Scientists Discover Record Fifth Planet Orbiting Nearby Star
Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system.

NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis To Move To Launch Pad Saturday
Space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Saturday, Nov. 10, as preparations for the STS-122 mission move forward.

Shooting for the moon
Clues to Earth's earliest days and first microbial inhabitants may survive in an unexpected place: the moon.

Meteorites Supplied Earth Life with Phosphorus, Scientists Say
University of Arizona scientists say they have discovered that meteorites, particularly iron meteorites, may have been critical to the evolution of life on Earth.

Streams, rivers, springs and rain
New images from Saturn’s moon Titan show familiar Earth-like features including springs, rivers, streams and rainfall – but with exotic ingredients, scientists say.

Even 'failed stars' form planets
An international team of astronomers shows that even brown dwarfs start to form planets

New study of solar system speculates about life on other planets
A comprehensive review by leading scientists about our Solar System which speculates on the possibility of life on other planets has been published.

Forming super-Earths by ultraviolet stripping
A new explanation for forming "super-Earths" suggests that they are more likely to be found orbiting red dwarf stars

Unlocking the frozen secrets of comet Wild 2
Eleven months ago, NASA’s Stardust mission touched down in the Utah desert with the first solid comet samples ever retrieved from space.

Keeping Mars warm with new super greenhouse gases
A study indicating that if Mars could somehow acquire an Earth-like atmospheric composition and surface pressure then an Earth-like temperature could be sustained by a mixture of five to seven fluorine compounds

Pre-Global Surveyor evidence for Martian ground water
A time-dependent theory for the evolution of water on Mars is presented.

Use of spacecraft data to derive regions on Mars where liquid water would be stable
Combining Viking pressure and temperature data with Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter topography data, the authors have computed the fraction of the martian year during which pressure and temperature allow for liquid water to be stable on the martian surface.

Constraints on nebular dynamics and chemistry based on observations of annealed magnesium silicate grains in comets and in disks surrounding Herbig Ae/Be stars
Understanding dynamic conditions in the Solar Nebula is the key to prediction of the material to be found in comets.

Dust-enshrouded star looks similar to our sun
Astronomers report tremendous quantities of warm dusty debris surrounding a star with luminosity and mass similar to the sun's, but located 300 light-years from Earth.

Carnegie scientists fine-tuning methods for Stardust analysis
NASA's Stardust mission landed safely with the first solid comet fragments ever brought back to Earth.

The search for life on Mars begins in Siberia
NASA and Russian scientists have been selected to take the search for life in the solar system to the frozen reaches of Earth.

Search for alien life challenges current concepts, says U. of Colorado prof.
For scientists eying distant planets and solar systems for signs of alien activity, University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Carol Cleland suggests the first order of business is to keep an open mind.

Ideas on gas-giant planet formation take shape
Rocky planets such as Earth and Mars are born when small particles smash together to form larger, planet-sized clusters in a planet-forming disk, but researchers are less sure about how gas-giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn form.

Relic of life in that Martian meteorite? A fresh look
Since the mid-1990s a great debate has raged over whether organic compounds and tiny globules of carbonate minerals imbedded in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 were processed by living creatures from the Red Planet.

NASA predicts nongreen plants on other planets
NASA scientists believe they have found a way to predict the color of plants on planets in other solar systems.