News articles tagged with 'planet'
Microscopic worms could hold the key to living life on Mars
— 2 Dec 2011 10:26 | BiologyThe astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes that if humanity is to survive we will have up sticks and colonise space. But is the human body up to the challenge?…
New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile
— 19 Nov 2011 15:46 | AstronomyMaybe because it appears as a speck of blood in the sky, the planet Mars was named after the Roman god of war. From the point of view of life as we know it, that's appropriate. The…
Cassini chronicles life of Saturn's giant storm
— 18 Nov 2011 17:07 | AstronomyNew images and animated movies from NASA's Cassini spacecraft chronicle the birth and evolution of the colossal storm that ravaged the northern face of Saturn for nearly a year…
Telescope ferrets out planet-hunting targets
— 9 Apr 2011 11:37 | AstronomyAstronomers have come up with a new way of identifying close, faint stars with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite. The technique should help in the hunt for planets that lie…
Sugar-grain sized meteorites rocked the climates of early Earth and Mars
— 2 Apr 2011 11:34 | AstronomyBombardments of 'micro-meteorites' on Earth and Mars four billion years ago may have caused the planets' climates to cool dramatically, hampering their ability to support life, according…
Astrophysicist: White dwarfs could be fertile ground for other Earths
— 31 Mar 2011 15:03 | AstronomyPlanet hunters have found hundreds of planets outside the solar system in the last decade, though it is unclear whether even one might be habitable. But it could be that the best place…
When is an asteroid not an asteroid?
— 30 Mar 2011 17:37 | AstronomyOn March 29, 1807, German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers spotted Vesta as a pinprick of light in the sky. Two hundred and four years later, as NASA's Dawn spacecraft prepares to…
Cassini spacecraft observes seasonal rains on Titan
— 18 Mar 2011 14:24 | AstronomyAs spring continues to unfold on Saturn, April showers on the planet's largest moon, Titan, have brought methane rain to its equatorial deserts, as revealed in images captured by NASA's…
MESSENGER spacecraft to swing into orbit around Mercury
— 15 Mar 2011 21:20 | AstronomyAt 8:45 p.m. EDT on March 17, the MESSENGER spacecraft will execute a 15-minute manoeuvre that will place it into orbit around Mercury, making it the first craft ever to do so, and…
Baby stars born to 'napping' parents
— 9 Mar 2011 20:05 | AstronomyCardiff University astronomers believe that a young star's long 'napping' could trigger the formation of a second generation of smaller stars and planets orbiting around it…