Science News

A former Soviet SS-18 intercontinental missile lofted a trio of European micro-satellites into space on Wednesday, including a satellite to monitor the Suns impact on climate change, Frances National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said.

Its triple payload included a 150-kilo (330-pound) French satellite called Picard that will scrutinise the Sun for changes that could affect Earths climate system.

Read the rest of this entry »

This story was updated at 7:53 a.m. ET.

The Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to lift off at 5:35 p.m. EDT (2135 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in Central Asia carrying two American astronauts and one veteran Russian cosmonaut toward the the space station.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is poised to launch toward the International Space Station Tuesday to deliver three new members of the orbiting laboratorys multi-cultural crew.

Read the rest of this entry »

Japans space agency has applied for a Guinness World Records listing after its Hayabusa space probe returned from a seven-year journey to an ancient asteroid, an official said Tuesday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, on Monday applied to the London-based Guinness World Records to list Hayabusas trailblazing journey, an official with the agency said.

Read the rest of this entry »

This story was updated at 5:30 p.m. EDT.

The newfound extrasolar planets were spotted by the European CoRoT satellite around different stars. They span a broad range of sizes and masses and exhibit an assortment of physical properties. The smallest, CoRoT-8b, is approximately 70 percent of Saturns size and mass.

Read the rest of this entry »

A space capsule that scientists hope is carrying asteroid dust, potentially revealing secrets about the origins of the solar system, will be flown back to Japan this week, officials said Tuesday.

“The journey starts Thursday,” an official from the Japanese space agency JAXA told AFP from the South Australian desert landing site at Woomera.

Read the rest of this entry »

The moons interior may harbor 100 times more water than previous estimates, according to a new study that took a fresh look at samples of moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts nearly 40 years ago.

Scientists at the Carnegie Institutions Geophysical Laboratory, and other colleagues, said its likely that the water was preserved from the hot magma that was present when the moon began to form some 4.

Read the rest of this entry »

The triumphant Sunday landing of a Japanese space capsule that visited an asteroid and returned to Earth despite near-overwhelming malfunctions now has scientists around the world asking one final question: Did it actually capture a piece of asteroid Itokawa?

Japans 950-pound (510-kg) Hayabusa asteroid probe lit up the night sky Sunday as it re-entered the atmosphere above the remote Woomera Prohibited Area in the Australian outback.

Read the rest of this entry »

Two U.S. astronauts are set to blast off this week for an expedition that will see the last ever visit to the international space station by a shuttle. But they refused to be daunted by the prospect Monday and said they looked forward to being onboard a fully operational space laboratory.

The trio will be onboard the space station to see the final shuttle - the Endeavour - depart from its last planned mission to the lab in November before the fleet is finally retired.

Read the rest of this entry »

More than 3 billion years ago,the northern plains of Mars were covered by a vast ocean that blanketed morethan a third of the red planets surface, new research suggests.

Now scientists have analyzedglobal databases of river valley networks on Mars, as well as deposits leftbehind by ancient deltas. Their research suggests 29 deltas they investigated –more than half of all those in the databases — sat at roughly the same heightsome 3.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Japanese space probe launched in 2003 to collect asteroid dust had returned to Earth successfully on Sunday, Kyodo news agency reported, quoting Japans JAXA space agency.

Kyodo, citing JAXA, said later that the capsule dropped by the probe had landed successfully at its landing site, a restricted military zone in the remote South Australian desert.

Read the rest of this entry »