News Briefs

An international team of researchers has devised a precise method for calculating the mass of galaxies.

A new experiment to study life’s potential on Mars has been successfully delivered to the International Space Station.

The Venus Express spacecraft has climbed to a new orbit following its daring aerobraking experiment, and will now resume observations of this fascinating planet for at least a few more months.

Scientists have identified 101 geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus and revealed important details about how they are formed.

For the first time, researchers have detected an unknown interaction between microorganisms and salt. These formations may be used as biosignatures in the search for life in dry environments outside our own planet.

From maps to marathons, this month has marked some amazing achievements for robotic explorers at Mars.

Stanford Biology Professor Rodolfo Dirzo and his colleagues warn that this "defaunation" could have harmful downstream effects on human health.

To learn more about hazy exoplanet atmospheres, scientists simulated a transit of Saturn's moon Titan across the face of our own sun.

Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by the Rosetta spacecraft.

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun -- and have come up nearly dry.

The size of the exoplanet Kepler-93b is now known to an uncertainty of just 74 miles (119 kilometers) on either side of the planetary body.

Better Markers of Life on the Horizon.

In a new study, two Voyager team scientists are proposing a test that they say could prove once and for all of Voyager 1 has crossed the boundary.

Astrobiologists have outlined how geochemistry and metabolism are connected in the microbial ecosystem of the deep subsurface beneath Spain’s Rio Tinto region.

Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days.