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WISE is discovering near-Earth asteroids that are on average larger than what's found by existing telescopes, which should help scientists better calculate their potential threat

The library system of the University of California may call upon the schools' faculty to boycott journals originating from the Nature Publishing Group if they can't come to an agreement on licensing costs for journal access.

is expected to determine whether Mars is or was ever habitable to microbial lif

whittled down to four. They are regions of Mars known as Mawrth Vallis, Gale crater, Holden crater and Eberswalde crater.

The remaining 229 pounds are available for $700,000 per pound, plus a $250,000 fee per payload to cover the engineering costs of integrating it into either the expedition’s lander or its solar-powered robot.

Among the concepts to be studied by the Astrium team are a two-stage configuration with a Vulcain II-type or expander cycle cryogenic main-stage engine, a two-stage design with a methane/oxygen main-stage engine; and a three-stage configuration with solid propulsion first- and second-stage motors.

ESA's Planck mission has released its first full-sky map. The image shows the cosmic microwave background (CMB) in higher resolution than ever before and it may help cosmologists to develop a much clearer picture of the early universe. "This is the moment that Planck was conceived for," says David Southwood, who is ESA's director of science and robotic exploration. "We are opening the door to an Eldorado where scientists can seek the nuggets that will lead to deeper understanding of how our universe came to be and how it works now."

Researchers cooled a cloud of about 4,000 antiprotons down to 9 kelvin using a standard approach for cooling atoms that has never been used with charged particles or ions. The technique could provide a new way to create and trap antihydrogen, which could help researchers probe a basic symmetry of nature.

hydrogen and antihydrogen should share many basic traits, like mass, magnetic moment, and emission spectrum. If antihydrogen and hydrogen have even slightly different spectra, it indicates some new physics principles beyond the standard model, a very big deal.

this is the first three-planet resonance ever seen.

The three planets are in a 4:2:1 resonance: the innermost giant completes four orbits in the time the middle one completes two and the newfound outermost world completes one.

Concern over ESA's handling of the radiation issue caused Michael Perryman, former GAIA project scientist, to resign from the agency in 2008. But GAIA science-team member Lennart Lindegren, an astronomer at Lund Observatory in Sweden, is confident that GAIA's unprecedented accuracy will be feasible. GAIA researchers will continue to perform tests and calibrations until at least 2011, which will include irradiating the CCDs at space-like temperatures. Lindegren admits, however, that they can never be certain of success until the spacecraft is in orbit and starts sending back data.

The goal of the project is to have a solar-powered plane flying day and night without fuel

NASA-funded researchers are monitoring a big event in our planet's atmosphere. High above Earth's surface where the atmosphere meets space, a rarefied layer of gas called "the thermosphere" recently collapsed and now is rebounding again.