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Over-budget Mars rover mission delayed until 2011

The Mars Science Laboratory will not launch before 2011, due to unresolved technical problems (Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

20:11 04 December 2008  | 2 comments

Technical problems are forcing NASA to delay the launch of its Mars Science Laboratory by two years, at a cost of $400 million

'Rhythms' in Martian rocks mark out past climate swings

Step-like layers in a crater in the Arabia Terra region of Mars hint at past climate swings (Image: NASA/JPL/U of Arizona)

19:00 04 December 2008  | 1 comment

Giant stairsteps on Mars are evidence of ancient climate cycles, suggest images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Universe's dark matter mix is 'just right' for life

All life on Earth may owe its existence to the right balance of dark matter in the universe (Image: NASA)

THIS WEEK:  11:28 04 December 2008  | 36 comments

If the total abundance of dark matter in the universe was any different, humans and all other life on Earth might not exist

Light 'echoes' solve mystery of famous supernova

Tycho's supernova left behind an expanding cloud of super-hot debris, which appears green and yellow in this composite X-ray and infrared image stitched together from data from the Spitzer and Chandra space observatories and the Calar Alto observatory in Spain (Image: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy/O Krause/NASA)

20:02 03 December 2008  | 2 comments

The exploding star that Tycho Brahe saw in 1572 was a gluttonous white dwarf, ghostly light from the centuries-old event reveals

Gallery: The lives and deaths of stars

The Helix planetary nebula is constructed from matter ejected by a dying Sun-like star, almost 690 light-years away (Image: NASA, ESA, C R O'Dell (Vanderbilt University), M Meixner and P McCullough (STScI))

13:45 03 December 2008  | 7 comments

See images of stars forming, both in our Milky Way Galaxy and in extreme environments in other distant galaxies

Rocket company offers $95,000 trips to space

Passengers on the two-seat Lynx spacecraft will experience about a minute of weightlessness; they will be strapped down and wearing spacesuits (Illustration: XCOR Aerospace)

22:49 02 December 2008  | 5 comments

XCOR Aerospace says it will sell tickets on its suborbital spaceship for less than half the price of Virgin Galactic

Has an alien comet infiltrated the solar system?

Comet 96P/Machholz (lower left) comes very close to the Sun, whose light is blocked in this 2002 image taken by the SOHO spacecraft (Image: SOHO/LASCO/ESA/NASA)

20:02 02 December 2008  | 53 comments

The peculiar composition of Comet Machholz 1 hints that it may be an interloper from another star system

Meteorite hunters hit pay dirt in Canadian prairie

Ellen Milley, a graduate student at the University of Calgary, found the first meteorite fragment on an ice-covered pond in Canada's Buzzard Coulee valley (Image: Grady Semmens/University of Calgary)

18:33 02 December 2008  | 9 comments

Search teams have found dozens of pieces of a 10-tonne space rock that exploded over central Canada less than two weeks ago

Big bang's afterglow may reveal birthplace of comets

Oort Cloud objects orbit the Sun in a spherical outer shell shown here, as well as in an inner cloud that might be more disc-like. If the inner cloud is squashed enough, it could be detected in radiation left over from the big bang (Illustration: Copyright www.jonlomberg.com)

00:01 02 December 2008  | 8 comments

A shell of icy bodies called the Oort Cloud is too far away to see – but its signature may be hidden in remnant radiation from the big bang

Rare celestial trio dazzles sky watchers

20:00 01 December 2008  | 25 comments

On Monday, Venus, Jupiter and the Moon form a tight triangle on the sky - the Sun's glare blocks most such 'conjunctions'

Space shuttle lands safely in California

The space shuttle Endeavour lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California after completing a mission to the International Space Station (Image: NASA TV)

18:59 30 November 2008  | 4 comments

The shuttle Endeavour touched down in California after thunderstorms and high winds prevented a landing in Florida

Did lack of comet impacts help life evolve?

This artist's concept illustrates a comet being torn to shreds around a dead star, or white dwarf, called G29-38. (Image: C GSF/Caltech/JPL/NASA)

THIS WEEK:  17:52 28 November 2008  | 29 comments

The debris left over by comet collisions across nearby solar systems shows that ours is the least battered, possibly explaining why life developed on Earth

NASA may struggle to afford new space missions

UPFRONT:  17:50 28 November 2008  | 12 comments

Plans for flagship scientific missions to be launched with the next generation of spacecraft may be unrealistic if the agency can't get a grip on its cash

Hopes high for science-friendly approach in US politics

UPFRONT:  10:43 28 November 2008  | 3 comments

Key appointments made in Congress and on Barack Obama's economic team look like good news for science and the environment

Indian Moon probe feels the heat

India's first moon mission is in a hot spot but functioning fine (Image: T A Rector/I P Dell'Antonio/NOAO/AURA/NSF)

12:52 27 November 2008  | 8 comments

Chandrayaan is taking it easy after being caught in a hot spot between Sun and Moon, but no damage is reported

RSS

Why the universe may be teeming with aliens

Even a desert planet might maintain enough liquid water to sustain life (Image: Ariadne Van Zandbergen/Lonely Planet/Getty)

Hunting for a planet that can support life? There's more to it than looking for Earth's distant twin, says David Shiga

'Interplanetary internet' passes first test

NASA successfully tested an internet-like protocol for space, which could some day automate communication with craft and bases beyond Earth's orbit (Illustration: NASA/JPL)

Images were sent between a NASA probe and Earth in the first test of an internet-like data transmission system for space

SPECIAL FEATURE

The most extreme life-forms in the universe

These creatures set records for surviving in the most inhospitable environments on Earth - their existence bodes well for finding extraterrestrial life

SPECIAL FEATURE

Moving the Earth: a planetary survival guide

The Sun is slowly heating up, and in a billion years the oceans will begin to evaporate - moving the Earth is our only hope for survival

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BLOG

Distant planetoid Sedna still has no equal

After two years of searching with giant telescopes, astronomers fail to find anything like Sedna, which boasts the largest known orbit around the Sun

SPACEFLIGHT
Passengers on the two-seat Lynx spacecraft will experience about a minute of weightlessness; they will be strapped down and wearing spacesuits (Illustration: XCOR Aerospace)

Rocket company offers $95,000 trips to space

XCOR Aerospace says it will sell tickets on its suborbital spaceship for less than half the price of Virgin Galactic

FROM THE BLOG

Distant planetoid Sedna still has no equal

15:25 04 December 2008

After two years of searching with giant telescopes, astronomers fail to find anything like Sedna, which boasts the largest known orbit around the Sun

Video: Astronaut's tool bag seen from Earth

12:50 24 November 2008

An astronaut's lost tool bag is probably not what you would expect to see when you look up at the night sky. But that's just what a man in Brockville, Ontario, Canada, captured on videotape from his backyard observatory last...

VIDEO STORY

How to make yourself a star Movie Camera

Want to know what's really happening inside a supernova? Then grab a megalaser and create one for yourself, says Stuart Clark

GALLERY

Baby stars and cosmic votes: The week in space Movie Camera

This week's gallery includes images of stellar baby booms in a nearby galaxy and US astronauts who cast their votes from space

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06 December 2008

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