A spacecraft has skimmed the clouds of Jupiter in a record-breaking close approach to the giant planet.

A land with two suns, extreme sports and crimson forests.

Nasa has tested new technology that could potentially be used in Mars landings.

Evidence of a freshwater lake that may once have supported life has been discovered on Mars.

The Nasa rover Curiosity made its first test drive on the ancient soil of Mars today.

Nasa's Mars rover has taken another small step for robot-kind.

Nasa said all was well ahead of its nail-biting mission to Mars, with its most advanced robotic rover poised to hunt for clues about past life and water on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour.

A one-ton rover as big as a Mini is due to land on Mars on Monday in one of the most daring space missions ever attempted.

Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has landed robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, sent probes to outer planets and operates a worldwide network of antennae that communicates with interplanetary spacecraft.

A NUCLEAR-powered rover as big as a family car is set to begin a nine-month journey to Mars this weekend to learn if the planet is or ever was suitable for life.

SCIENTISTS are busy poring over images of the massive asteroid Vesta, the first time it has been photographed up close.

IT may have felt like any other minute as the clock struck 5.14pm yesterday, but it is worth noting as you go about your business today that it was, in fact, the moment an asteroid the size of a tour bus passed the Earth.

Nasa gave the go-ahead to a $438m (€316m) mission led by the University of Colorado-Boulder to investigate Mars and the likelihood that it once harboured life.

Jupiter has a warm heart located in the centre of its famous Red Spot, scientists have learned.

STUNNED rescuers wrenched a survivor from the rubble after 12 days entombed in Haiti’s quake-ravaged capital, where desperate crowds clamoured yesterday for more and quicker relief.

A wildfire in the mountains above Los Angeles has surged in every direction, going in a single day from a modest threat to a danger to some 10,000 homes.

The US and European spacecraft Ulysses ended its more than 18-year mission to explore and research the region of space above the poles of the sun.

The Mars rover Spirit has become stuck in loose soil while ambling around a low plateau, Nasa says.

Scientists disagree over whether Nasa’s Phoenix Mars lander found evidence of liquid water before it froze to death.

Scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California are trying to figure out why the robotic rover Spirit is acting erratically on the planet Mars.

A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.

Nasa declared an end to the Phoenix mission, five months after the spacecraft became the first to land in Mars’ arctic plains and taste water on another planet.

Nasa’s Phoenix Mars spacecraft regained contact with Earth today, more than a day after falling silent, but its days operating on the red planet are still numbered, mission chiefs say.

AT least one of many large, lake-like features on Saturn’s moon Titan studied by the international Cassini spacecraft contains liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface, Nasa has announced.

Scientists have sped up their Mars lander mission after a short circuit cast doubt over the future of the probe.

Nasa’s new robot on Mars has reached out and touched the soil for the first time, leaving behind a striking footprint-like impression, scientists said.

Scientists have begun releasing the robotic arm on Nasa’s new Mars spacecraft, one day late because of a radio problem.

Plans for the Phoenix Mars Lander's second day of activities on Mars have been delayed, Nasa officials said today.

Nasa’s Phoenix spacecraft has successfully landed near Mars’ north pole for a 90-day digging mission.

A THREE-LEGGED NASA spacecraft was closing in on Mars yesterday for what scientists hope will be the first-ever touchdown near Mars’ north pole to study whether the permafrost could have supported primitive life.

MARS could be in for an asteroid hit.

Homer Stewart, an early pioneer of rocket research who helped develop the first successful US satellite, Explorer I, has died aged 91.

NASA scientists have said a broken wheel on a space vehicle has helped them to find some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now and may have been able to support life.

US scientists have discovered what appear to be sea-size bodies of liquid, probably methane or ethane, on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon.

New photographs from space suggest that water occasionally flows on the frigid surface of Mars, raising the possibility that the Red Planet is hospitable to life, scientists reported tonight.

A provocative new study of photographs taken from orbit suggests that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars as recently as several years ago, raising the possibility that the Red Planet could harbour an environment favourable to life.

A Romanian man has been indicted on charges of hacking into more than 150 US government computers, costing Nasa, the Energy Department and the Navy nearly $1.5m (€1.1m).

A huge asteroid will have a close encounter with Earth this weekend, but astronomers say there is no danger of an impact.

A Nasa spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Mars, joining a trio of orbiters already circling the Red Planet after a critical firing of its engA Nasa spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Mars, joining a trio of orbiters already circling the Red Planet after a critical firing of its engines.

A NASA spacecraft was last night undertaking the riskiest manoeuvre of its seven-month mission to Mars as it attempts to lock itself into a low orbit.

After a seven-month journey, a Nasa spacecraft closed in on Mars today on a mission to examine the Red Planet in unprecedented detail from low orbit.

A SPACE capsule carrying the first comet dust samples to Earth parachuted to a pre-dawn landing in the Utah desert in the US yesterday, drawing cheers from elated scientists.

A space capsule carrying comet dust is due to return to Earth in a mission scientists hope will shed light on the origins of the solar system.