New Video Sees Earth from Alien PerspectiveSolar Systems Like Ours May Be RareFourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly Magneti: related news

New Video Sees Earth from Alien PerspectiveSolar Systems Like Ours May Be RareFourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly Magneti

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Solar Systems Like Ours May Be RareFourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be Brightest

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Solar Systems Like Ours May Be RareFourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be BrightestThe Science Behin

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Fourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be Brightest

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Fourth Dwarf Planet Named For Polynesian GodHow Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be BrightestThe Science Behind the Aug. 1 Solar EclipseParticles

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How Mars and Alaska Are AlikeVictor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be BrightestThe Science Behind the Aug. 1 Solar EclipseParticles Retain Weight for Billions of YearsAsteroid

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Victor Emerges in Stormy Battle on JupiterEarly Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be BrightestThe Science Behind the Aug. 1 Solar EclipseParticles Retain Weight for Billions of YearsAsteroid Cruises Past Earth ... With

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An Alien View of the Moon Transiting Earth

Ever wonder what an approaching alien spacecraft would see as it comes within tracking range of our Earth/Moon system? NASA's EXPOXI mission, which uses the old Deep Impact spacecraft, has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50 million kilometers (31 million miles) away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. "Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear to us," said astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact extended mission, called EPOXI. The video is pretty amazing and there's actually two versions of the video; the first one uses a red-green-blue filter, showing

Huge Impact Created Mars' Split PersonalityStudy: Mars Had Drizzle and DewAstronomers on Verge of Finding Earth's TwinPhoenix Lander Prepares to Taste Martian DirtBlack Holes All Eat the Same Way

This artistic representation of a giant impact on Mars was created from simulations by Marinova et al. (Nature, 2008). Mars is shown using a combination of Viking color images and shaded relief from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Credit: Jeff Andrews-Hanna

Bits of Ancient Earth Hidden on the MoonHuge Impact Created Mars' Split PersonalityStudy: Mars Had Drizzle and DewAstronomers on Verge of Finding Earth's TwinPhoenix Lander Prepares to Taste Martian DirtBlack Holes All Eat the Same Way

Meteorites have been found in Antarctica that are believed to come from Mars. Similarly, some scientists now believe that material ejected from the early Earth may have arrived as meteorites on the moon. Credit: NASA

Solar Systems Like Ours Are Likely To Be Rare

KentuckyFC writes "Astronomers have discovered some 250 planetary systems beyond our own, many of them with curious properties. In particular, our theories of planet formation are challenged by 'hot Jupiters,' gas giants that orbit close to their parent stars. Current thinking is that gas giants can only form far away from stars because gas and dust simply gets blown away from the inner regions. Now astronomers have used computer simulations of the way planetary systems form to understand what is going on (abstract). It looks as if gas giants often form a long way from stars and then migrate inwards. That has implications for us: a migrating gas giant sweeps away all in its path, including rocky planets in the habitable zone. And that means that solar systems like ours are likely to be rare.

Earth and Moon From an Alien's Perspective

krygny writes "NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft (whose extended mission is called EPOXI) has created a video of the moon transiting Earth as seen from 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. 'Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like planets orbiting other stars,' said Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center... 'A "sun glint'" can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected from Earth's oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could indicate alien oceans. Also, we used infrared light instead of the normal red light to make the color composite images, and that makes the land masses much more visible.'" Here are links to the two videos, one red-green-blue and the other infrared-green.

11th Annual Mars Society Convention on 14th-17th August

Next week, Boulder, Colorado will play host to the eleventh annual Mars Society conference. There will be a huge array of speakers, lectures and workshops anyone can get involved in to learn more about the future of manned exploration on Mars. The Mars Society is an international organization working to raise public awareness about the opportunities we have on Mars and push for eventual manned settlements. Primarily, the Mars Society is pushing for better governmental spending in planetary missions, but there is an increasing awareness that many aims can only be achieved through private enterprise. The organization doesn't limit itself to political activities. For years the organization has managed a series of "Mars Analogues," isolated habitats where volunteers carry out extended experiments, studying everything from human psychology in

Mars Polar Lander - Space Probe, USA

The Mars Surveyor '98 Programme was comprised of two spacecraft launched separately: the Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) launched in 1996, and the Mars Polar Lander (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander).

Astronomers Claim Discovery of Earth-like Planet

Raver32 writes "A team of astronomers announced they have discovered the smallest and potentially most Earth-like extrasolar planet yet. Five times as massive as Earth, it orbits a relatively cool star at a distance that would provide earthly temperatures as well, signaling the possibility of liquid water. "The separation between the planet and its star is just right for having liquid water at its surface," says astronomer and team spokesperson Stephane Udry of the Observatory of Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland. "That's why we are a bit excited." But researchers do not yet know if the planet contains water, if it is truly rocky like Earth, which might make it hospitable to life as we know it, or whether it is blanketed by a thick atmosphere. "What we have," Udry says, "is the minimum mass of the planet and its separation" from its star.

Geologists Predicted Mars Avalanche

Remember the amazing images of an avalanche on Mars back in March of this year from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter? If not for two geologists studying landforms in Alaska, MRO scientists might not have been on the lookout for such an event, or may not have known what they were seeing. A serendipitous week-long trip to Alaska by Craig Kochel and Jeffrey Trop, geology professors at Bucknell University, helped them predict one of the most important, and breathtaking planetary observations ever made. Witnessing an avalanche, or landslide in action on Mars has helped us realize the Red Planet is still a dynamic, ever-changing planet.

NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

WASHINGTON, July 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life. One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

Our Solar System: An Island of Calm in a Violent Universe (and it's special, too)

We humans like to think we're special, but astronomically speaking we've been shot down quite severely and humbly put in our place. We're not at the center of our solar system, nowhere near the center of our galaxy and certainly not at the center of the universe. But now comes great news for the human psyche from scientists trying to explain solar system formation. As far as solar systems go, we have thought ours was just average and that all solar systems were like ours. But in looking at the 300 plus extrasolar planets that have been discovered and the systems they are in, none so far are anything like our home solar system. In fact, say scientists at Northwestern University, we may be special after all. In a study using computer simulations (this is the week for computer simulations, see here and here), researchers ran more than a hund

Early Mars Was All WetYoung Galaxies Surprisingly MagneticStar Vies to be BrightestThe Science Behind the Aug. 1 Solar EclipseParticles Retain Weight for Billions of YearsAsteroid Cruises Past Earth ... With a Partner!What Makes Earth Special Compare

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Mars Polar Lander, USA

The Mars Surveyor '98 Programme comprised of two spacecraft launched separately, the Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) launched in 1996 and the Mars Polar Lander (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander).

Mars Express Spacecraft/Orbiter - ,

Mars Express is ESA's Mars mission and also the name of the spacecraft that will transport the Beagle 2 Mars lander and act as an orbiting probe and telecommunications relay satellite for Beagle 2 and other landers due to land on the Red Planet between 2003 and 2007. The mission's main objectives are to deposit the lander on the surface and search for sub-surface water from orbit. The spacecraft contains a range of remote sensing scientific instruments to collect data concerning the planet's atmosphere, structure and geology.

Mars Water? Photo Evidence Shows Mars Once Was Wet All Over

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Minerals in the soil of Mars show it was covered once by lakes, rivers and other bodies of water that could have supported life, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

Mars maps the cocoa genome

Who doesn't like chocolate? Well, there's bound to be a few of you out there, but it's safe to say that Mars, the confectionary giant, is a big fan. Not only does Mars like chocolate, they care about it too, and to that end, Dr Howard-Yana Shapiro, global director of plant science and external research for Mars, took some time of his day to talk to me about their biggest project: mapping cocoa's genome. Cocoa trading is the 6th largest commodity market on the planet, yet compared to soy, corn, wheat, and others, much less research has been conducted on cocoa biology and agriculture.

Russian search engine Yandex unveils online video search

Russian search engine group Yandex has launched the public beta of Yandex.Video. Service users can search and share videos clips online, as well as view the most popular videos. Yandex.Video currently searches about twenty video hosting services including youtube.com, rutube.ru, video.mail.ru, smotri.com and myvi.ru. The service's video search method is based on analysis of names, tags, descriptions and other video clip attributes. Search results are ranked according to user ratings. Yandex.Video continuously updates the most popular videos shown on its front page, as it receives information about new comments and new videos posted in blogs from Yandex's Blog Search service. Service users can upload an unlimited amount of video files and create their own favourite lists.

Study: Mars Had Drizzle and DewAstronomers on Verge of Finding Earth's TwinPhoenix Lander Prepares to Taste Martian DirtBlack Holes All Eat the Same WayCollisions Fuel Black Hole Feeding FrenziesProof! Water Ice Found on Mars

Cracks caused by the contraction of sulfate are evident in this image of the surface of Mars' Meridiani Planum site by NASA's Opportunity Rover. Credit: NASA

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