Excitement is building on both sides of the Atlantic as the long-awaited launch of ESA’s Columbus space laboratory grows closer, as NASA starts processing Shuttle Atlantis in preparation for the mission.
Astronomers unveiled the sharpest photograph ever taken of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 81. The image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows stunning detail in a galaxy that resembles the Milky Way in many ways.
Laboratory measurements of a high-pressure mineral believed to exist deep within the Earth show that the mineral may not, as geophysicists hoped, have the right properties to explain a mysterious layer lying just above the planet's core.
NASA has selected proposals, including two from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for future lunar science activities. In addition, the agency has established two new programs that will enhance research made possible by the Vision for Space Exploration.
'Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.'