Small Asteroid to Pass Within Earth-Moon System Tuesday

A small asteroid will fly past Earth early Tuesday within the Earth-moon system...

Hunting for New Habitats

Astronomers are finding many new planets circling distant stars, but they have yet to find one like Earth. Studying the changing climate of Earth is an essential step in helping scientists identify similarly habitable worlds beyond our solar system...

Wobble Keeps Enceladus Ocean Liquid

As Enceladus orbits Saturn, it wobbles slightly. This small but periodic shift might be enough to explain the liquid water ocean that scientists think may exist beneath the small moon's icy crust...

Titan's Hazes May Hold Ingredients of Life

A new simulation has demonstrated that complex organic molecules, such as amino acids and nucleotide bases, could be formed by chemical processes in the atmosphere of Titan. Studying these processes could yield clues about the origin of life...

The Year of the Solar System

Planetary exploration is shifting into high gear with an unprecedented tripling of flybys, orbital insertions and launches to destinations around the solar system. To commemorate the increase, NASA has declared the year ahead "The Year of the Solar System."...

Hello Hartley 2

The visitor from deep space, seen here by NASA's WISE mission, is comet Hartley 2 - the destination for NASA's EPOXI mission next month...

NASA Loosens GRIP on Atlantic Hurricane Season

NASA wrapped up one of its largest-ever hurricane research efforts last week after nearly two months of flights that broke new ground in the study of tropical cyclones...

'A-Train' Satellites Search for 770 Million Tons of Dust in the

Using data from several research satellites, scientists will spend the next three years trying to understand the climate impacts of about 770 million tons of dust carried into the atmosphere every year from the Sahara Desert...

NASA's WMAP Project Completes Satellite Operations

After nine years of scanning the sky, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission has concluded its observations of the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe...

Cluster Helps Disentangle Turbulence in the Solar Wind

This solar wind is some million degrees Celsius, can move as fast as 750 kilometers (466 statute miles) per second, and – so far – defies a complete description by any one theory...

NASA Study Sees Earth's Water Cycle Pulse Quickening

Freshwater is flowing into Earth's ocean in greater amounts every year, thanks to more frequent and extreme storms related to global warming, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a team of NASA and university researchers...

NASA's EPOXI Mission Sets Up for Comet Flyby

NASA's EPOXI mission successfully performed a trajectory correction maneuver today. The maneuver refined the spacecraft's orbit for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4...

Atmosphere Checked, One Mars Year Before a Landing

In preparation for NASA's next rover landing on the Red Planet, one Mars year away, an instrument studying the Martian atmosphere from orbit has begun a campaign...

NASA Uses 3 Satellites to See Strengthening Tropical Storm Nicol

Satellite data from NASA showed frigid thunderstorm cloud top temperatures, heavy rainfall, and extensive cloud cover as Nicole strengthened...

NASA and NSF-Funded Research Finds First Potentially Habitable E

A team of planet hunters has announced the discovery of a planet with three times the mass of Earth orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone."...