Planet Or Failed Star? One Of Smallest Stellar Companions Seen By Hubble
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one of the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun.

Survival of Spacecraft-Associated Microorganisms under Simulated Martian UV Irradiation
In this study, the endospores of isolated spore-forming bacteria from a growing collection of spacecraft and associated environmental isolates was screened for resistance to UV irradiation at 254 nm

Microbial origin of excess methane in glacial ice and implications for life on Mars
Methane trapped in the 3,053-m-deep Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 ice core provides an important record of millennial-scale climate change over the last 110,000 yr.

Bacillus nealsonii sp. nov., isolated from a spacecraft-assembly facility, whose spores are -radiation resistant
One of the spore-formers isolated from a spacecraft-assembly facility, belonging to the genus Bacillus, is described on the basis of phenotypic characterization, 16S rDNA sequence analysis and DNA–DNA hybridization studies.

Microbial Diversity and Its Relationship to Planetary Protection
In summary, planetary protection issues of great importance include minimization of the inevitable deposition of Earth microbes by humans on the surface of Mars or other potentially life-bearing locations in our solar system...

Models Show One Nearby Star System Could Host Earth-like Planet
The steady discovery of giant planets orbiting stars other than our sun has heightened speculation that there could be Earth-type worlds in nearby planetary systems capable of sustaining life.

Earth-like Planets May Be More Common Than Once Thought
More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study

AKARI's View On Birth And Death Of Stars
AKARI, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) infrared astronomical satellite with ESA participation, is continuing its survey of the sky and its mapping of our cosmos in infrared light.

How Special Is The Solar System?
On the evidence to date, our solar system could be fundamentally different from the majority of planetary systems around stars because it formed in a different way.

Astronomers Trace The Evolution Of The First Galaxies In The Universe
A systematic search for the first bright galaxies to form in the early universe has revealed a dramatic jump in the number of such galaxies around 13 billion years ago.

Supernova Radioisotopes Show Sun Was Born In Star Cluster, Scientists Say
The death of a massive nearby star billions of years ago offers evidence the sun was born in a star cluster, say astronomers...

General relativity survives gruelling pulsar test -- Einstein at least 99.95 percent right
A research team has used three years of observations of the "double pulsar", a unique pair of natural stellar clocks to prove that Einstein's theory of general relativity...

New Lunar Meteorite Found In Antarctica
Scientists have recently discovered that one of the specimens is a rare breed -- a type of lunar meteorite seen only once before.

Cassini Detects Vast Polar Ethane Cloud On Titan
Cassini's Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer has detected what appears to be a massive ethane cloud surrounding Titan's north pole.

Washington University, China's ShanDong University will collaborate on Moon data
Amid a bevy of international space exploration missions to the Moon, US and China have agreed to cooperate on scientific research and joint training of students in the two institutions.

Scientists Snap First Images Of Brown Dwarf In Planetary System
Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered and directly imaged a small brown dwarf star, 50 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting with a planet around a Sun-like star.

The occurrence of Jovian planets and the habitability of planetary systems
This paper reviews and brings together diverse observational and modeling results to infer the frequency and distribution of giant planets around solar-type stars and to assess implications for the habitability of terrestrial planets.

Possible ecosystems and the search for life on Europa
In this article, Europa's suitability for life was examined...

Chains of magnetite crystals in the meteorite ALH84001: Evidence of biological origin
The presence of magnetite crystal chains in ALH84001 was demonstrated by high-power stereo backscattered scanning electron microscopy...

Astronomers See Inside A Quasar For The First Time
For the first time, astronomers have looked inside quasars -- the brightest objects in the universe -- and have seen evidence of black holes.