The European Space Agency has released close-up portraits of Mars’s moon Phobos, taken as the ESA Mars Express spacecraft flew within 60 miles of it. The images show a load of mysterious grooves etched into Phobos’ surface and resolve features as small as 17 yards across. The images show in detail the currently planned landing [...]

Japan has not put a lot of money into their space program but it has nevertheless come up with some good results. JAXA (Japan’s space agency) has had a few firsts including the return of a probe to pick up some dust from an asteroid after a seven-year round-trip. This mission called Hayabusa, which means [...]

One day in the future perhaps not 10 years from now we will be able to look up into the night sky at particular stars and know that they have Earth like planets orbiting them. SETI is going to scan the stars with exoplanets for intelligent life in 2011 and you never know do you? [...]

Volcanoes can be an indication of a planet that can support life. There are studies that show that lightning together with the chemicals volcanoes produce may have provided the spark that produced life on early Earth. This experiment called the Miller-Urey experiment has been shown to students for years from 1953 to mimic the chemical [...]

Are we losing the Sahara to space? No, is the simple answer to that. The Earth has a trail of dust behind it but the dust is interstellar dust which is already present in the solar system. This interplanetary dust comes from the fragments of comets and asteroids that have collided. As the Earth travels [...]

Extrasolar planets or for short exoplanets have been found in orbit around many different star systems other than ours. Exoplanets are being found all the time but take a look at this database of exoplanets for an idea on their characteristics. An actual image has been shot sometime back of an exoplanet but as you [...]

Europa is a fascinating place. Once it was believed that Jupiter’s moons were just lumps of ice and rock. But missions to Jupiter showed us that there is more to Jupiter’s moons than we thought. This moon has become much more interesting the more it is explored. The furthest we have got nowadays is to [...]

We have been looking for alien life elsewhere in the universe for quite awhile now. Mars has been the main focus of attention and it looks like in the future Europa and Titan will also attract a lot of attention. But how do we know that what we have found is alien life and that [...]

The first mission to Mars that was to make a successful landing consisted of Viking 1 and Viking 2. It was an exciting mission with the orbiter picking landing spots for the lander to make a landing. Both spacecraft launched in 1975. They both made a successful landing and have lasted for about six years [...]

The new Horizons spacecraft was launched in 2006 for a trip to Pluto and beyond. Unfortunately for this mission there is a little controversy about Pluto as you probably know. Pluto, to put a long story short, has been deemed a dwarf planet by the IAU and this doesn’t really suit the image that NASA [...]

It’s been a while since I last posted the Carnival of space. Well, it’s here again the very best of the space community websites all on one site. Fancy living on Mars? I think there are a lot of people that would probably say yes. Their stay would probably be quite short today but what [...]

The solar system may seem a barren place when it comes to life or anything similar. Obviously we are here on our lovely planet so that statement is not true. The other planets don’t seem likely to harbour life except perhaps Mars, but the life there if there is any, is not obvious as we [...]

After flying around the solar system in my bubble I have landed on Mars and am very close to Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is about 90,000 feet above the surface of Mars. This is about three times the height of Everest. It is about 480 km across at its base and at its top is [...]

Planet Earth is getting boring. You have seen most of the countries and most of the inhabitants and swam beneath the sea, what else is there to do? Admittedly the oceans haven’t been explored to their full extent and some intense exploration needs to be done but sitting down and watching TV you can see [...]

Last year, when NASA’s IBEX (Interstellar Boundary Explorer) spacecraft discovered a giant ribbon at the edge of the solar system, researchers were mystified. They called it a “shocking result” and puzzled over its origin. Now the mystery may have been solved. [podcast]http://www.weirdwarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/giant ribbon.mp3[/podcast]

Have you ever worried about global warming? Have you ever got fed up with your mundane existence and wanted adventure? Have you ever been curious? If some of these apply to you then perhaps you should terraform another planet. There is a problem with that solution though, it’s quite a large undertaking for an individual. [...]

This is all about the preparations for launch of a space vehicle. It is mainly about the space shuttle, but covers lots of questions that you may have about why they stop and start all the time and what actually goes on. Why do they say that and why do they do this, you will [...]

Asteroids can be big grumpy things that decide that they are going to make life on Earth, just like the dinosaurs, extinct. They are flying around all over the place entering our solar system on their trajectories, and either crashing or being caught by another object in our system, or just peacefully cruising straight through [...]

What is the best way to get to the stars? Catching a bus or the tube probably won’t make it but catching the space shuttle will. Unfortunately, there is a small problem in that it will take around 170,000 years. When you arrived there would be nothing there, as the star would have moved. You [...]

A moon base sounds like an exotic idea but is well within our reach. There were people around, I expect when the idea of a space station around the earth was thought of, years ago, that were extremely sceptical. The international space station now exists orbiting the Earth and has got bigger and bigger by [...]