Science - SPACE.com

Deep in the center of our galaxy, circling suspiciously close to the giant black hole lurking there, is a group of massive stars.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has spent the last few weeks digging new trenches in its landing area, looking for new materials to analyze in its instruments and examining the soil and subsurface layer of water ice.

Before testing for life on other planets, it's useful to practice on barren areas of the Earth. One such place is Rio Tinto in Spain, where conditions are analogous to Mars.

What is Mars made of? Dust and many kinds of rock, for sure. But Dr. Janice Bishop, who is both a chemist and planetary scientist, is trying to learn more about the red planet's makeup by studying the spectral behavior of other materials that might be found there. Her group is analyzing pure minerals, rocks from potential Mars analogue field sites, and meteorites that are rocks from Mars. ...

Scientists have discovered the forces that bind together a strange network of 100-million-year-old, rope-like gas filaments that extend from an enormous elliptical galaxy.

Clouds of water ice drifting above the Martian surface eat up some of the ozone in Mars' atmosphere, a new study suggests, giving scientists new clues about the chemical environment and climate of Earth's nearest neighbor.

There is no middle ground when it comes to black holes, which tend instead to be either petite or gargantuan, a new study suggests.

The confirmation of Martian water ice by the Phoenix Mars Lander may hint at the planet's potential for supporting life — or at least human life.

NASA engineers have come up with a dual shock absorber solution to the problem of excessive vibrations with the new Ares I rocket that will launch the agency's Orion space shuttle replacement.

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. - The third and last Inmarsat 4 mobile-broadband satellite was successfully placed into orbit Tuesday by an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton Breeze M rocket, ILS and Inmarsat announced.

NASA closed its Florida spaceport early Monday to protect its space shuttle fleet and other vital hardware from severe weather associated with Tropical Storm Fay.

Fleets of miniature spacecraft may now be closer to liftoff.

The word "planet" has meant many different things over the millennia and even still its definition is evolving.

NASA's space shuttle Atlantis will have to wait a few more days before leaving its Florida spaceport hangar in order to avoid severe weather expected from Tropical Storm Fay.

A huge comet-like object has been spotted inside the orbit of Neptune. The object, at least 30 miles wide, is on the return leg of a 22,500-year journey around the sun, astronomers announced today.

Something beneath the surface is changing Earth's protective magnetic field, which may leave satellites and other space assets vulnerable to high-energy radiation.

PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — Europe's Ariane 5 ECA rocket successfully launched Japanese and U.S. telecommunications satellites Aug. 14 in the fifth of a planned seven launches in 2008, and was the vehicle's 27th consecutive success.

A new map of the halo of stars that surrounds our Milky Way Galaxy has revealed a complicated structure of crisscrossing stellar streams, many of which have never been detected before.

The Cassini probe has pinpointed exact locations where icy jets erupt from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus.