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NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recently caught a view of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover studying an outcrop at the base of a Martian mountain.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: A tracking station aboard Nos Aries will be the first to pick up IXV’s call home after reentry

During its brief but crucial mission, experts on three continents and the high seas will work in close cooperation for ESA’s IXV spaceplane mission, monitoring its free flight in space, spectacular reentry and safe splashdown in the Pacific.

Field experiments have shown how ESA’s potential FLEX mission could identify vegetation that is suffering degrees of stress invisible to the naked eye.

NWA 7034 has been shown to be a 4.4-billion-year-old chunk of the martian crust, the first such sample to make it to Earth.

A pilot study looking at galaxies that die young has found some might shoot out this gas early on, causing them to redden and kick the bucket prematurely.

Find out how ESA’s cutting-edge spaceplane advances Europe’s ambition for autonomous landings from space

Arcadia High School triumphed over 23 other teams at the National Science Bowl regional competition held at JPL on Jan. 31.

ESA’s Vega rocket, with IXV on top, now awaits its fourth flight with liftoff on 11 February at 13:00 GMT (14:00 CET)

Astronomers have generated a new 3-D map of Cassiopeia A’s interior, using the astronomical equivalent of a CAT scan.

This galaxy has drifted too close to another nearby galaxy and the dramatic interaction has twisted its spiral arms out of shape.

Space Science Image of the Week: A composite XMM-Newton and Hubble view of Jupiter’s Ghost planetary nebula

NASA successfully launched its first Earth satellite designed to collect global observations of the vital soil moisture hidden just beneath our feet.

A joint analysis of data from Planck and the ground-based experiment BICEP2 has found no conclusive evidence of gravitational waves from the birth of our universe.

Planck and Bicep2 join forces but gravitational waves remain elusive

Our week through the lens: 26-30 January 2015

Extensive data analysis has led astronomers to believe they witnessed a giant black hole tear apart a star back in 2009.

The satellite’s work with ground-based telescopes has shown that interstellar dust was actually the cause of more than half of the signal detection announced almost a year ago.

Extensive data analysis has led astronomers to believe they witnessed a giant black hole tear apart a star back in 2009.

Observations suggest that unmagnetized bodies like Saturn’s moon might interact with the solar wind in the same basic ways regardless of their nature or distance from the Sun.

NASA’s SMAP mission is now scheduled for launch at 6:20 a.m. PST Friday, Jan. 30.

The launch of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory has been delayed to a targeted launch date of Jan. 31.

Tell-tale signs of a dramatic encounter between galaxies are evident in this striking view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope

ESA’s IXV spaceplane is a snug fit inside Vega’s protective fairing and will soon be attached to the rocket in preparation for launch on 11 February

Join us Friday, 30 January, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. Ahead of World Wetlands Day, this week’s programme features the Ramsar sites on the island of Corsica

Computer models show that tidal forces and atmospheric escape can transform certain exoplanets.

The images were taken 147,000 miles (237,000 kilometers) from Ceres and represent a new milestone for a spacecraft that soon will become the first human-made probe to visit a dwarf planet.

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission has launched from California into the early morning skies above the Pacific Ocean.

Researchers studying data from NASA’s Cassini mission have observed that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, behaves much like Venus, Mars or a comet when exposed to the raw power of the solar wind.

The star system Kepler-444 is the oldest known to host terrestrial-sized planets.

Technology image of the week: Next year this ESA three-unit CubeSat will be probing largely unexplored layers of Earth’s atmosphere

Scientists analyzed the “yellow balls” that appeared in Spitzer data and figured out that they are a new way to detect the early stages of massive star formation.

The exoplanet’s ring system consists of over 30 rings, each of them tens of millions of miles in diameter.

“Hmm, what’s that?” Simply by asking the question, volunteers have led researchers to illuminate a little-known stage of massive star formation.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has returned the sharpest images ever seen of the dwarf planet Ceres.

Managers from NASA and United Launch Alliance (ULA) met Tues., Jan. 27, at Vandenberg Air Force Base to assess the status of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive spacecraft and the ULA Delta II rocket that will boost SMAP into space.
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Soil moisture data from NASA’s SMAP mission will open a path to improved weather forecasts.

ESA astronaut Tim Peake and Rosetta Project Scientist Dr Matt Taylor talk robotics in space missions in a Google hangout. Watch the replay

ESA’s experimental spaceplane, in the final stages of preparation for launch, is mounted on the adapter that secures it to the Vega rocket

This system tells us that planets were forming around stars nearly 7 billion years before our solar system.

Scientists have released the first radar images of asteroid 2004 BL86, which made its closest approach January 26.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: lightning strike seen from the International Space Station

Radar Images from Goldstone indicate that asteroid 2004 BL86, which safely flew past Earth, has a moon.

Soil moisture, which keeps Earth’s interlocking cycles of water, carbon and energy turning in harmony, is the focus of NASA’s SMAP mission, launching Jan. 29.

ESA’s Rosetta mission is providing unique insight into the life cycle of a comet’s dusty surface, watching 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it sheds the dusty coat it has accumulated over the past four years.

Satellites can help us to safeguard nature’s richest carbon storehouses – peatlands.

The mission is providing unique insight into the life cycle of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s dusty surface.

Opportunity has driven 25.9 miles (41.7 kilometers) since it arrived at the Red Planet in 2004.

Space Science Image of the Week: NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shares a view of Jupiter’s moon Callisto, one of the worlds that will be explored by ESA’s Juice mission

Our week through the lens: 19-23 January 2015

Since 2002, ESA’s Integral spacecraft has been observing some of the most violent events in the Universe, including gamma-ray bursts and black holes. While it still has years of life ahead, its fuel will certainly run out one day.

Rapid ice loss in a remote Arctic ice cap has been detected by the Sentinel-1A and CryoSat satellites.

The spacecraft is revealing Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as having a remarkable array of surface features and with many processes contributing to its activity, painting a complex picture of its evolution.

A proposed helicopter could triple the distances that Mars rovers can drive in a Martian day and help pinpoint interesting targets for study.

A panorama from one of the highest elevations that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached in its 11 years on Mars includes the U.S. flag at the summit.

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, scheduled for launch on Jan. 29, will measure the moisture in Earth’s soil with greater accuracy and higher resolution than any preceding mission, producing a global map of soil moisture e…

There has been a significant increase in the amount of water “pouring” out of the Rosetta mission’s comet.

Rosetta is revealing its host comet as having a remarkable array of surface features and with many processes contributing to its activity, painting a complex picture of its evolution.

Join us Friday, 23 January, at 10:00 CET for the ‘Earth from Space’ video programme. Discover the largest glacier in the Alps in this week’s programme

Until now, scientists have been unable to study both the bright and dim phases of a quasar in a single source.

Organizations, institutions, and individuals involved in the science and applications of light will be joining together for this yearlong celebration.

High-resolution images from ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft reveal an incredible array of surface features on the comet

These new images from the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA’s Mars Express show Nili Fossae, one of the most enticing regions on Mars. This ‘graben system’ lies northeast of the volcanic region of Syrtis Major on the northwestern edge of the large Isidis impact basin – and intriguing hints of methane have been seen here.

An instrument called SPIDER just landed after 16 days drifting in the wind above Antarctica, searching for signs of inflation in the earliest moments of the universe.

Protoplanet Vesta, visited by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2013, was once thought to be completely dry, incapable of retaining water because of the low temperatures and pressures at its surface.

NASA and Microsoft have teamed up to develop software called OnSight, a new technology that will enable scientists to work virtually on Mars using wearable technology called Microsoft HoloLens.

Technology image of the week: a laser from ESA’s Optical Ground Station, illuminating the future of optical communications

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly, which uses four telescopes working parallel to gather eight images of the Sun, cycles through 10 different wavelengths every 12 seconds.

The journey to find worlds ripe for life begins in part by following a trail of dust.

Human spaceflight and operations image of the week: ESA’s Kiruna station in the snow

Image gallery of ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet spacewalk training at NASA’s Johnson Space Center with veteran ESA spacewalker Luca Parmitano

This is the first in a series of images that will be taken for navigation purposes during the approach to Ceres.

This is the first in a series of images that will be taken for navigation purposes during the approach to Ceres.

An eight-minute film of the past, present and future of Moon exploration, from the lunar cataclysm to ESA’s vision of what lunar exploration could be

As NASA’s Dawn spacecraft closes in on Ceres, new images show the dwarf planet at 27 pixels across, about three times better than the calibration images taken in early December.

An unusual package was delivered to a hotel in Beijing, China, in 1987 containing a batch of blue–green algae that would spend five days in space in a capsule. The ESA-led MELiSSA project was on its way.

Space Science Image of the Week: ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft snapped this image in 2007 of a rapidly shape-shifting vortex at Venus’ south pole

The spacecraft discovered and characterized 40 near-Earth objects in the first year after the mission was restarted.

The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a compact type of object — such as neutron stars or black holes — and the bursts could be connected to collisions or “star quakes.”

The 2015 Rossi Prize has been awarded to Fiona Harrison, the principal investigator of NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR.

The launch of NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 29.

The Beagle 2 Mars Lander, built by the United Kingdom, has been thought lost on Mars since 2003, but has now been found in images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Watch the replay of ESA DG’s traditional start-of-year media briefing on the activities for 2015, Friday 16 January.