Space News: Page 21

Earth's Oldest Known Impact Crater Found in Greenland (June 28, 2012): A 100 kilometer-wide crater has been found in Greenland.

Exoplanet HD 189733b Gets Blasted by Eruption From Its Host Star (June 28, 2012): Astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet (HD 189733b) located beyond our solar system.

NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Finds Titan Likely Harbors Subsurface Ocean (June 28, 2012): Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft indicates that Saturn's moon Titan likely harbors a layer of liquid water under its ice shell.

Library of Congress Acquires Carl Sagan Papers With Help From Seth MacFarlane (June 27, 2012): The Library of Congress has acquired the personal papers of American astronomer, astrobiologist and science communicator Carl Sagan (1934-1996).

Caltech Scientists Find New Primitive Mineral in Meteorite (June 26, 2012): California Institute of Technology (Caltech) scientists have found a new primitive meteorite in the Allende meteorite, which exploded in the atmosphere and distributed pieces over Chihuahua, Mexico in 1969.

Polar Mesospheric Clouds Captured From International Space Station (June 26, 2012): These polar mesospheric clouds were captured by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA Video: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror (June 25, 2012): Before Curiosity can begin investigating Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life it first has to survive the descent to Mars.

NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Discovers Planets Locked in Surprisingly Close Orbits (June 25, 2012): Two planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft are orbiting surprisingly close to each other.

Chinese Spacecraft Docks With Orbiting Module (June 24, 2012): A Chinese spacecraft docked with an orbiting module Sunday.

Scientists Estimate Ice Content in Shackleton Crater on Moon's South Pole (June 22, 2012): NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has returned data that indicates ice may make up as much as 22% of the surface material in the Shackleton crater, which is located on the moon's south pole.

New Blue Marble Image of Earth Looks Down on Arctic (June 21, 2012): Ocean scientist Norman Kuring of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center compiled this new view of the Earth using natural-color images from the Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the recently launched Suomi-NPP satellite.

Euclid Telescope Will Study Dark Energy and Dark Matter (June 20, 2012): The Euclid mission will study the "dark Universe.

Hubble Image: Chance Alignment Between Galaxies Mimics Cosmic Collision (June 18, 2012): NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a rare view of a pair of overlapping galaxies, called NGC 3314.

Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Lands in California After Classified Mission (June 16, 2012): The Air Force's secret X-37B robotic space plane has landed at Vandenberg Air Force base after a classified mission.

Astronomers Say Small Planets Can Form Around Many Different Types of Stars (June 14, 2012): The formation of small worlds like Earth previously was thought to occur mostly around stars rich in heavy elements such as iron and silicon.

NASA Launches NuStar Observatory to Find Elusive Black Holes (June 13, 2012): NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) launched this morning.

NASA Releases Colorful Animation of Vesta Asteroid (June 11, 2012): A new animation from NASA's Dawn mission drapes high-resolution false color images over a 3D model of the asteroid Vesta's terrain constructed from Dawn's observations.

Researchers Catalog More Than 635,000 Martian Craters (June 11, 2012): Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have found that Mars is truly a beaten and battered planet.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Uncovers Patterns of Light From First Stars and Galaxies (June 10, 2012): Astronomers have uncovered patterns of light that appear to be from the very first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe.

China to Launch Manned Space Flight to Orbiting Space Module in Mid-June (June 10, 2012): The Chinese government announced that it is launching a manned space flight later this month.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Captures 2012 Venus Transit (June 6, 2012): The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) collected images in many wavelengths of the Venus Transit over a six-hour period on June 5-6 2012.

Video: Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains the Transit of Venus (June 5, 2012): Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, explains the Transit of Venus, which occurs today.

Massive Black Hole Being Ejected From Home Galaxy (June 5, 2012): Astronomers say a massive black hole is being ejected from its host galaxy at a speed of several million miles per hour.

Arizona State Astronomers Discover Faint Galaxy 13 Billion Light Years Away (June 2, 2012): Astronomers at Arizona State University have found an exceptionally distant galaxy.

Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies to Collide in 4 Billion Years (June 1, 2012): NASA astronomers say our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the neighboring Andromeda galaxy in four billion years.