http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/09dec_vestaplanet/

NASA's Dawn spacecraft spent the last four years voyaging to asteroid Vesta - and may have found a planet.

Eat your black, wizened heart out, Mike Brown! XD

http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-methane-water-nasa.html

For years, NASA has been diligently following the footsteps of water on Mars to try to figure out how the planet transformed from a warm and ocean-rich world to the cold and dry desert it is today ( Read more... )

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128303.900-plutos-icy-exterior-may-conceal-an-ocean.html

% laurele

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/07sep_twomoons/

Was the Moon hit by a smaller companion, the collision with which created varied terrains on the Moon?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia14472.html

Observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed possible flowing water during the warmest months on Mars.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/15jul_dawn2/

On July 15, NASA's ion-propelled Dawn probe will become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a main-belt asteroid. Dawn will orbit Vesta for one Earth-year, studying the ( Read more... )

I am currently in the process of reading the last few pages of Philip Wylie's Triumph. This is the fifth or sixth time I've read it since the first time I encountered it in 1967. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's due to the same sort of quirk that makes us slow down to take a look at the horrible, multi-vehicle wreck as we pass it by on the freeway ( Read more... )

In the last few years there has been a surprising number of extremely powerful earthquakes. Is the Earth working up to something, perhaps a flood basalt episode? You have to wonder.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014779024_bigquakes15m.html

First came 2004's killer quake and tsunami off Sumatra. Then a year ago, Chile was rocked almost as hard. Now Japan is reeling from its biggest quake in recorded ( Read more... )