Outer Space

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Mysteries of Space
NASA
Mysteries of Space : Instant Guide
While the planet's ice proves there was once water on Mars, new soil samples reveal the red planet has been experiencing a super drought.

Is Mars too dry for life?

Posted on February 7, 2012, at 6:20 AM

Mineral samples suggest the Red Planet has been left hopelessly parched by a "super-drought" millions of years in the making

Mysteries of Space : Best Column
Plants soaked up our atmosphere's excess carbon dioxide hundreds of millions of years ago, allowing other forms of life to flourish, says Mark Fischetti at Scientific American.

Why we'll never find another planet like Earth

Posted on February 3, 2012, at 1:56 PM

It doesn't matter how hard NASA looks, says Mark Fischetti at Scientific American. Until it identifies another planet with plants, Earth remains stubbornly unique

33 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Best Video
The Northern Lights dazzled the world last week, thanks to the biggest solar storm since 2005.

A massive solar storm's 'spectacular' aurora borealis 

Posted on January 30, 2012, at 4:24 PM

When the sun spits out solar flares, they can disrupt electronics, interrupt air travel — and dazzle stargazers with "astounding" Northern Lights

NASA : Photos
NASA's new "Blue Marble" image is a digital composite of several photos taken by a satellite as it zoomed around the Earth four times on January 4.

NASA's 'impossibly beautiful' photo of Earth

Posted on January 26, 2012, at 11:52 AM

The space agency releases an ultra high-def update to its iconic photo set. Feast your eyes

14 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Instant Guide
Solar Dynamics Observatory captures a massive solar flare, shown here in teal, exploding off the face of our sun 93 million miles away.

The 'strongest solar storm since 2005': A guide

Posted on January 24, 2012, at 1:40 PM

A massive eruption from the sun's surface has Earth primed for a close encounter with a powerful solar flare

Mysteries of Space : Fact Sheet
An illustration of a black hole: The super-dense light gobblers are invisible, and have thus never been photographed.

The groundbreaking plan to photograph a black hole

Posted on January 19, 2012, at 12:58 PM

Scientists want to build an enormous "virtual telescope" capable of taking a picture of a massive black hole 26,000 light years away

9 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Instant Guide
A team of experts is using NASA's Kepler space telescope to hunt for a real-world equivalent of the fictional, life-bearing moon Pandora in the film "Avatar."

The hunt for a real-life Avatar: Will we find life on another planet's moons?

Posted on January 10, 2012, at 6:20 AM

The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler program will extend the space telescope's planet-hunting capabilities and begin the search for a hospitable Pandora

Mysteries of Space : Timeline
A spiral galaxy: While 2011 brought new discoveries from ever newer telescopes, it was the reliable Hubble telescope that discovered the oldest star system on record.

2011's top mysteries of space

Posted on December 29, 2011, at 11:38 AM

Between a giant planet made of diamond and a massive stellar explosion that shone with the light of a trillion suns, this was quite a year for stargazers

9 Comments
NASA : Analysis
A six-foot prototype crossbow: NASA scientists are working with a test harpoon to zero in on the best way to snag a comet.

NASA’s comet-snagging space harpoon 

Posted on December 15, 2011, at 3:32 PM

How do you collect mineral samples from flying asteroids you can't land on? Scientists may have a solution

Mysteries of Space : Opinion Brief
The bright spot just below Mercury has some conspiracy theorists convinced that there's a giant alien spacecraft hanging out in our solar system.

Did NASA spot an alien spaceship near Mercury?

Posted on December 9, 2011, at 2:25 PM

A massive flying object flashes near the planet and then vanishes — sending UFO enthusiasts into a frenzy

32 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Analysis
An artist's conception of Kepler-22b, a planet 600 light years away from Earth, and the first confirmed planet outside our solar system that could conceivably harbor life as we know it.

Discovered: The first habitable 'Earth-like' planet

Posted on December 6, 2011, at 11:15 AM

NASA's Kepler telescope makes a startling, exciting find: An alien world eerily similar to our own, right down to the pleasant summer temperature

17 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Burning Question
A magnified image of two adult C. elegan, the type of microscopic worms sent into space to help better understand how organisms deal with long outerspace trips.

Space worms: The key to human survival on Mars? 

Posted on December 2, 2011, at 4:22 PM

A normally Earthbound wriggler could become the interstellar version of a canary in a coal mine

17 Comments
Mysteries of Space : Best Video
Perfect game? Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa hits the baseball he threw to himself while aboard the International Space Station.

The astronaut who played baseball all by himself

Posted on December 1, 2011, at 1:42 PM

No team? No sweat — at least for spaceman Satoshi Furukawa, who pitches, bats, fields, and floats all by his lonesome

Mysteries of Space : Best Column
The universe is too vast and our technology too limited to successfully locate intelligent life on other planets, says Chris Wilson at Slate.

Why can't we find aliens?

Posted on November 29, 2011, at 5:20 PM

Sure, we haven't successfully phoned E.T. yet, says Slate's Chris Wilson. But let's not give up too easily

24 Comments
NASA : By the numbers
Artist's rendering of NASA's Curiosity rover, which is expected to land on Mars in August 2012.

The Curiosity rover's 'long cruise to Mars': By the numbers

Posted on November 28, 2011, at 12:08 PM

NASA's massive new mobile space lab is set to touch down on the Red Planet next August — in a mission to find evidence of alien life

7 Comments
NASA : The List
This job isn't easy to get: To even be considered, astronaut applicants need 1,000 hours of experience piloting a jet, must be in peak physical condition, and can't be too short, or too tall.

NASA's 'highly competitive' astronaut job application

Posted on November 16, 2011, at 12:13 PM

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