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This is devastating news. The BBC is reporting that ExoMars — a joint program between NASA and the European Space Agency with Martian missions scheduled for 2016 and 2018 — is on the ropes, owing to America's budgetary woes. More »
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In theory, a supernova thousands of light-years away could release gamma-rays that would fry most life on Earth. But the star must be positioned exactly right for this to ever happen, and there's no way to prove it. Until now. More »
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Passenger planes capable of hypersonic speeds, or five times the speed of sound, have been a dream of engineers for decades. Now, there's a real plan in place to build one. It's just going to take a long time. More »
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Looking back on all of humanity's successes in space, it can be easy to forget that many of our accomplishments have been built on the sacrifices of other creatures. Here are ten animals who played an indispensable role in paving the inter-planetary way to space. More »
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For decades, humanity has been launching missions to Mars, in hopes of making sense of the enigma that is our solar system's most Earth-like planet. And as with all good mysteries, many of our investigations have simply led to more questions. More »
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You're looking at an image of Tharsis Tholus, an extinct Martian volcano that by Earthly standards is positively massive: towering 8km above its surrounding terrain, the dormant giant's tallest peak almost matches that of Mt. Everest. More »
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The asteroid belt is full of remnants of the ancient solar system, giant clumps of rock that might have formed a planet under different circumstances. Now we've found the first asteroid that's exactly how it was billions of years ago. More »
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What costs a billion euros, can operate in temperatures in excess of 500 degrees celsius, and orbits the sun closer than any spacecraft in human history? More »
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This image reveals the dark sediments and worn path of what was once a river delta, connecting a river with its lake terminus. Though this river bed has been dry for eons, it's proof that rivers once ran on Mars. More »
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Since 1994, Hubble Space Telescope has been taking pictures of newly-born stars in the Orion Nebula and the southern constellation of Vela — two regions of space located roughly 1350 light-years from Earth. More »
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The small moon Enceladus is constantly shooting water vapor out of its geysers. But that water isn't staying on the satellite - it's actually making its way to Saturn, making Enceladus the first known moon to shape its planet's composition. More »
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Hubble telescope has captured this incredible, highly-detailed shot of the Tarantula Nebula, which is an enormous, many-legged cloud of dust created by multiple supernovae - one of which was visible from Earth back in the 17th century. Many new, hot stars burn in the heart of the nebula, ionizing its gas and giving it that lurid red glow. The nebula is so bright that it's visible with the naked eye on clear nights here on Earth, 170,000 light years away.Click here to see the embiggened image!According to a release from NASA about the photo:

The part of the nebula visible in this image from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys is criss-crossed with tendrils of dust and gas churned up by recent supernovae. These supernova remnants include NGC 2060, visible above and to the left of the centre of this image, which contains the brightest known pulsar . . . Near the edge of the nebula, outside the frame, below and to the right, lie the remains of supernova SN 1987a, the closest supernova to Earth to be observed since the invention of telescopes in the 17th century. Hubble and other telescopes have been returning to spy on this stellar explosion regularly since it blew up in 1987, and each subsequent visit shows an expanding shockwave lighting up the gas around the star, creating a pearl necklace of glowing pockets of gas around the remains of the star. Find out more about the extraordinary volume of space where the Tarantula nebula resides, with neighbors that include the heaviest known star and ultra-bright star clusters, via ESA/HubbleImage via NASA/ESA More »
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Most of the craters created by meteorite and asteroid impacts are round, nothing like this strangely elongated, oval-shaped crater recently discovered on Mars. This crater just might be the trendiest meteorite landing spot on all of Mars. More »
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At 1 PM yesterday in Moscow, three astronauts from the European Space Agency's 520-day simulated trip to Mars finally touched down on a 10 meter by 6 meter recreation of the planet's Gusev Crater. From the ESA: More »
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The introduction of invasive species through the ballast water carried in ocean-going vessels is one of the biggest threats to marine environments. The ESA is using weapons hundreds of miles above the ocean surface in this environmental battle. More »
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This new photograph of the Milky Way's galactic plane, taken by the ESA's Planck Observatory, reveals the massive plumes of cold dust that swirl high above and below the star fields of our galaxy. More »
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Early this morning, an object that was most likely a small asteroid zoomed past Earth, narrowly missing a collision course. Now a European astronomer says it's possible that this object could be part of the ESA's Venus probe. More »
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How close are we to long-term human habitation beyond low-Earth orbit? Colonies on the moon or Mars are still many years off, but the good news is there are several serious efforts underway to make it happen. More »
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Why do parts of the Iris Nebula appear so red? Based on these new NASA/ESA images, researchers believe an unknown chemical, maybe hydrocarbon-based, is at work. Click through for a wide-field image that shows why it's called the Iris Nebula. More »
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It's been reported that a planned mission to Titan will use a robotic boat to explore the liquid-methane seas. But the project will also have eyes in the sky: a hot-air balloon will circumnavigate Titan and observe its multiform topography. More »
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First Virtuality, and now Defying Gravity, predict we'll someday watch the adventures of cloistered astronauts broadcast from space. But why wait? Some suggest the upcoming simulated Mars missions offer the perfect opportunity to introduce the space program to reality television. More »
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We're sending not one, but two probes to the sun in the next few years. Hopefully making first contact with the super-hot aliens who have been watching us from inside the solar coronas. Gallery below. More »
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As our sister site Gizmodo reported yesterday, the European Space Agency's cargo craft Jules Verne returned from its mission to the International Space Station — and went out in a blazing ball of glory. You all saw the photos yesterday, but now the ESA has released a high-res video of Jules Verne's destructive re-entry — and hey, since it looks like the Hubble's going to be out of commission until 2009, thank goodness they did. More »
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Europe's Rosetta space probe just flew past the Steins asteroid earlier today, and here's an artist's impression of the event. The plucky little probe flew into an asteroid belt and did a close flyby of Steins, which is a rare E-type asteroid. The data from the flyby will give us way more insights into the evolution of our solar system by allowing scientists to examine matter dating from different eras. Click through for another asteroid flyby image, plus an impression of Rosetta reaching its final destination in 2014: the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. (And then Rosetta will follow the comet around the sun.) More »
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The XMM-Newton space telescope has been really into dark and heavy stuff lately. No, the x-ray observatory didn't find its parents' old Black Sabbath albums — it found the most massive galactic cluster on record, a conglomerate of galaxies weighing more than 1,000 times as much as the Milky Way. The cluster's extreme distance is a puzzling paradox, or it might help prove that the universe is full of mysterious dark energy. More »
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Almost six billion years ago, two of the largest gravitational structures in the universe slammed into each other with velocities in the millions of miles per hour. Galactic clusters are collections of galaxies (sometimes thousands of them) that seem to hang together in violation of the known laws of physics. Not only did this ancient collision result in a stunningly beautiful image, but it's given astrophysicists an important clue about the nature of dark matter. More »
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The European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter passed within a few kilometers of Phobos last week. While it was there, it took some stunning high resolution photos of the irregular Martian moon. We're talking almost "Phobos Street View" resolution here. Mars Express also took some shots with its stereo cameras. So put on your blue and red cardboard glasses and check out Phobos in thrilling 3D. More »
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This deep gorge known as the Echus Chasma was ripped into the Martian soil by gushing water, and scientists speculate that it may once have boasted giant, 4000-meter-high waterfalls. This image, by the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite, was released this week along with a few others. We've got an even more gorgeous one for you below. More »
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Get ready for the first gadgets to be stamped with the words, "Made In Space." The European Space Agency has plans to manufacture lightweight metal compounds under zero-gravity conditions on the International Space Station. The new materials could boost the efficiency of hydrogen engines and make aircraft faster, more powerful and less expensive to build. If we can achieve the proper thrust-to-weight ratio, jet-powered aircraft could become cheap enough that everyone can afford one. More »
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The first lunar colonists will grow their own vegetables directly in the soil of the moon, while Earthbound romantics will order moonroses for their sweethearts. Researchers now claim that instead of carting tons of Earth soil to the moon for agriculture, moonfarms will use the dirt, rock and dust already present. The secret to growing plants on the seemingly infertile lunar surface? Just add bacteria. More »
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If the 800-degree heat or crushing atmospheric pressure doesn't get you, you might want to watch out for spewing plumes of sulfur dioxide and liquid lava flows on your next visit to Venus. We've long known that our neighboring planet has lots of volcanoes, but no one is sure if any of them are currently active. It's impossible to see through Venus' dense CO2 atmosphere, but the European Space Agency's Venus Express orbiter has found evidence of drastic, sudden chemical changes at high altitudes. An active volcano might be the culprit. More »
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The European Space Agency successfully completed a major test of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) on Monday, moving within 11 meters of the International Space Station. Tomorrow, in a final test, it will reach the ISS dock. The Jules Verne ATV, seen here from the ISS, is an amazing multi-purpose vehicle that will take over the cargo-ferrying duties of the Soviet Progress vessels and the American Space Shuttle, schlepping critical supplies to astronauts on-board the ISS. It's essentially a beta version of the kinds of vehicles that will bring beer and donuts to moon bases for hungry lunar tourists. More »
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There are more robot space probes now than any other time in history, says MSNBC. Blame the new space race: Europe, Japan, China, India, Canada and South Korea have all launched probes, or will soon. A gallery of this international flotilla, after the jump. More »
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Did you know there are at least 9,000 chunks of trash orbiting the Earth? Turns out they look gorgeous and wreath-y, at least in this gallery images depicting Earth's space junk. [U.S. News & World Report] More »
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