NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft has made the first observations of very fast hydrogen atoms coming from the moon, following decades of speculation and searching for their existence. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

As spacecraft began to launch on journeys to more distant planets, never to return, their mission controllers often commanded them to take departing views of Earth and the Moon. Mariner 10 and Voyager 1 both took such snapshots, as did Mars Odyssey, Venus Express, and many others. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

No one knows if there is life on Mars, but if all goes well with a Russian science mission later this year, there will be life on the Martian moon Phobos -- for a short time anyway. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft has returned to Earth, but came down more than 400km (250 miles) away from its planned touchdown point, say Russian officials. picked by topofall 2 years ago

A spacecraft sent on a mission to inspect comets has filmed the Earth and its moon from 31 million miles away, making an alien's-eye view of our world. VIDEO picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

The Cassini spacecraft will perform its closest flyby ever of Saturn's ice-spewing moon Enceladus early next year, moving directly into its icy polar geyser for a deep-space shower. picked by ogri2003 2 years ago

Scientists have found a new moon hidden in one of Saturn's dazzling outer rings. The international Cassini spacecraft spotted the moon, which measures about a third of a mile wide. picked by suebe 8 months ago

Last night, the detectors of Planck's High Frequency Instrument reached their amazingly low operational temperature of -273.05°C, making them the coldest known objects in space. The spacecraft has also just entered its final orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2. picked by kakana 4 months ago

Newly reprocessed images of the Moon's far side taken by Soviet spacecraft more than 40 years ago may have confirmed that the Moon's biggest impact scar was glimpsed far earlier than previously thought. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Did a UFO deliberately crash into a meteor to save Earth 100 years ago? That's what one Russian scientist is claiming.

Dr. Yuri Labvin, president of the Tunguska Spatial Phenomenon Foundation, insists that an alien spacecraft sacrificed itself to prevent a gigantic meteor from slamming into the planet above Siberia on June 30, 1908. picked by bingo 5 months ago

The spacecraft ulysses, currently in the 18th year of its mission has encountered a glitch which may doom it to a frozen death in space. picked by xenity7 2 years ago

The US space agency's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has returned its first images since reaching the Moon on 23 June.

The probe's two cameras returned images of a region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds). picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Footage showing the dramatic descent of a probe minutes before it crashes into the surface of the Moon has been released by the Japanese space agency.

The final moments of the Kaguya lunar probe were caught by its on-board high-definition camera as it hurtled downwards on June 11 and as it fell the images were beamed back to Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

Scientists using data from the recently-Moon-smacked Kaguya spacecraft have found evidence of radioactive elements on the lunar surface, including, for the first time, uranium! picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

A hardy life form called cyanobacteria can grow in otherwise inhospitable lunar soil, new experiments suggest. Future colonists on the Moon might be able to use the cyanobacteria to extract resources from the soil that could be used to make rocket fuel and fertiliser for crops. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

Scientists are sifting through their first new views of the planet Mercury in more than three decades thanks to images beamed home by NASA's MESSENGER probe. The car-sized spacecraft zipped past Mercury in a Monday flyby and is relaying more than 1,200 new images and other data back to eager scientists on Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

The planet-seeking Kepler spacecraft has beamed home its first images of a patch of the sky where NASA hopes to find Earth-like planets circling distant, alien stars. picked by AutumnLotus 7 months ago

A new global portrait taken from space details Earth’s land cover with a resolution never before obtained. Earth’s land cover has been charted from space before, but this map, which will be made available to the public upon its completion in July, has a resolution 10 times sharper than any of its predecessors. picked by AutumnLotus 2 years ago

When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon, it was a first for the Soviet Union - the first time the U.S. had beaten the U.S.S.R in the space race. Forty years later, the memory of that loss of primacy still seems to sting the Russian soul. picked by kakana 4 months ago

An asteroid of a similar size to a rock that exploded above Siberia in 1908 with the force of a thousand atomic bombs whizzed close past Earth on Monday, astronomers said on Tuesday. 2009 DD45, estimated to be between 21 and 47 meters (68 and 152 feet) across, raced by at 1344 GMT on Monday, the Planetary Society and astronomers' blogs reported. picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago