching Discovery and seven astronauts on a trip to the space station ... June 12, 2006

Scientists Solve The Mystery Of Methane In Titan's Atmosphere - An international team of planetary scientists may have solved the mystery of why the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, is rich in methane. June 11, 2006

Hubble Sees Galaxy On Edge - Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves ... June 10, 2006

Mysterious Carbon Excess Found In Infant Solar System - Astronomers detected unusually high quantities of carbon, the basis of all terrestrial life, in an infant solar system around nearby star Beta Pictoris, 63 light-years away. June 09, 2006

Two Biggest Storms In The Solar System Converge - The two biggest storms in the solar system are about to go bump in the night, in plain view of backyard telescopes. June 08, 2006

Andromeda Adrift In Sea Of Dust In New Spitzer Image - The Andromeda galaxy, named for the mythological princess who almost fell prey to a sea monster, appears tranquil in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. June 07, 2006

Killer Meteor Crater Found Under Ice In Antarctica - Planetary scientists have found evidence of a meteor impact much larger and earlier than the one that killed the dinosaurs - an impact that they believe caused the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history. June 06, 2006

Spaceships Of The Future To Take Humans To Mars - Humans can build spaceships capable of reaching the Moon within minutes; a flight to Mars will take 2.5 hours, and a flight to Alpha Centauri, which is scores of light years away from Earth, will take a mere 80 days. June 05, 2006

Supercomputers Reproduce Fluid Motions Of Galaxy Collisions - A wispy collection of atoms and molecules fuels the vast cosmic maelstroms produced by colliding galaxies and merging supermassive black holes ... June 04, 2006

Interstellar Boundary Explorer Enters New Phase - Just as the Voyager 2 spacecraft is approaching the edge of our solar system, Southwest Research Institute received official confirmation from NASA Headquarters to proceed into the mission ... June 03, 2006

Saturn's Moon Enceladus May Have Rolled Over - Enceladus, a small icy moon of Saturn, may have dramatically reoriented relative to its axis of rotation, rolling over to put an area of low density at the moon's south pole. June 02, 2006

The Ozone Layer's Recovering - Over the last few decades, scientists have been tracking the depletion of the ozone layer in the Earth's atmosphere ... June 01, 2006

Interiors of Extrasolar Planets: A First Step - A team of European astronomers, led by T. Guillot (CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, France), will publish a new study of the physics of Pegasids in Astronomy and Astrophysics. May 31, 2006

Voyager 2 Detects Odd Shape Of Solar System's Edge - Voyager 2 could pass beyond the outermost layer of our solar system, called the "termination shock," sometime within the next year. May 30, 2006

Ariane 5 ECA Carries Record Payload Mass To GTO - On the evening of 27 May, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on its mission to place two telecommunications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit. May 29, 2006

Satellites Save Lives From Floods, Landslides - Using NASA's advanced Earth-observing satellites, scientists have discovered a new opportunity to build early detection systems that might protect thousands from floods and landslides. May 28, 2006

Scientists Predict How To Detect A Fourth Dimension Of Space - Scientists at Duke and Rutgers universities have developed a mathematical framework they say will enable astronomers to test a new five-dimensional theory of gravity ... May 27, 2006

Astronomers Find Trio Of Neptunes And their Belt - Using the ultra-precise HARPS spectrograph on ESO's 3.6-m telescope at La Silla (Chile), a team of European astronomers have discovered that a nearby star is host to three Neptune-mass planets. May 26, 2006

Hubble's Best Gravitational Lens - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured the first-ever picture of a group of five star-like images of a single distant quasar. May 25, 2006

Exposed Bedrock On Mars - As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity continues to traverse from "Erebus Crater" toward "Victoria Crater," the rover navigates along exposures of bedrock between large, wind-blown ripples. May 24, 2006

Akari Delivers Its First Images - AKARI, the new Japanese infrared sky surveyor mission in which ESA is participating, saw ‘first light’ on 13 April 2006 (UT) and delivered its first images of the cosmos. May 23, 2006

Innovative Technique Used To Discover Planet - An international team of professional and amateur astronomers, using simple off-the-shelf equipment to trawl the skies for planets outside our solar system ... May 22, 2006

Group Organized To Develop Ambitious Survey Telescope - The LSST will use an 8-meter primary mirror and a two billion- pixel digital camera to scan the complete visible night sky every week to a deep magnitude. May 21, 2006

Venus Express Has Reached Final Orbit - Less than one month after insertion into orbit, and after sixteen loops around the planet Venus, ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft reached its final operational orbit. May 20, 2006

Galaxy Clusters Have Different Supernova Yields - Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the Universe. Each cluster can contain hundreds or even thousands of galaxies held together by gravity. May 19, 2006

Blue Ring Discovered Around Uranus - The outermost ring of Uranus, discovered just last year, is bright blue, making it only the second known blue ring in the solar system. May 18, 2006

Twin Supernovae In NGC 3190 - Supernovae are rare enough, but astronomers discovered two going off in galaxy NGC 3190 at the same time. May 17, 2006

Largest-ever 3D Map Of A Million Galaxies - An international team of astronomers has released new results on the Cosmos, based on the largest map of the heavens ever produced. May 16, 2006

New Capture Scenario Explains Origin Of Neptune's Oddball Moon Triton - Neptune's large moon Triton may have abandoned an earlier partner to arrive in its unusualorbit around Neptune. May 15, 2006

Comet Break-up Puts On Sky Show - A comet is delighting astronomers with a marvellous night-time display as it makes a near pass of the Earth. May 14, 2006

Probe Images 'Smiley Face' Crater - Images taken by Europe's Mars Express spacecraft show a crater on the Red Planet that looks like a "happy face". May 13, 2006

U.S. Launches New Era of Space Diplomacy - NASA seems to be embarking on a new era of space diplomacy. An accord to cooperate with India on an unmanned moon mission was sewn up this week ... May 13, 2006

Light So Fast It Actually Goes Backwards - In the past few years, scientists have found ways to make light go both faster and slower than its usual speed, but now researchers have gone one step further: pushing light into reverse. May 12, 2006

Hubble : Earth Safe From Some Gamma-Ray Bursts - Homeowners may have to worry about floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes destroying their homes, but at least they can remove long-duration gamma-ray bursts ... May 11, 2006

Spitzer Telescope Sees Trail of Comet Crumbs - NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has snapped a picture of the bits and pieces making up Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 ... May 11, 2006

Hubble Snaps Baby Pictures Of Jupiter's 'Red Spot Jr.' - NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers their most detailed view yet of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter. May 10, 2006

Titan's Seas are Sand - Until a couple of years ago, scientists thought the dark equatorial regions of Titan might be liquid oceans. May 10, 2006

Up on the Moon, The Sky is Falling - Every day, more than a metric ton of meteoroids hits the Moon... May 9, 2006

Strong Pull of Jupiter - Jupiter on closest approach. May 5, 2006

Phoenix Mars Lander - Coming together in preparation for its launch. May 5, 2006

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