Martian rock #N165, it's your time to shine, or glow, or whatever occurs when a hard substance gets zapped by a laser beam.
India celebrated it's Independence day with an out of this world announcement. CNN's Ram Ramgopal has the story.
"Mohawk Guy," a Mars rover flight director, isn't just a social media sensation -- he made an impression on President Barack Obama, too.
The Mars rover, Curiosity, has been busy tweeting pics of itself from exotic locations. CNN's John Zarrella reports.
It inspired childlike moments of wonder. It was a feeling that many had not felt since NASA's final space shuttle launch, Atlantis in July 2011.
Watch animation of Curiosity's journey to the surface of Mars, told through tweets the rover sent en route.
Humanity's curiosity about Mars has led to an exciting event: the dramatic landing of an SUV-sized rover, set for 1:31 a.m. ET Monday.
What's the cost to science if the U.S. slows down its exploration of other worlds? Bill Nye explains.
Years before Bill Nye became the Science Guy, he was a mechanical engineering student at Cornell University, where he took a course with astronomer Carl Sagan.
Tonight, Tuesday, June 5, as the sun set on the East Coast, the planet Venus began its "transit" across the face of the sun. Pay close attention: Barring a miracle of future medicine, this is your only chance to witness such a crossing. The next one will take place in 2117.
Americans were enthralled by fake reports of an alien invasion in the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast on Halloween Eve in 1938. Hundreds of science fiction movies from the 1902 silent epic "A Trip to the Moon" (featured in the current film "Hugo") to "Star Wars" to this year's "Cowboys and Aliens" have fed a deep curiosity about intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe.
Kepler-22b is the first planet in the "habitable zone" with liquid water on its surface discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.
CNN's John Zarrella reports on a growing body of evidence that there is life beyond Earth.
Kepler-22b is the first confirmed planet in the "habitable zone," the area around a star where a planet could exist with liquid water on its surface, that has been discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.
Nearly everyone I meet has heard of the Hubble Space Telescope. Many have seen its beautiful images of the birthplace of new stars and planetary systems, or of the "gravitational lenses" that reveal a mysterious "dark matter" that dwarfs the amount of matter bound up in stars or galaxies.
On Tuesday, asteroid 2005 YU55 is scheduled to pass near Earth, slightly closer than the moon.
On Tuesday, asteroid 2005 YU55 is scheduled to pass near Earth, slightly closer than the moon. If you've seen the "Asteroid" (1997) or "Deep Impact" (1998) movies, you know why people pay attention to what NASA calls "potentially hazardous objects": A large asteroid hitting the Earth could cause global catastrophe.
It was much too late on a Tuesday when a fellow astronomer friend and I found ourselves catching a cab back to Berkeley, having missed the last train home. My friend promptly dozed off in the taxi, leaving me to chat with our driver -- who wondered how we could be out so late with jobs to go to in the morning.
Lucianne Walkowicz discusses the techniques she is using to find planetary systems, including those similar to Earth's.
Could there have been life on Mars? That's the mission NASA is setting out to answer with Curiosity, the next-generation Mars rover whose landing site was announced Friday at the National Air and Space Museum's annual Mars Day.
NASA celebrates as shuttle Atlantis returns home from its final mission.
Atlantis, the last space shuttle, returned to Earth on Thursday and will go to its post-retirement gig at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. After more than 30 years and 135 shuttle flights by literally hundreds of astronauts, NASA has reason to be proud.
Atlantis, which took off last week on NASA's final space shuttle voyage, won't be the only spacecraft to make significant steps this year.
Cosmonauts walked on the surface of Mars on Monday, nearly a year into a mission to the red planet. Unfortunately, it's only a simulation, designed to test what would happen on a real flight to Mars.
Are we alone in the universe? Findings by NASA's Kepler space telescope are making that seem less likely.
Travel twenty minutes north of this tiny town, to the craggy red desert of the San Rafael Swell, and you may discover a spaceship.
Mars enthusiasts simulate life on the Red Planet at a research station in the Utah desert. Go to VBS.TV for more.
NASA Researcher Natalie Batalha spoke to CNN's Kristie Lu Stout about a new planet outside our solar system.
A NASA spacecraft has detected a rocky planet that is the smallest ever discovered outside the Sun's solar system, the agency announced Monday.
Astronomers have discovered a new planet that just may be able to support life in a nearby solar system a mere 20 light years from Earth.
Astronomer Derrick Pitts talks about the possibility of life on a recently discovered planet.
Two planets slightly smaller than Saturn have been discovered orbiting a distant star, a first for NASA's Kepler space telescope, whose mission is to look for signs of planets passing in front of stars, the space agency said Thursday.
For more than a year, the spacecraft Kepler has been combing the vastness of space looking for Earth-like planets.
Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov searches for Earthlike planets that may answer questions about the origin of life elsewhere.
Since the time of Nicolaus Copernicus five centuries ago, people have wondered whether there are other planets like Earth in the universe. Today scientists are closer than ever to an answer -- and it appears to be that the Milky Way galaxy is rich in Earth-sized planets, according to astronomer Dimitar Sasselov.
Space shuttle Atlantis lands safely at Florida's Kennedy Space Center, completing its final mission.
Space shuttle Atlantis landed here Wednesday, concluding the final mission of its 25-year career.
Scientists don't know why, but one of Jupiter's two main cloud belts has disappeared -- again.
NASA has big plans for its Mars Exploration Program.
The portrayal of alien life on far-flung planets has been a favorite storyline for filmmakers down the years and is a perennial hit with audiences. "Avatar" has proved no different with the film doing record business at the box-office.
Following the success of Avatar, Lisa Kaltenegger explains how close we are to discovering new worlds.
Thirty-two planets have been discovered outside Earth's solar system through the use of a high-precision instrument installed at a Chilean telescope, an international team announced Monday.
Scientists have discovered the first confirmed Earthlike planet outside our solar system, they announced Wednesday.
For one of the farthest, coldest places in the solar system, Pluto sure stirs a lot of hot emotions right here on Earth.
Jupiter is sporting a new scar after an unseen object hit the gaseous planet this week, NASA scientists say.
CNN's John Zarrella reports that NASA is starting an unprecedented search for planets where life is possible.
Calling it a mission that may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself, NASA on Friday launched a telescope that will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.
The U.S. space agency NASA will launch its first ever mission Friday to find Earth-like planets in our region of the Milky Way.
As NASA prepares to hunt for Earth-like planets in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy, there's new buzz that "Star Trek's" vision of a universe full of life may not be that far-fetched.
Miles O'Brien explores the possibility of intelligent life beyond Earth.
From a remote valley in Northern California, Jill Tarter is listening to the universe.
The first-ever pictures of planets outside the solar system have been released in two studies.
A newly discovered dwarf planet in the solar system has been given a Hawaiian name: Haumea
The soil on Mars may contain microbial life, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago.
Chemical elements observed around a burned-out star known as a white dwarf offer evidence Earth-like planets once orbited it, suggesting that worlds like our own may not be rare in the cosmos, scientists said Thursday.
Mars probe explained
Experts who study mergers and acquisitions know deals have a dark secret: Most of them destroy shareholder value. The question is why, and the answer, according to David Harding, has a lot to do wi...
Long before David Bowie crooned, "Is there life on Mars?" scientists have wondered the same - are we alone in our solar system? Now striking pictures suggesting the presence of liquid water on the Martian surface have scientists believing we are getting closer to finding out.
Colonize another planet? I'm perfectly happy here, thank you very much.
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.
Science teachers consider Pluto's flunking out of planet status a plus rather than a minus.
Dozens of rocky bodies that are part of a sea of small rocky fragments never observed before have been spotted in the suburbs of our solar system beyond planet Neptune, thanks to a novel technique.
Three medium-sized planets of roughly the same mass as Neptune have been discovered around a nearby sun-like star, scientists announced today.
In July, the space shuttle Discovery is slated to deliver two tons of hardware and supplies to the partially built international space station. This mission is paid for.
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."
German astrophysicists have concluded a space body located in the outer reaches of the solar system has a diameter 435 miles (700 kilometers) larger than Pluto, the smallest planet.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft roared into space Thursday afternoon bound for the planet Pluto. The spacecraft is the fastest ever launched, according to NASA.
NASA officials have scrubbed Wednesday's launch attempt of the New Horizons spacecraft because of an unresolved power outage. Tuesday's launch was scrubbed because of strong winds.
NASA officials scrubbed the launch of the New Horizons spacecraft Tuesday because of strong winds. They will try again Wednesday at 1:16 p.m. ET.
NASA is set to launch a space probe called New Horizons today to capture the first up-close imagery of Pluto, its moons and a region of the outer solar system called the Kuiper Belt.
New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show the planet Uranus has two additional moons and two faint rings never observed before.
A date has been set for the launch of the first ever solar sail-powered spacecraft.
Australian researchers have helped discover a new planet in the Milky Way, and they believe it's just a matter of time before more are discovered.
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.
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.
Sitting on the hill of an alien world millions of miles from home, a hardy NASA robot celebrates an anniversary Monday -- one year on the planet Mars.
Scientists have proposed a scheme to introduce a series of planetary parks on Mars that would see areas of the Red Planet transformed into conservation zones.
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.
A group of European-led astronomers has made a photograph of what appears to be a planet orbiting another star. If so, it would be the first confirmed picture of a world beyond our solar system.
In a discovery that has left one expert stunned, European astronomers have found one of the smallest planets known outside our solar system, a world about 14 times the mass of our own around a star much like the sun.
Jupiter's atmosphere still contains remnants of a comet impact from a decade ago, but scientists said last week they are puzzled by how two substances have spread into different locations.
Life is hard. For some, it's almost impossible.
Scientists aren't sure what the interiors of Jupiter and Saturn look like or how the planets formed. But a new study of their insides suggests they took different paths to giant status.
The spacecraft Cassini is sending back the finest images ever captured of Saturn's rings, giving scientists new insights into the planet, the origin of our solar system and even the formation of galaxies.
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.
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 new twist on an emerging theory says the sun was born amid massive, short-lived stars that sculpted our solar system with intense radiation and violent explosions that may have affected the origin of life.
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 Mars rover Opportunity is sending fresh data, including new photographs taken on the vehicle's parachute trip to the planet's surface, to mission control.
They've invaded Earth, tried to steal our air, and attacked Bugs Bunny. For Pete's sake, they've even kidnapped Santa Claus.
Saying "the desire to explore and understand is part of our character," President Bush Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to return Americans to the moon by 2020 and use the mission as a steppingstone for future manned trips to Mars and beyond.
Loading weather data ...