NASA plans Valentine's date with comet

Like two strangers in the night, a U.S. spacecraft and a speeding comet will dash past one another on Valentine's Day, NASA said Wednesday, and skywatchers are eager to see what happens.

• more »

• NASA can't afford new rocket, spacecraft
• Russia set to re-enter space tourism business
• NASA spots Earth-like planet, too hot for life
• NASA’s humanlike robot to fly in space
• Dwarf planets in a big solar system
• Sex and space? Houston, we have a problem
• NASA's arsenic life-form scientist answers critics

Star light, star less bright helps measure universe

A Canadian-led study of the distinctive, pulsating stars that astronomers use to calculate vast distances across galaxies is forcing a rethink of these "standard candles" and should lead to more accurate measurements of the key attributes of the universe — including its size, age and rate of expansion.

• more »

NASA can't afford new rocket, spacecraft

NASA this week told Congress it cannot afford to build a new heavy-lift rocket and spacecraft to replace the retiring space shuttle program within the tim frame and budget approved by lawmakers.

• more »

• Russia set to re-enter space tourism business
• Dwarf planets in a big solar system
• NASA spots Earth-like planet, too hot for life
• Safety probe delays space shuttle launch until late February
• Scientists get a close-up scene of a recent asteroid collision

Russia set to re-enter space tourism business

Russia will start selling multimillion-dollar tourist tickets to the International Space Station again in 2013 after a four-year hiatus, the U.S.-based firm that organizes the paid trips said on Thursday.

• more »

• Dwarf planets in a big solar system
• Scientists get a close-up scene of a recent asteroid collision
• Scientists find ‘drastic’ weather-related Atlantic shifts
• Safety probe delays space shuttle launch until late February
• NASA spots Earth-like planet, too hot for life

Dwarf planets in a big solar system

Pluto fans, take heart. Dethroned from the planetary pantheon, the dwarf world may still reign - well, co-reign -as King of the Comet Belt.

• more »

• Planck space telescope serves up cosmic feast
• NASA spots Earth-like planet, too hot for life
• NASA’s humanlike robot to fly in space
• Safety probe delays space shuttle launch until late February
• Newly discovered exoplanet stirs debate on how planetary systems form
• Scientists get a close-up scene of a recent asteroid collision
• Planet from another galaxy found
• Earth-size planets abound in Milky Way: study
• NASA repairs Discovery fuel tanks, sets launch date
• Voyager 1 reaches solar system's outer edge
• God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope

Planck space telescope serves up cosmic feast

Astronomers exulted on Tuesday at the first results from Europe’s billion-dollar Planck space telescope, designed to probe the microwave secrets of the "Big Bang" 14 billion years ago.

• more »

• Image: High-resolution picture from satellite
• 'A snapshot of the sky from billions of years ago'
• NASA spots Earth-like planet, too hot for life
• NASA repairs Discovery fuel tanks, sets launch date
• NASA’s humanlike robot to fly in space