621–640 of 801 results

Space Missions

Welcome Home, Hayabusa!

In a thrilling tale of triumph over adversity, the Japanese probe Hayabusa slammed into Earth's atmosphere over Australia on June 13, 2010.

Space Missions

Japanese Craft Sail Off to Venus

Are volcanoes erupting on Venus? Does lightning zap the planet's atmosphere? A new interplanetary probe aims to answer these questions and many others.

Space Missions

NASA's Administrator Visits Boston

Charles Bolden, who took the reins of NASA last July, made an appearance in Boston last week and offered some views about the space agency's future.

Stellar Science

Herschel's Cold, Wonderful Universe

European astronomers are ecstatic about the results they're getting from an infrared space observatory launched a year ago.

Solar System

Amateurs Alert NASA to Saturn Storm

Thanks to the vigilance of planet-watchers around the world, Cassini scientists have captured key observations of a storm that erupted into view during mid-March.

Space Missions

Happy Birthday, Hubble!

It's been 20 years since the most productive telescope ever built rocketed into orbit. So let's celebrate!

Space Missions

Readying for Hayabusa's Return

When the Hayabusa spacecraft returns to Earth on June 13th, an international welcoming party will be waiting in Australia to spot and recover its sample-return capsule.

Solar System

Sparks on Saturn

NASA's Cassini orbiter has finally captured images of lightning storms on the ringed planet.

Space Missions

Hayabusa Hits the Homestretch

Against all odds, a crippled Japanese spacecraft has managed to limp back home after its asteroid encounter 4½ years ago. It's now less than three months from a triumphal return to Earth.

Space Missions

A Blast from the Past

An exquisite new image from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the crater gouged out when a Saturn IV-B rocket slammed into Oceanus Procellarum 40 years ago..

Space Missions

NASA to Upgrade, Overhaul Its "Big Ears"

Day in, day out, the radio antennas of NASA's "Deep Space Network" handshake with dozens of spacecraft across the solar system. Now the network's three stations are getting improvements that will keep them operating for decades.

Space Missions

Ski Luna!

Geologists once believed the Moon was utterly dry. But just-announced results argue that abundant water ice lies stashed inside lunar craters near the north pole.

Space Missions

Halfway to Pluto

Zipping outward at more than 36,000 miles per hour, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has reached a point where it's closer to its target, Pluto, than it is to the Sun. Only 1½ billion miles to go!

Space Missions

NASA's New Eye on the Sun

Thursday's launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory gives astronomers the power to reveal the goings-on deep inside our star.

Science and Space Policy

New Plan for NASA

The Obama administration abandons NASA's Constellation Moon program, but sets its sights farther afield.

Space Missions

Spirit Morphs into a Martian Lander

NASA managers have decided to halt attempts to free a Martian rover that's been stuck in sand for 10 months and to concentrate instead on "stationary science" that doesn't require mobility.

WISE first-light image

Professional Telescopes

WISE Sees First Light

Scientists unveil the first image from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite, which will map the sky in depth and detail at new wavelengths.

Exoplanets

Kepler's First Exoplanet Results

NASA scientists announced this morning that the Kepler planet-hunting probe is working great, has produced a slew of results, and is working at high enough precision that it should be able to determine the abundance, or rarity, of Earth-size worlds galaxy-wide.

Space Missions

Saturn's Prometheus: Just Plain Weird!

A remarkable new close-up of a "ring shepherd" reveals muted surface features that make it look more like a giant gray potato than a planetary satellite.

Space Missions

WISE: A Very Cool Space Telescope

Early this morning a Delta rocket soared into the predawn darkness over California. It carried aloft a space observatory designed to map hundreds of millions of hidden cosmic treasures at infrared wavelengths.