Summaries | Headlines

Cassini Returns Never-before-seen Views Of The Ringed Planet (March 2, 2007) -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured never-before-seen views of Saturn from perspectives high above and below the planet's rings. Over the last several months, the spacecraft has climbed to higher ... > full story

NASA Spacecraft Gets Boost From Jupiter For Pluto Encounter (March 1, 2007) -- NASA's New Horizons spacecraft successfully completed a flyby of Jupiter early this morning (Feb. 28), using the massive planet's gravity to pick up speed for its 3-billion mile voyage to Pluto and ... > full story

Walking Tall: Student Working On Space Suit Redesign For NASA (February 23, 2007) -- Space suits for astronauts may get a new and better design following a University of Houston doctoral student's locomotion stability research. Melissa Scott-Pandorf is a fellow of the Texas Space ... > full story

Many Moons: Space Scientists Ponder Which Jupiter Moon Will Reveal The Most (February 23, 2007) -- According to William B. McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, the community suffers from an embarrassment of riches, because each of the moons of ... > full story

Jupiter's Moon Europa Should Be NASA's Next Target, Says Researcher (February 22, 2007) -- As NASA develops its next "flagship" mission to the outer solar system, Jupiter's enigmatic moon Europa should be the target, says Arizona State University professor Ronald Greeley. Although Europa ... > full story

NASA's Spitzer First To Crack Open Light Of Faraway Worlds (February 22, 2007) -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured for the first time enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to identify signatures of molecules in their atmospheres. The ... > full story

Here's Comes The Sun: International Heliophysical Year To Examine Sun-Earth Relationship (February 22, 2007) -- The International Heliophysical Year has officially begun (Feb. 19, 2007) -- two years dedicated to a better understanding of the how the Sun affects the Earth and the other planets in the Solar ... > full story

Hunting Martian Fossils Best Bet For Locating Mars Life, Says Researcher (February 19, 2007) -- Hunting for traces of life on Mars calls for two radically different strategies, says Arizona State University professor Jack Farmer. Of the two, he says, with today's exploration technology we can ... > full story

NASA's THEMIS Mission Launched To Study Geomagnetic Substorms (February 18, 2007) -- Taking multitasking to new heights, NASA launched the five THEMIS satellites aboard a single Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Saturday (Feb. 17) at 6:01 p.m. EST. ... > full story

Rosetta Correctly Lined Up For Critical Mars Swingby (February 16, 2007) -- ESA mission controllers have confirmed Rosetta is on track for a critical 250-km Mars swingby on 25 February. Engineers have started final preparations for the delicate operation, which includes an ... > full story

Chandra Peers Into the Pillars of Creation (February 16, 2007) -- A new look at the famous "Pillars of Creation" with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has allowed astronomers to peer inside the dark columns of gas and dust. This penetrating view of the central ... > full story

Mars Orbiter Sees Effects Of Ancient Underground Fluids (February 16, 2007) -- Liquid or gas flowed through cracks penetrating underground rock on Mars, according to a report based on some of the first observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. These fluids may have ... > full story

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NASA -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which was established in 1958, is the agency responsible for the public space program of the United States of America. NASA's vision is "to ... > full article

Space observatory -- A space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects. A large number of observatories have been launched into ... > full article

Phoenix (spacecraft) -- The Phoenix is a planned multi-agency Mars lander, headed by the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, under the direction of NASA, scheduled to launch on August 3, 2007. It is a ... > full article

Exploration of Mars -- The exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration missions of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, and Japan. Dozens of unmanned spacecraft, including ... > full article

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory -- The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was the second of the NASA "Great Observatories" to be launched to space, following the Hubble Space Telescope. The observatory was launched on the Space ... > full article

Voyager program -- The Voyager program consisted of a pair of unmanned scientific probes, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, launched in 1977. They were sent to study Jupiter and Saturn, using an advantageous planetary alignment ... > full article

Space Shuttle Columbia -- Space Shuttle Columbia (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-102) was the first space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. Its first mission, STS-1, lasted from April 12 to April 14, 1981. On February 1, ... > full article

Space exploration -- Space exploration is the physical exploration of outer space by both manned and unmanned spacecraft. The development of large liquid-fueled rocket engines during the early 20th century allowed space ... > full article

Eclipse -- An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one celestial object moves into the shadow of another. The term is most often used to describe either a solar eclipse, when the Moon's shadow ... > full article

Great Red Spot on Jupiter -- The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm on the planet Jupiter, 22 degrees south of the equator, which has lasted at least 340 years. The storm is large enough to be visible through ... > full article

European Space Agency -- The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an inter-governmental organisation dedicated to exploration of space with currently 17 member states. ESA has ambitious space plans that may ... > full article

Spitzer space telescope -- Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility [SIRTF]) is an infrared space observatory, the fourth and final of NASA's Great Observatories. The first images taken by SST ... > full article

Mars -- Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Mars has also earned the nickname "The Red Planet" due to the reddish appearance it has when ... > full article

Deimos (moon) -- Deimos is probably an asteroid that was perturbed by Jupiter into an orbit that allowed it to be captured by Mars, though this hypothesis is still in some dispute. Like most bodies of its size, ... > full article

Chandra X-ray Observatory -- Chandra X-ray Observatory is a satellite launched on STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. It was named in honor of Indian-American physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who is known for determining the ... > full article

Phobos (moon) -- Phobos is the larger and innermost of Mars' two moons, and is named after Phobos, son of Ares (Mars) from Greek Mythology. Phobos orbits closer to a major planet than any other moon in the solar ... > full article

Mars Exploration Rover -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Mission is an unmanned Mars exploration mission that sent two robotic rovers Spirit and Opportunity to explore the Martian surface and geology. Primary among the ... > full article

Saturn -- Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. It is a gas giant, the second-largest planet in the solar system after Jupiter. Saturn has a prominent system of rings, consisting of mostly ice particles ... > full article

Barred spiral galaxy -- A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a band of bright stars emerging from the center and running across the middle of the ... > full article

Space suit -- A space suit is a complex system of garments and equipment and environmental systems designed to keep a person alive and comfortable in the harsh environment of outer ... > full article