Planetary News Archive

Planetary News Archive

of the TPS Australian Volunteer Co-ordinators

29 Dec 05 Jon Lomberg: The Art of the Wormhole
28 Dec 05 PSRD: Magma and Water on Mars - Martian meteorites tell us part of the fascinating story about when volcanoes erupted and water flowed.
23 Dec 05 Science: Radar Soundings of the Subsurface of Mars - Mars Express radar data reveal that 2 kilometers of layered deposits rich in pure water ice underlie the North Polar Cap + An Early, Muddy Mars Just Right for Life.
23 Dec 05 SpaceDaily: Mars Region Probably Less Watery In Past Than Thought Says Boulder Study + Geologists Suggest Mars Features Are Result Of Meteorite Strikes Not Lakes
22 Dec 05 Space.com: Mars Water Assumptions May Be All Wet .
22 Dec 05 Nature (abs): Impact origin of sediments at the Opportunity landing site on Mars + A volcanic environment for bedrock diagenesis at Meridiani Planum on Mars
21 Dec 05 NASA: Partial Ingredients for DNA and Protein Found Around Star
21 Dec 05 Space.com: Crater Critters: Where Mars Microbes Might Lurk (see also Asteroids - now for the good news) + Pluto-Bound Probe Ready For Long Journey
20 Dec 05 BBC: Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars
16 Dec 05 New magazine: The Mars Journal
16 Dec 05 TPS: Solar Sail Update: Getting Started + Space Advocacy Victory: Congress Removes Legal Barrier to [international co-operation in] Space Exploration + Pioneer Anomaly update.
14 Dec 05 PSS (abs): Next-generation robotic planetary reconnaissance missions: A paradigm shift + Response of peak electron densities in the martian ionosphere to day-to-day changes in solar flux due to solar rotation + Subsurface radar sounding of the martian polar cap: radiative transfer approach + How much material do the radar-bright craters at the Mercurian poles contain? + Energy deposition of pickup ions and heating of Titan's atmosphere
13 Dec 05 Space Review: Life as We Do Not Know It
13 Dec 05 NewSci (subs): Countdown: NASA's mission to Pluto and beyond.
13 Dec 05 BBC: Nasa probes shuttle 'oxygen leak'
10 Dec 05 ABC Science: Ex-pollies to look out for ET - Philosophers and former politicians will soon join an elite group of scientists whose job it is to work out how to respond to signals from extra-terrestrial intelligence.
8 Dec 05 Nature (abs): Huygens rediscovers Titan + Planetary science: Are there active glaciers on Mars?
7 Dec 05 BBC: UK signs up to Euro Mars mission + Old rocks the key to life on Mars
3 Dec 05 New Scientist: Robots aim to explore and build on other worlds
2 Dec 05 NAI: Titan: Passport to the Early Earth?
25 Nov 05 Guardian: Astronauts can jump by Duncan Steel - Asteroids, rather than the moon or Mars, should be the next target for manned space flight. See also International Space Development Conference 05: Mars Indirect: Phobos as a Critical Step in Human Mars Exploration.
20 Nov 05 Uni Sydney : "Seeking extraterrestrial physics and intelligence during the international year of physics" by Dr Jill Tarter, of the SETI Institute, 1st December 2005 Time: 6.30pm, Location: Eastern Avenue Auditorium, F19, Camperdown campus , Cost: Free (thanks for news tip Michael West)
16 Nov 05 Space.com: Water Could Stay Liquid on Mars + Sri Lanka to Honor Science Fiction Writer Arthur C. Clark.
14 Nov 05 New research abstract: The Nuclear Cycle that Powers the Stars: Fusion, Gravitational Collapse, and Dissociation by Oliver K. Manuel, Michael Mozina and Hilton Ratcliffe
12 Nov 05 ScienceWA: Virtual trip to the Pilbara makes history - new astrobiology resources (thanks Andrew Glikson)
10 Nov 05 BBC: Venus probe launched successfully.
3 Nov 05 ABC Radio transcript: A Tribute to Sir Fred Hoyle.
2 Nov Space.com: Martian Dust Major Risk to Manned Mission.
2 Nov 05 SciAm: Did Life Come from Another World? - New research indicates that microorganisms could have survived a journey from Mars to Earth
2 Nov 05 SpaceDaily: Venus Express Spacecraft To Lift Off November 9 + New Book Expands Biological Classifications To Account For 'Alien' Life + Mars Society Australia Gets Stage Three Funding For Starchaser Rover + Methane Found In Desert Soils Bolsters Theories That Life Could Exist On Mars + Titan Weather: Cloudy Every 15 Years + Hubble Spots Possible New Moons Around Pluto.
1 Nov 05 Space.com: Two More Moons Discovered Orbiting Pluto.
30 Oct 05 NewSci: SSETI Express suffers power loss - Europe's student-built spacecraft was put into standby mode just hours after launch – it is not yet clear whether the mission can be recovered + New telescope snaps galaxy with one eye shut + Six-seat spacecraft top of Russian space plan + Out-of-this-world sex could jeopardise missions
30 Oct 05 World Science: "First light" from world's most powerful optical telescope - The Large Binocular Telescope will be ideal for seeing far-off planets and galaxies at the edge of the visible universe, astronomers say.
18 Oct 05 UT: Mid-Latitude Glaciers on Mars - more evidence of snowfields on Mars (see image)
18 Oct 05 Google Moon maps - try zooming fully! Thanks American Scientist.
18 Oct 05 Space Review: To the Moon: together or separately?
18 Oct 05 NewSci: China’s pair of spacemen land safely
11 Oct 05 SpaceDaily: Cassini's Visit To Dione - flyby Oct 11 - the spacecraft is expected to pass approximately 500 kilometers (310 miles) above the moon's surface.
9 Oct 05 Uni Texas: The 2004 Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Live Webcast on Oct. 13 at 7 PM CDT
9 Oct 05 BBC: Europe ice mission lost in ocean - another launch failure using converted Russian ICBMs.
7 Oct 05 NewSci: Mars-bound instruments detect Arctic microbes + Meteorites provide snapshots of the newly born Earth
24 Sep 05: Proposal for a crewless space shuttle from Gaetano Marano
23 Sep 05 NAI: The Living Worlds Hypothesis [Titan]
23 Sep 05 NewSci: Landslips, impacts and eroding ice revealed on Mars + When is a planet not a planet? + NASA challenges inventors to design Moon diggers
22 Sep 05 BBC: Mars 'more active than suspected' + Mars [Express] probe gets mission extension.
22 Sep 05 Space.com: Mars Probe Finds New Gullies, Crater at Red Planet + Summit Science: Spirit Rover Has a Field Day on Mars + Definition Debate: Planets May Soon Get Adjectives
21 Sep 05 Space.com: Moon-to-Mars Plans Emerge: New Agenda or Apollo Retread?
20 Sep 05 ABC: Apollo on steroids NASA has unveiled a $US104 billion plan to return Americans to the moon by 2018.
18 Sep 05 NewSci: Titan's long-sought sea revealed by radar
18 Sep 05 SMH: NASA hoping to return to moon by 2018
15 Sep 05 Space.com: Scientists Reconsider Habitability of Saturn's Moon [Titan].
13 Sep 05 Space Review:SETI politics + Copernicus smiled.
12 Sep 05 BBC: Hubble reveals new map of Pluto
9 Sep 05 BBC: Titan moon occupies 'sweet spot' - organisms could occupy specific niches, such as hot springs. They could use acetylene, in reaction with hydrogen gas, to release enough energy to power metabolism, and possibly to heat their environments + NewSci: Methane monsoons may lash Titan
9 Sep 05 NewSci: Deep Impact collision ejected the stuff of life.
9 Sep 05 BBC: Ice belt 'encircled Mars equator' - only 5 million years ago. More on martian snowfields.
8 Sep 05 SpaceDaily: Water Detection At Gusev Described Chemical Proof For Two Wet Scenarios + NASA's "RATS" Tests Technologies For Tomorrow's Treks On Mars + Studying The Summit + Curtain Set To Rise On Mission To The Morning Star
8 Sep 05 Nature: Martian methane probe in trouble [Mars Express sensor out of action] + Saturn's rings more placid than thought
8 Sep 05 Space.com: Largest Asteroid Might Contain More Fresh Water than Earth + The Mystery of Cosmos 1.
8 Sep 05 Voyager Record Art Portfolio - new book from from space artist Jon Lomberg. From the Voyager Record.
7 Sep 05 BBC: Martian volcanoes 'may be active'
6 Sep 05 SMH: The search for alien life on Earth by Paul Davies
6 Sep 05 BBC: Martian dunes hide water secret + Saturn ring particles 'fluffy' + Glitch forces Mars [Global Surveyor] probe shut-off
2 Sep 05 NewSci: Design choices may hurry humans to Mars
2 Sep 05 NASA: NASA's Durable Spirit Sends Intriguing New Images From Mars.
28 Aug 05 UT: NASA Says Liquid Water Made Martian Gullies
21 Aug 05 International Space Development Conference 05: Mars Indirect: Phobos as a Critical Step in Human Mars Exploration.
21 Aug 05 JBIS: MARS-OZ: A Design for a Simulated Mars Base in the Australian Outback - David Willson, Jonathan D.A. Clarke and Guy Murphy
17 Aug 05 Nature: An outfit suitable for Mars
17 Aug 05 SpaceDaily: Spirit Continues To Climb + Dawn At The Huygens Site
9 Aug 05 SpaceDaily: Mars Express Radar Collects First Surface Data + Spirit Wraps Up Work In Voltaire Region
9 Aug 05 UT: Book Review: Roving Mars + Trick Plants to Grow on Mars + Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Will Launch on August 10 + Detailed Look at Mimas
6 Aug 05 UT: Saturn's Eerie Southern Lights + Mars Express Preparing to Look Underground
4 Aug 05 NewSci: Titan may be as dry as a bone
3 Aug 05 UT: Radiation Will Put Human Mars Missions in Jeopardy + Is Methane Evidence of Life on Mars?
3 Aug 05 Space.com: Defining 'Planet': Newfound World Forces Action - still no reference to "microplanet"! + Spirited Assault: Mars Rover Nears Summit of Husband Hill.
31 Jul 05 Glaciers on Mars - a safe landing for hitchhiking microbes from Earth - new discussion paper
30 Jul 05 PSRD: Martian Meteorites Record Surface Temperatures on Mars - Gases trapped in Martian meteorites indicate that Mars has been a cold desert for a long, long time.
30 Jul 05 NASA: Cassini Finds an Active, Watery World at Saturn's Enceladus - Saturn's tiny icy moon Enceladus, which ought to be cold and dead, instead displays evidence for active ice volcanism. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found a huge cloud of water vapor over the moon's south pole, and warm fractures where evaporating ice probably supplies the vapor cloud - another Europa and another place to look for life?
30 Jul 05 NewSci: New solar system world has a moon. Mike Brown's web page.
30 Jul 05 BBC: Distant object found orbiting Sun - a new microplanet or planet?
29 Jul 05 SpaceDaily: Looking For Life On Mars -- In Australia's Outback + Water Ice In Crater At Martian North Pole
29 Jul 05 NewSci: Life was unlikely on frozen Mars
29 Jul 05 Progress in Physics: Report on the First Crisis in Cosmology Conference.(thanks Oliver Manuel)
29 Nature (abs): Evidence for magmatic evolution and diversity on Mars from infrared observations.
29 Jul 05 UT: Water Ice in a Martian Crater
29 Jul 05 Space.com: NASA's Next Mars Probe Takes Aim at Red Planet.
29 Jul 05 NASA: Spitzer Finds Life Components in Young Universe
28 Jul 05 NAI: Mystery Methane Maker.
27 Jul 05 UT: Measures to Prevent the Contamination of Mars + Strange Ice Boulders on Enceladus
25 Jul 05 NewSci (subs): Has Huygens found life on Titan? + Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found + Thriving ecosystem discovered under Antarctic ice (Dr Ishman's web page) - new hope for finding life under glaciers on Mars or under Europa's frozen surface? + LiveScience: Ice Shelf Collapse Reveals New Undersea World
25 Jul 05 Tehran Times!: House endorses NASA missions to moon, Mars
23 Jul 05 NewSci (subs): Far-out worlds, just waiting to be found + Huge spy satellite set to launch to Mars
22 Jul 05 SpaceDaily: Mars Has Been In Deep Freeze For Past Four Billion Years, Study Shows (Science abstract) + A Trip to Mars Needs Waste + NASA's New Mars Orbiter Will Sharpen Vision of Exploration
20 Jul 05 UT: Melt Through the Ice to Find Life + Cyborg Astrobiologist Could Help Astronauts Find Life on Mars + Tethys Glides Past Saturn + Oldest Planetary Disk Discovered + Pandora and Prometheus + Nicholson Crater on Mars + Martian Dust Devils Will Plague Astronauts + Strange White Streak on Titan
9 Jul 05 SpaceDaily: Venus Express Completes Integration And Test Phases + The Martian Heat Signature
8 Jul 05 SpaceDaily: Geological Finding Shows Mars To Be A Complex Planet That Continues To Evolve + Opportunity Back Tracks To Purgatory Dune.
5 Jul 05 UT: Book Review: Conflict in the Cosmos, Fred Hoyle's Life in Science
1 Jul 05 EPSL: Two-stage plume melting: A possible mechanism for the origin of martian magmatism.
30 Jun 05 UT: Planets Can Survive a Red Giant + Mars Organic Analyzer Passes the Test [on Earth]
29 Jun 05 Space Review: Academic honors for a spaceflight prophet - Last month a key but little-known engineer received an honorary doctorate from the University of Illinois. James Oberg chronicles the contributions of John Houbolt to the Apollo program and its relevance to future exploration efforts.
29 Jun 05 UT: Is This a Lake on Titan? + Spotty Janus
29 Jun 05 Yahoo: NASA: Shuttle to Take Off Despite Concerns
26 Jun 05 UT: Planets Under Construction + Pan's Influence on the Rings + New Horizons Prepares to Zoom to Pluto
24 Jun 05 Science: Hidden Worlds May Lurk in Stellar Dust + Deep-Sea Bacterium Breaks All the Rules
24 Jun 05 Nature: A planetary system as the origin of structure in Fomalhaut's dust belt.
24 Jun 05 Space.com: Setting SETI's Sights II: Abodes for Life?
23 Jun 05 BBC: Solar sail probe's fate unknown (TPS updates not looking good)
23 Jun 05: "A new vision of the universe evolution" by Prof Kamel Ben Salem, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia. This paper points out some interesting connections between the Quran and cosmological theory and was recently published in "The Pacific Journal of Science and Technology" (Vol 6, 1, May 2005).
21 Jun 05 UT: Few Planets Will Have Time to Form Complex Life + Rosetta Set to Watch Deep Impact
21 Jun 05 NewSci: Martian life might threaten human mission +Earth microbes may survive on Mars +First private solar sail set for launch
17 Jun 05 BBC: Should Britain fund astronauts? British astronomers are seeking your views on the merits of sending humans to visit the Moon or Mars.
17 Jun 05 ABC: Lights out in Sydney for better view - Sydney astronomers have applauded a plan to switch off lights in the city this weekend to give people a better view of the stars. Associated with Sydney Observatory Festival of the Stars
15 Jun 05 Space.com: Outer Planet-Palooza! Europa, Titan Missions Get Support.
14 Jun 05 UT: Pluto Mission Arrives at NASA for Testing + Mmmm, Food From Mars + Large Rocky Planet Discovered
14 Jun 05 BBC: Smallest extrasolar planet found.
13 Jun 05 SpaceDaily: A moment frozen in time (sunset on Mars)
11 Jun 05 BBC: Mars probe 'was doomed' say MPs
11 Jun 05 UT: Coprates Chasma on Mars + First Aurora Seen on Mars + Possible Methane Volcano Discovered on Titan + SMART-1 Finds Calcium on the Moon
11 Jun 05 Space.com: Deep Impact Team Solves Blurry Photo Problem (image reprocessing).
9 Jun 05 Space.com: Mars Methane Explained Without Biology.
9 Jun 05 ABC: Earliest oil deposits show signs of life.
9 Jun 05 Nature: Titan disappoints ocean hunters
9 Jun 05 NASA: Scientists Discover Possible Titan Volcano + Titan's Icy Volcanoes Erupting Methane?
4 Jun 05 Excavated giant worm burrows on Mars? ;)
4 Jun 05 BBC: Next US Mars lander gets go-ahead.
3 Jun 05 MSA: 5th Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC) to be held 19-21 Aug 05 in Canberra - keynote speaker Steve Squyres from the Mars Rover mission.
2 Jun 05 ABC: Myth of hellish Earth doused in water
2 Jun 05 Space.com: Funding for Moon, Mars Projects Promised + First Shooting Star Seen from Mars
2 Jun 05 UT: Amalthea is Just a Pile of Icy Rubble + Ancient Floods on Mars
26 May 05 NAI: Titan's Face Lifted.
26 May 05 GCA: Incipient hydrothermal alteration of basalts and the origin of martian soil.
25 May 05 UT: Voyager 1 Enters the Heliosheath
24 May 05 BBC: Wormhole 'no use' for time travel
24 May 05 TPS: Cosmos 1 Ships in Preparation for June Launch!
24 May 05 Space.com: Mars Master Plan: NASA Outlines New Approach.
20 May 05 UT: NASA Competition to Get Air from Lunar Soil
20 May 05: New Scientist "launches" a new space website.
19 May 05 NAI: Expect Life to be Cold. See also these extremophile links.
18 May 05 NASA: MGS Finds Viking Lander and Mars Polar Lander? + Russell Dune Gullies.
13 May 05 Space Review: “We must never fail”: Gene Kranz, Apollo 13, and the future - the role of teamwork.
13 May 05 Science: Special on Titan (subscription only)
11 May 05 Space.com: Mars Flooding Tied to Meteoritic Impacts.
10 May 05 Sydney: MSA "Hydrothermal Systems on Mars - the latest from ESA Mars Express and the NASA
Rovers" Location: Engineering Conference Room, Level 3, Mechanical Engineering Building, University of Sydney at 6pm on Tue 17 May. See also this ACA talk.
6 May 05 Nature: Pheobe taken captive + Fear and rambling at NASA (PDF) - Only a confused space agency would consider shutting down the Voyager spacecraft as they approach the uncharted edge ofthe Solar System...
6 May 05 NewSci: Lost asteroid clue to Pioneer puzzle + To conquer Venus, try a plane with a brain.
5 May 05 UT: DID LIFE ARRIVE BEFORE THE SOLAR SYSTEM EVEN FORMED? (Transpermia)
2 May 05 ESO: Astronomers Confirm the First Image of a Planet Outside of Our Solar System.
30 Apr 05 TPS: SETI Pioneer, MIT Professor Philip Morrison Dies at 89.
30 Apr 05 UT: Robots Will Search for Lunar Water Deposits + Mars Express Radar Boom to Be Deployed in May + Tithonium Chasma on Mars (+ ESA 3D image - stunning, 2.5Mb)
30 Apr 05 NASA: Mars Rover Panorama Shows Vista From 'Lookout' Point - try out the Quicktime VR.
29 Apr 05 SpaceDaily: Cassini Captures Swiss-Cheese Look of Saturn Moon + Cassini's Radar And VIMS Instruments Eye Impact Crater On Titan + [Mars] Continuing Southward As New Images Pour In
29 Apr 05 (back from vacation) PSS (abstract): Instrument development to search for biomarkers on mars: Terrestrial acidophile, iron-powered chemolithoautotrophic communities as model systems.
8 Apr 05 NewSci: Look out for giant triangles in space - Instead of listening for alien radio broadcasts, a better strategy
for SETI might be to look for giant structures placed in orbit around nearby stars + ApJ: Transit Lightcurve Signatures of Artificial Objects (PDF)
6 Apr 05 UT: How Many Habitable Planets Could Be Out There? + BBC: Plenty of Earths await discovery.
5 Apr 05 Space.com: The Strange Steep Slopes of Mars + Red Giants and Planets To Live On
1 Apr 05 UT: Ultraviolet View of Mimas
30 Mar 05 UT: Dying Stars Could Provide a Second Chance for Life + Medusa Fossae Region on Mars + Is the Kuiper Belt Slowing the Pioneer Spacecraft?
28 Mar 05 Sydney 4 April: Lecture about the Challenger disaster
25 Mar 05 SpaceDaily: Warming Up To A Martian Carcass + Martian Fire And Ice + Comparing The Triad Of Great Moons
23 Mar 05 Space.com: Glow of Alien Planets Detected in 'Milestone' Observations - The glow of planets outside our solar system have been spotted in the first direct detections of light emitted by alien worlds.
22 Mar 05 UT: Why Colonize the Moon First? + India and Europe Agree on Lunar Mission + Cassini Sees Mimas Eclipse Janus
17 Mar 05 Nature (abs): Tropical to mid-latitude snow and ice accumulation, flow and glaciation on Mars + Evidence from the Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera for a frozen sea close to Mars' equator + Discovery of a flank caldera and very young glacial activity at Hecates Tholus, Mars
17 Mar 05 Space.com: New Signs of Recent Glaciers, Volcanoes and Flowing Water on Mars + Scientists Struggle to Digest Surprises from Europe's Mars Craft
17 Mar 05 NASA JPL: Cassini Finds an Atmosphere on Saturn's Moon Enceladus + Diagnostic Tests Planned for Instrument on Mars Rover
16 Mar 05 UT: Robot Finds Life in the Desert + Rover Sees a Dust Devil on Mars (source of the carwash?)
15 Mar 05 BBC: Europe tells US: 'Come to Europa'
15 Mar 05 LPSC05: EVIDENCE FROM HRSC MARS EXPRESS FOR A FROZEN SEA CLOSE TO MARS’ EQUATOR (PDF)
14 Mar 05 NAI: The Martian Frozen Sea.
12 Mar 05 Science (regn): Mars Express special - Minerals over Mars.
10 Mar 05 Nature (Subs!): NASA's funding shortfall means journey's end for Voyager probes - Mission to the edge of the Solar System may shut down in October to save cash + Imaging of Titan from the Cassini spacecraft.
10 Mar 05 NASA/JPL: Cassini Images of Titan Reveal an Active, Earth-like World
8 Mar 05 NAI: Search for a Second Genesis - discusses life on Mars
6 Mar 05 Science (regn): Ice or Lava Sea on Mars? A Transatlantic Debate Erupts + More links on this subject.
4 Mar 05 ABC Science: Japanese search for aliens.
4 Mar 05 NewSci: New images reveal volcanic hotspot on Mars.
2 Mar 05 UT: Mini-Detector Could Find Life on Mars or Anthrax at the Airport + Are We Alone? + Rainbows on Titan + Cassini Images Saturn's Radiation Belts
1 Mar 05 Space.com: Astronauts: Taking it in the Kidneys - nanobacteria were found to multiply five times faster in microgravity compared to normal gravity on Earth.
28 Feb 05 ESA: First Mars Express Science Conference - press briefing. Note the link to the Formisano (methane) paper should be http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/spcs/mex-science/formisano-pfs.pdf
26 Feb 05 ESA: Glacial, volcanic and fluvial activity on Mars: latest images [superb] - with 3D fly-by animation
26 Feb 05 Space.com: Quarter of Mars Scientists at European Meeting Believe [extant] Life Possible on Red Planet.
25 Feb 05 ABC: Scientist argues case for life on Mars + Mars Discovery...Life On Mars? (thanks MSA)
25 Feb 05 Science (regn): Special on the Cassini mission + New Perspectives on Ancient Mars + The Use of Transit Timing to Detect Terrestrial-Mass Extrasolar Planets
25 Feb 05 NewSci: Frozen sea on Mars linked to elevated methane.
24 Feb 05 NAI: Earth's Childhood Attic (Moon)
24 Feb 05 Space.com: The Resources of the Moon and Beyond (picking up meteorites?) + Ice Packs and Methane on Mars Suggest Present Life Possible, European Team Says + Digging and Sniffing for Life on Mars + Panspermia: Getting There From Here (see also Transpermia & SETI)
24 Feb 05 ESA: Mars Express sees signs of a frozen sea.
24 Feb 05 Nature: Enhanced atmospheric loss on protoplanets at the giant impact phase in the presence of oceans + Prokaryotic cells of the deep sub-seafloor biosphere identified as living bacteria
24 Feb 05 BBC: Ancient life thrives in the deep + Microbes survive deep permafrost
22 Feb 05 NAI: The Smart One - SMART propulsion system
22 Feb 05 Nature: Setting sail for history - TPS project + Titanic complexity pleases planet scientists
22 Feb 05 BBC: Mars pictures reveal frozen sea - a catastrophic event flooded the landscape five million years ago and then froze out
22 Feb 05 NewSci: 'Pack ice' suggests frozen sea on Mars + Huygens detects geological activity on Titan
21 Feb 05 Space Review essay: Pluto at 75: a uniquely American anniversary (see also Small is beautiful)
18 Feb 05 Science: And Now, the Younger, Dry Side of Mars Is Coming Out - "for most of its history, Mars resembled the Dry Valleys of Antarctica at their driest rather than a landscape of shallow seas..." + Science Express: Several Mars science articles.
17 Feb 05 Space.com: Researchers Claim [indirect] Evidence of Present Life on Mars - sketchy details about a private briefing within NASA - Update 20 feb: now denied by NASA .
15 Feb 05 Space.com: Is There Life on Mars? Looking for Rock Solid Evidence.
14 Feb 05 SciAm: What sort of patterns do scientists working on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project look for?
13 Feb 05 Space Review essay: What does a sick “space safety culture” smell like? One of the biggest challenges facing NASA is fixing the “cultural” problems that led to two shuttle accidents. James Oberg offers an insider’s account of how seemingly small problems can have far more serious consequences.
13 Feb 05 ABC: Upgraded European rocket blasts off
13 Feb 05 Space.com: Earth To Mars in a Month With Painted Solar Sail + Teach Evolution: Leave No Child Behind - Evolution is fundamental to modern biology, geology and astronomy. Ignoring or discarding fundamental scientific understandings of the natural world does not prepare our children well for the future.
11 Feb 05 Space.com: NASA Haughton-Mars Project -- Summertime on a 'Planet' Close to Home.
8 Feb 05 BBC: Mini-planet system seen in growth
8 Feb 05 Science Now (regn): Ernst Mayr Dies + Solar System Lite
7 Feb 05 The Scotsman: 'Humans Could Make Mars Earth-Like by Global Warming' .
4 Feb 05 Nature: Home computers search for gravity waves
4 Feb 05 BBC: Report scorns Beagle 2 decision
4 Feb 05 The [Toronto] Star: Climate change has bright side
3 Feb 05 New website: SETI Universe.
2 Feb 05 PSRD: Recent Activity on Mars: Fire and Ice - evidence of recent volcanic and glacial activity on Mars. "the most recent lava flows on Mars may be as young as two million years...water ice protected by an insulating layer of dust may now exist at high altitudes at the edge of the Olympus Mons shield. Accumulations of water ice in non-polar regions are particularly hot topics of research because of their implications for hydrothermal activity and the strategy for searching for life on Mars." Mars Express Science Conference will be held February 21-25, 2005 in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
1 Feb 05 Space Review: Strategies for Martian exploration + Revisiting Project Orion + Magnetic shielding for spacecraft + How Huygens avoided disaster + Beyond the Biodome [Biosphere 2]
29 Jan 05 UT: A Pristine View of the Universe... from the Moon + Dr. Seth Shostak Answers Your Questions About SETI
26 Jan 05 UT: MICROBES USE HYDROGEN FOR FUEL IN YELLOWSTONE
26 Jan 05 Space.com: A Good Year on Mars for NASA Rover Opportunity
26 Jan 05 BBC: Search for life signal on Titan + Cosmic birth theory [of solar system] gets support
26 Jan 05 SciAm: Huygens Data Lifting Veil on Titan
24 Jan 05 Nature: Titan reveals methane rain and rocks of water
19 Jan 05 SciAm: Researchers Develop New Machine for Detecting Signs of Life on Mars
17 Jan 05 Times: Software glitch mars Saturn moonshot
16 Jan 05 ESA: First Results from Huygens - first pictures from the surface of another moon.
15 Jan 05 UT: Touchdown! Huygens Lands on Titan + ESA press release. + BBC: Huygens sends first Titan images
15 Jan 05 BBC: Comet probe Deep Impact lifts off
12 Jan 05 Space.com: Astronomers Confident: Planet Beyond Solar System Has Been Photographed.
11 Jan 05 UT: Spitzer Sees the Aftermath of a Planetary Collision
10 Jan 05 JPL: Saturn's Moon Iapetus Shows a Bulging Waistline
9 Jan 05 Nature: Destination: Titan + Microbes brave briny basins + Comet smasher nears launch
31 Dec 04 Space.com: The New and Improved SETI.
29 Dec 04 NASA: Opportunity Rover Visits Its Heat Shield + Cassini spacecraft successfully performed a getaway maneuver
28 Dec 04 NewSci: 2004: The year in space and astronomy
24 Dec 04 PSRD: Cosmochemistry and Human Exploration. See also Riches from the rubble.
24 Dec 04 Science: Distributions of Microbial Activities in Deep Subseafloor Sediments.
24 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: The Plains Of Meridiani Offer Plenty Of Site-Seeing Opportunities + Walls Of Candor Chasma Loom High For Mars Express
24 Dec 04 NewSci: Mystery of Mars rover's 'carwash' rolls on. (See 8 Nov)
24 Dec 04 UT: Mars Volcanoes Were Active Recently + Radio Telescopes Will Contribute to Huygens' Mission + Experiments Chosen For Lunar Orbiter
23 Dec 04 NAI: Titan: The Moon That Howls Back - methane on Titan.
23 Dec 04 ESO: VLT obtains a splendid photo of a unique galaxy, NGC 1097 (not "planetary" but it is indeed splendid).
23 Dec 04 Nature: Recent and episodic volcanic and glacial activity on Mars revealed by the High Resolution Stereo Camera.
22 Dec 04 Space.com: Plunge Into an Alien World + Snowball Fight in Saturn's Rings + Opportunity Rover to Prowl its Entry Debris for Mars Secrets.
19 Dec 04 BBC: 'Artificial life' comes step closer + Top of the class - Nasa's Mars rovers - 'biggest breakthrough' in science in 2004
17 Dec 04 UT: New Storms Seen on Titan + Cassini's First Flyby of Dione + Sooty Nebula Around a Sun Like Star
17 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: Milestone For Australian Satellite As Space Effort Hits Wall - the end of an Australian space program.
16 Dec 04 MSSS: Noachis Pit Crater Gullies - fine details of gullies visible - "The many fine tributaries in the Noachis pit crater area shown here lend support to the hypothesis that a liquid with the physical properties of water was involved."
15 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: Mars Life: Trouble Without The Rubble? + A Deep Sea Hydrocarbon Factory - iron- and chromium-rich rocks can generate natural gas (methane) and related hydrocarbons when reacted with superheated fluids (possible source of the methane on Mars?).
15 Dec 04 Space.com: Lunar Ice: 'Cold Traps' Eyed for Exploration + On Mars: Earth-Like Clouds and a New Type of Rock.
14 Dec 04 NASA: Mars Rovers Spot Water-Clue Mineral, Frost, Clouds
14 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: Few Doubts Remain That Mars Was Once Quite Wet + Space In 2004: Robots Versus The Right Stuff
14 Dec 04 Oxule movie: The Mars Underground (thanks MSA)
14 Dec 04 Space.com: Life-Swapping Scenarios for Earth and Mars - see Swapping Rocks
11 Dec 04 UT: Planetary Systems Seen Forming
10 Dec 04 NewSci (print only): THE ASCENT OF LIFE - Whatever it is that transforms stupid atoms into intelligent life, it's got more than a hint of the quantum about it, says physicist Paul Davies
10 Dec 04 UT: Mission to Neptune Under Study + Saturn's C Ring + Private Spaceflight Bill Passes
9 Dec 04 NAI: On Top of Titan's Mountain.
8 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: New Design Method Helps Engineers Develop Systems For Mars, Moon Missions.
7 Dec 04 NAI: The Martian Methane Surprise.
6 Dec 04 Nature: Opportunity: First 90 days on Mars
5 Dec 04 NASA: Channel/Crater Interaction on Mars - evidence of past flowing water?
4 Dec 04 Space.com: With Proof of Ancient Water on Mars, Researchers Consider Life's Chances
4 Dec 04 GCA: The composition and evolution of primordial solutions on Mars, with application to other planetary bodies.
4 Dec 04 BBC: Mission cleared for Titan plunge.
4 Dec 04 SciAm: Are Viruses Alive?
3 Dec 04 Science: Special Issue: Opportunity at Meridiani Planum
3 Dec 04 BBC: Rover data makes return a must
3 Dec 04 UT: Would We Mistake Signals from ET? + Sun Could Have Traded With Another Star + Knots in Saturn's Rings
3 Dec 04 Space.com: What Do You Say to An Extraterrestrial? + Researchers Find Moon Rock in Antarctica + The Origin of Life on Earth + Planetary Parks Proposed For Mars Conservation + Earth's Solar System Shaped by Brush with Star, Astronomers Say (see Transpermia paper)
1 Dec 04 SpaceDaily: Transforming Dust Into Rocky Planets + Did Our Sun Capture Alien Worlds?
30 Nov 04 NAI: The Origin of Life on Earth.
25 Nov 04 MSSS Mars Global Surveyor: Small Gullied Crater + A Gullied Crater Wall - still no resolution of the
mechanism that formed the gullies on Mars but this clip looks to me like a stream emerging from a (very dirty) glacier! Compare it with Fox Glacier NZ - pictured at right - the tunnel is about 10m high.
25 Nov 04 UT: Crater Hale on Mars + Best Views of Titan and Tethys
25 Nov 04 TPS: ON THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF CARL SAGAN'S BIRTH + A MARSDIAL COVERED IN DUST: THE MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS' 50,000TH IMAGE.
25 Nov 04 Space.com: Thirsty Bugs Found in Martian-like Desert.
25 Nov 04 ESO: Young Stars Poised for Production of Rocky Planets.
25 Nov 04 Nature: The building blocks of planets within the 'terrestrial' region of protoplanetary disks.
25 Nov 04 NAI: Martian Retrospective.
24 Nov 04 ABC (Aust): Early life basked in sunlight + Cyborg astrobiologist steps forward + Let's hope aliens like rock music
24 Nov 04 SciAm: Martian Methane Resuscitates Hope for Life on the Red Planet.
24 Nov 04 UT: Interview with Colin Pillinger + Tethys Hangs Under Saturn + Rhea Shows Off a Big Impact
19 Nov 04 Science: How Neptune Pushed the Boundaries of Our Solar System.
19 Nov 04 Space.com: Hints of Unseen Moons in Saturn's Rings
19 Nov 04 PSS: Thermal isostasy and deformation of possible paleoshorelines on Mars + Numerical slope stability simulations of the northern wall of eastern Candor Chasma (Mars) utilizing a distinct element method + Induced magnetic field effects at planet Mercury + Scientific objectives and selection of targets for the SMART-1 Infrared Spectrometer (SIR)
19 Nov 04 UT: Space Elevator? Build it on the Moon First + Life's There, You Just Need to Dig
18 Nov 04 UT: Magnetic Bubble Could Protect Astronauts on Long Trips + NASA Scramjet Hits Mach 9.8 + Collapsed Canyons on Mars
18 Nov 04 SpaceDaily: Living Large In A Martian Lava Tube + Europe Reaches The Moon
18 Nov 04 NAI: RADAR Surprises from Titan.
16 Nov 04 NewSci: Scientists face the fact of Mars methane
16 Nov 04 NAI: Water from a Stone [on Mars]
15 Nov 04 TPS: Cosmos 1 Launch Date Set!
15 Nov 04 S&T: MARS METHANE BOOSTS CHANCES FOR LIFE + MORE SCIENCE FINDINGS FROM CASSINI
15 Nov 04 Space.com: Mars Gullies Likely Formed By Underground Aquifers.
13 Nov 04 UT: Uranus Can Be Stormy After All + Getting Out of Endurance Might Not Be Easy + Baby Planet Puzzles Astronomers
12 Nov 04 BBC: Mars moon emerges from the dark
11 Nov 04 UT: Density Waves in Saturn's Rings
11 Nov 04 Space.com: New Images Reveal Clouds on Planet Uranus + Mining the Moon, the Gateway to Mars (mining asteroids may be more efficient) + Planetary Society's Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Ready for Flight.
11 Nov 04 BBC: Saturn moon may have ice volcano + Firms look to shuttle successor.
11 Nov 04 Nature: Prolonged KREEP magmatism on the Moon indicated by the youngest dated lunar igneous rock.
10 Nov 04 Space Review: SAGAN'S RATIONALE FOR HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT (CC)
10 Nov 04 UT: What Will Huygens Land In?
10 Nov 04: NASA: Cassini Radar Sees Bright Flow-Like Feature on Titan.
8 Nov 04 BBC: Rover gets mystery power boost - Overnight, Opportunity's solar panels produced between 2% and 5% additional power, perhaps due to Martian dust that had settled on them being removed
7 Nov 04 BBC: Titan moon holds on to enigma
7 Nov 04 Planetary and Space Science : Volume 52, Issue 13 , November 2004 - Mars weather
5 Nov 04 NASA: Spirit Adds Clues About History of Rocks in Martian Hills
5 Nov 04 NewSci: Prometheus caught stealing from Saturn's rings
5 Nov 04 Space.com: Titan: A Good Mystery
4 Nov 04 BBC: Scientists lift veil on Beagle 3
3 Nov 04 AGU Annual Meeting sessions: Planetary Sciences + Earth's Early Biosphere: New Findings From Deep Drill Cores I + Remote Sensing of Volcanoes on Earth, Mars, and Beyond I + II + Impact Craters on Jupiter's Icy Moons as Astrobiological Targets + Characterizing Starting Conditions for Hydrothermal Systems Underneath Martian Craters + MESSENGER: The Discovery Mission to Mercury
3 Nov 04 UT: Stromlo Opens Up Again After the Fire + Beagle 2 Just Didn't Have the Money to Succeed
30 Oct 04 GSA Annual meeting: Public Forum: Mars + Biomineralization in Terrestrial Hot Springs: The Preservation of Thermophiles in Past and Present-Day Systems + MINERALIZATION OF MICROBES IN MODERN HOT SPRINGS + Seeing Mars With New Eyes: Active Missions, Science Results, and Geoscience Education + Mars Mineralogy: The View from MER
30 Oct 04 UT: Hibernate on a Trip to Mars + More Findings About Methane on Mars + Venus and Jupiter's Upcoming Conjunction + Detailed Image of Titan's Surface + (Ad) Martian Meteorite (ASHE) Shergottite DAG 476 for sale...
30 Oct 04 BBC: Titan moon 'geologically alive' + NASA: Cassini's Radar Shows Titan's Young Active Surface.
28 Oct 04 Science: Detection of Methane in the Atmosphere of Mars...The source of methane could be either biogenic or non-biogenic, including past or present subsurface microorganisms, hydrothermal activity, or cometary impacts.
28 Oct 04 BBC: Liquid 'suggested' on Titan
26 Oct 04 NAI: Milestone reached for detecting life on Mars - These instruments were tested on hot-spring deposited carbonate terraces...
26 Oct 04 SpaceDaily; Martian Meteorite Measurements Give Information On Planet Evolution. + Spirit's Mulls Over Uchben
26 Oct 04 NewSci: High hopes for Cassini's Titan flyby - NASA: First Close Encounter of Saturn's Hazy Moon Titan
25 Oct 4 SpaceDaily: Opportunity Ready To Make "Climb" To Burns Cliff + The Sounds Of Titan
25 Oct 04 NAI: Life in a Lava Tube
22 Oct 04 SpaceDaily: Spirit Steering Goes Amiss; While Opportunity Powers Up + Cassini Performing Perfectly For Titan Flyby Oct 26
21 Oct 04 ESA: ESA's Hipparcos finds rebels with a cause - stars in our neighbourhood coming from all directions.
21 Oct 04 BBC: Plasma beam for 90-day Mars visit.
20 Oct 04 Australian Museum lecture: Mars Attacks! Dr Phil Plait, astronomer, Sonoma State University, California,
Saturday 20 November, 2004, 6:30pm For years various groups have promoted the idea that there are cities and other artifacts on Mars, including the so-called 'Face'. In this talk, visiting astronomer Dr Plait, 'The Bad Astronomer' from Sonoma State University in California, will show why these ideas are wrong and how to avoid getting duped by silly claims in the future.
20 Oct 04 UT: Edge of Huygens Crater + Early Solar System Was a Mess
20 Oct 04 BBC: Ancient fungus 'revived' in lab - not as small as Nanobes.
19 Oct 04 Nature: Flawed drawings caused [Genisis] spacecraft crash - incredibly, switches were installed back-to-front. This was the origin of Murphy's Law.
19 Oct 04 NAI: Mission to Mars: Risky Business
18 Oct 04 Brown University recent papers (PDF): Radar-dark impact crater--related parabolas on Venus: Characterization of deposits with Magellan emissivity data + Global geologic context for rock types and surface alteration on Mars + Mars outflow channels: A reappraisal of the estimation of water flow velocities from water depths, regional slopes, and channel floor properties + Evidence for a massive phreatomagmatic eruption in the initial stages of formation of the Mangala Valles outflow channel, Mars.
18 Oct 04 GISS Science Briefs: Mars: Signs of a Watery Past.
16 Oct 04 Space.com: Mars Reconsidered: New [water] Data Raises Fresh Questions.
16 Oct 04 UT: Investigators Focus in On a Potential Cause for Genesis Crash + Preparing for Huygens' Release + Mars and Back in 90 Days on a Mag-Beam
15 Oct 04 GSAustralia free public lectures: 'Are we alone? - Earliest life on Earth, life on Mars and the search for the extra-terrestrial life' - Dr Charley Lineweaver, Planetary Science Institute, Australian National University and Professor Malcolm Walter, Director of the Australian Centre for Astrobiology. Dates: Adelaide 14 Oct, Perth 18 Oct, Sydney 20 Oct (Australian Museum, 6pm), Canberra 26 Oct, Brisbane 27 Oct
Spectacular scientific advances have helped us discover over 100

extra-solar planets that could be 'home' to alien life-forms. At the
same time, our exploration of the universe has taught us a huge
amount, suggesting that Mars may have been inhabited, and could still
be! If we can find traces of life and show that it arose
independently from life on Earth, then we will be able to predict
with confidence that life elsewhere in the Universe is possible. Two
outstanding authorities on early life and the solar system present an
up-to-date review of this challenging topic at the leading edge of
modern scientific investigations.
14 Oct 04 SpaceDaily: Research Shows Liquid Water May Have Been On Mars Briefly + Los Alamos Instrument Yields New Knowledge Of Saturn's Rings
14 Oct 04 NAI: Milestone reached for detecting life on Mars + News from the Bioastronomy 2004 Meeting + Molecular Biologists Uproot Perspective of Ancient Ancestry + Express to Venus
14 Oct 04 Space.com: Red Planet Bound: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
12 Oct 04 Space.com: Marsquakes: Red Planet May Still Rumble + Russia Plans 500-Day Mock Mars Mission
8 Oct 04 NASA/JPL: Mars Rovers Probing Water History at Two Sites
7 Oct 04 Abstracts for the proceedings of Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the Stars now available.
7 Oct 04 UT: Rover's Wheels Acting Up + It Gave Until it Couldn't Give Any More (strange binary star system)
7 Oct 04 Nature: An early extrasolar planetary system revealed by planetesimal belts in beta Pictoris + Magnesium sulphate salts and the history of water on Mars
6 Oct 04 SciAm: Website awards: ASTRONOMY
6 Oct 04 UT: [Mercury/Gemini] Astronaut Gordon Cooper Dies + Book Review: New Moon Rising + Field of Fault Lines on Mars + SpaceShipOne Flies to Space and Wins the X-Prize
6 Oct 04 BBC: SpaceShipOne rockets to success.
3 Oct 04 Astrobiology: Contents of Vol 4, No 3 (subs)
28 Sep 04 PSS: Special issue of Planetary and Space Science ''Planet Mars''.(Subs)
28 Sep 04 UT: How Mars Could Be Losing Its Water
23 Sep 04 BBC: Rock bugs resist polar extremes
23 Sep 04 Nature: Martian methane hints at oases of life +Inhibition of carbonate synthesis in acidic oceans on early Mars
22 Sep 04 NASA: Rover Missions Renewed as Mars Emerges From Behind Sun
22 Sep 04 SpaceDaily: Drilling For Weird Life
22 Sep 04 UT: Keeping the Rings In Line + SpaceShipOne's Engine Designer Working with NASA + NASA Awards Jupiter Icy Moons Mission + Methane and Water [locations] Overlap on Mars
22 Sep 04 SciAm: Antarctica Gives Astronomers Best View of the Stars - Going to the ends of the earth may be as good a strategy for observing the heavens as sending telescopes into space is.
21 Sep 04 BBC: New Mars data gives life clue
20 Sep 04 EPSL: How life began on Earth: a status report (abstract).
12 Sep 04 Mars Society: New Project To Design, Build A Home On Mars.
11 Sep 04 Space.com: Likely First Photo of Planet Beyond the Solar System
11 Sep 04 Science (abstracts): Methanobactin, a Copper-Acquisition Compound from Methane-Oxidizing Bacteria + Jupiter's Atmospheric Composition from the Cassini Thermal Infrared Spectroscopy Experiment.
10 Sep 04 SpaceDaily: Major Milestone For Detecting Life On Mars
10 Sep 04 Space.com: Fixing Shuttle Fleet Could Top $2 Billion
10 Sep 04 UT: Opportunity's Landing Site Could Have Once Been Under Water + Cassini Finds a New Ring Around Saturn
10 Sep 04 BBC: New ring discovered around Saturn + Scientists 'hopeful' for Genesis
9 Sep 04 Nature: Implications for hydrologic processes on Mars from extensive bedrock outcrops throughout Terra Meridiani (abstract) + Waiting for ET.
7 Sep 04 NewSci: THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE- 10 top issues (payment required!)
3 Sep 04 Science (abstracts): Looking into the Giant Planets + Planet Hunting Gets Rocky As Teams Clash Over Small Worlds
3 Sep 04 NASA: Cassini Reveals Saturn's Cool Rings
3 Sep 04 BBC: Astronomers deny ET signal report + NewSci: Mysterious signals from light years away + Intergalactic messages 'in a bottle' are best + Two new rocky 'super Earths' found + Martian teardrop carved in crater
2 Sep 04 BBC: Alien probe 'best way to find ET' + Scientists track incoming [Earthly] probe
1 Sep 04 BBC: Comet pioneer Fred Whipple dies +Small planets seen by astronomers - NASA release
1 Sep 04 Space.com: The Genesis Payload: Just How Dangerous are its Contents?
1 Sep 04 SciAm: Telescope Network Detects Distant Planet
31 Aug 04 NAI: Life on Mars: A Definite Possibility [does that mean "possible"]
30 Aug 04 Science (abstract): Search for Low-Mass Exoplanets by Gravitational Microlensing at High Magnification
30 Aug 04 NAI: Citizen of the Solar System - interview with David Morrison.
30 Aug 04 Space.com: Was Venus Alive? 'The Signs are Probably There' + Scientists Seek Scent of Life in Methane at Mars.
30 Aug 04 BBC: Beagle team probes its own loss.
21 Aug 04 Space.com: Spirit Hints at Past Water, Opportunity Hits Rock Bottom - small objects seen by Opportunity's microscopic imager in Endurance Crater have perplexed Mars researchers
19 Aug 04 MSSS: Are these the tracks of sand worms on Mars? (for Dune movie fans)
19 Aug 04 SpaceDaily: Sun-Like Solar Systems Undetected
19 Aug 04 Nature: Discovery of five irregular moons of Neptune (abs)
19 Aug 04 NASA: Bedrock in Mars' Gusev Crater Hints at Watery Past. - Spirit goes "mountain" climbing.
18 Aug 04 NAI: Venus: Inhabited World? Comment: Venus may have been the most life-friendly place in the solar system two billion years ago. Microbes/nanobes may then have hitched a ride to Earth.
17 Aug 04 Sydney Observatory: Reach for the Stars - presented by Dr. Sally Ride, former NASA astronaut, Tue 17th Aug, 6pm – 7pm, followed by telescope viewing until 8:00pm.
17 Aug 04 JPL: Two New Saturnian Moons!
17 Aug 04 SpaceDaily: Cosmos 1 Solar Sail Passes New Milestone + Scientists Discover Ganymede Has A Lumpy Interior + Greenland Ice Core Project Yields Probable Ancient Plant Remains
17 Aug 04 NAI: Venus: Hothouse Planet.
16 Aug 04 CA: Evidence for indigenous microfossils in a carbonaceous meteorite - see also Fossilized Bacteria Found in Ancient Meteorite.
16 Aug 04 Nature: Mars rover snaps panoramic view + The search for life on Mars
13 Aug 04 ABC: Site chosen for Mars training lab - The Mars Society of Australia is to begin searching for investors to help fund a proposed Mars research station at Arkaroola in northern South Australia.
13 Aug 04 UT: CASSINI'S VIEW OF TINY HYPERION.
13 Aug 04 Science: Ganymede Mass Anomalies + Los Alamos's Woes Spread to Pluto Mission (subs)
12 Aug 04 Yahoo: China Begins Manned Space Flight Countdown
12 Aug 04 SpaceDaily: Water On Mars Not Easy To Find, Says Texas A&M Researcher +
12 Aug 04 EPSL Abstracts: Experimental constraints on the origin of Martian meteorites and the composition of the Martian mantle + Low abundances of highly siderophile elements in the lunar mantle: evidence for prolonged late accretion + Nanosized carbon-rich grains in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites.
12 Aug 04 NASA: MGS image of gullies on Mars.
11 Aug 04 SciAm: Spirit's Sojourn Leaves Ancient Lake Hypothesis High and Dry.
11 Aug 04 UT: Japanese Solar Sail Launched - just beat TPS's Cosmos 1 into space. + SpaceDaily: NASA Solar Sail Propulsion Team Successfully Deploys Two Solar Sail Systems
10 Aug 04 Space.com: NASA Scientist Sees Possible Mat of Martian Microbes.
10 Aug 04 NewSci: Chances of aliens finding Earth disappearing - fewer TV broadcasts are reaching space! New Scientist also appears to have a status report on SETI, but you need to subscribe/pay to read it.
6 Aug 04 Science: Spirit at Gusev Crater - Special issue with 13 papers (for subscribers). The Spirit Rover's Athena Science Investigation at Gusev Crater, Mars: Gusev is hypothesized to be the site of a former lake, but noclear evidence for lacustrine sedimentation has been found todate. Instead, the dominant lithology is basalt, and the dominantgeologic processes are impact events and eolian transport. Manyrocks exhibit coatings and other characteristics that may beevidence for minor aqueous alteration. Any lacustrine sedimentsthat may exist at this location within Gusev apparently havebeen buried by lavas that have undergone subsequent impact disruption. ABC: Spirit rover fails to find lake remnants on Mars.
6 Aug 04 NewSci: Controversy erupts over 'sterile' Antarctic lake + Solar system may be exception not rule + Mars rovers show signs of wear
6 Aug 04 BBC: Second team goes for space prize + Red Planet had 'recent' volcanism
5 Aug 04 TPS: A Conversation With Bruce Murray On Mariner 10 and Mercury's New MESSENGER + SETI@home: Multi-Beam Receiver Promises New Vistas for SETI Research
5 Aug 04 NAI: Rocking the Cradle of Life (debate over signs of life in West Australian rocks)
5 Aug 04 SpaceDaily: Basic Research Funds Face Years Of Cuts.
5 Aug 04 UT: Our Solar System Could Be Special + Structure of Saturn's South Pole
4 Aug 04 MSA: [Mars Analogue] EXPEDITION TWO LAUNCHES - Arkaroola in South Australia.
4 Aug 04 UT: New Perspective on Melas Chasma + MESSENGER Lifts Off for Mercury
4 Aug 04 Space.com: Life on Mars Likely, Scientist [Levin] Claims (see also Viking Data Still Cause Stir About Mars Life) + Website Lets Users Scout the Red Planet from Home.
1 Aug 04 Nature: The search for life on Mars - review of progress.
1 Aug 04 BBC: Mercury probe launch is delayed
31 Jul 04 ABC: Mars mission to learn lessons of history - Mars Society of Australia is holding its annual conference in Adelaide this weekend and director Jonathon Clarke says Australia is playing a significant role in planning for the first expedition to Mars.
28 Jul 04 SciAm: New Martian Meteorite Recovered.
28 Jul 04 UT: Fractured Crater on Mars + Closer to Titan
28 Jul 04 Space.com: Terraforming Mars: Experts Debate How, Why and Whether.
28 Jul 04 NewSci: We'll hear ET calling "within 20 years"
27 Jul 04 BBC: 'Beagle 3' looks to American ride
25 Jul 04 Nature: Bush's space vision loses focus
25 Jul 04 ABC Radio: Black hole backflip - Professor Paul Davies of Macquarie University's Australian Centre for Astrobiology offers his thoughts on Stephen Hawking's new black hole theory + SMH: Be warned, this could be the matrix - also by Paul Davies.
16 Jul 04 NASA: Cassini Exposes Saturn's Two-Face Moon [Iapetus]
15 Jul 04 SpaceDaily: Masterminds Of Scientific Art And Rover Movement On Mars.
15 Jul 04 Nature: It’s life... isn’t it?
14 Jul 04 SpaceDaily: Terraforming Mars, The Noble Experiment?
14 Jul 04 BBC: Bacteria tested in Mars simulator.
7 Jul 04 NAI: Investigating Endurance Crater - more sulfates suggest past water at Endurance Crater + Spirit Explores the Columbia Hills +Titan's Strange Surface
5 Jul 04 BBC: Probe sees Titan's methane clouds. + Yahoo: Cassini Gets a Look at Saturn Moon Titan
5 Jul 04 SpaceDaily: It rained on Mars -- three billion years ago. Science: Rain on Ancient Mars?
5 Jul 04 BBC: Hubble discovers 100 new planets
4 Jul 04 NASA: Cassini Pictures Show Majesty of Saturn's Rings.
4 Jul 04 PSRD: Carbonates in ALH84001: Part of the Story of Water on Mars.
30 Jun 04 NASA: CASSINI AT SATURN - Saturn Arrival.
30 Jun 04 Space.com: Space Elevator: Momentum Building - Leading experts are meeting this week to take a longing look at the idea of a space elevator. The idea is a stretch, no doubt, with plenty of work to do before travelers have push-button, top floor access to space.
27 Jun 04 Yahoo: Scientist Sees Space Elevator in 15 Years - Arthur C Clarke (New Scientist, 2001): "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing".
27 Jun 04 WP: NASA to Make Changes for Exploration
27 Jun 04 NASA: Getting Closer to Titan + Mars Rover Surprises Continue; Spirit, Too, Finds Hematite
24 Jun 04 PSRD: The Multifarious Martian Mantle - Detailed analyses of Martian meteorites reveal that the planet's interior preserves distinctive regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago.
24 Jun 04 Nature: Mercury's capture into the 3/2 spin-orbit resonance as a result of its chaotic dynamics (abstract)
23 Jun 04 UT: Cassini's First [blurry] View of Iapetus + Despite Critical Failures, SpaceShipOne Still Reached Space + Earth's Oceans are Banded Like Jupiter's Clouds
23 Jun 04 BBC: More delay for Mars [Express] water search
21 Jun 04 Planetary and Space Science (abstracts): Evolution of the north-polar cap of Mars: a modelling study (+several others on Mars and Saturn)
18 Jun 04 BBC: Spirit rover sights 'blueberries.
18 Jun 04 NewSci: Mars rover spies pot of gold + Saturn's moon reveals violent past.
17 Jun 04 Nature: On Earth, as it is on Mars? - blueberries on Earth
17 Jun 04 UT: Did Comets Create the Earth's Oceans? + Spirit Reaches Columbia Hills + Titan Targeted
16 Jun 04 Space.com: Moon-to-Mars Commission Recommends Major Changes at NASA.
16 Jun 04 ESA: ROSETTA STATUS REPORT - CRUISE PHASE BEGINS.
16 Jun 04 NASA: Mars Rovers Going The Extra Mile.
14 Jun 04 UT: Close Up on Phoebe Crater
12 Jun 04 BBC: Cassini flies past Saturn moon (NASA PR) + [Opportunity] Rover takes first dip into crater.
11 Jun 04 ABC Radio Science Show: A Short History of Venus by Duncan Steel - noon on 12 Jun 04 (repeated Mon 14 7.10pm) or listen online (Real Player)
11 Jun 04 EPSL: Internal and tectonic evolution of Mercury
11 Jun 04 UT: Wallpaper: Flood Plains on Mars + It Doesn't Get Much Hotter Than Io + Phoebe: Cassini's First Target + New Horizons Mission Will Measure the Solar Wind out at Pluto
8 Jun 04 NAI: Fleshing Out Martian Proteins (Experiments to detect life on Mars) + Flying by Phoebe (Cassini mission)
7 Jun 04 TPSAV: This is a preliminary announcement regarding the second Planetary Society meeting of the year, which will take place in mid-July at the University of Melbourne, exact time and date TBA. We are pleased to announce that our speaker will be the distinguished planetary scientist Mikhail Marov. Prof. Marov is Head of the Department of Planetary
Physics and Aeronomy at the M.V. Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is a former principal investigator on the VENERA and MARS missions, and in the last decade has worked on the VEGA and PHOBOS missions. He is visiting Australia to lecture at the International Space University, held in Adelaide this
year. Professor Marov will discuss some of the latest results in Planetary exploration. Sydneysiders can also see Prof Marov at the Powerhouse Museum - see 28 May post.
7 Jun 04 SpaceDaily: Endurance: A Crater Too Close
5 Jun 04 S&T: AMATEUR IMAGES VENUS'S SURFACE.
5 Jun 04 NASA: Colorful Saturn, Getting Closer + Mars Rover Opportunity Gets Green Light To Enter [hazardous] Crater
1 Jun 04 BBC: Ghost dog - A top European space official explains where Beagle went wrong
28 May 04 Powerhouse Museum, Sydney: Thursday 24 June. 4.30 - 5.30pm, Sydney Observatory: "The Solar System-Our Local Space Environment" Lecture by Prof. Mikhail Marov. A distinguished Russian planetary scientist, Prof. Marov, from theInternational Space University, has been involved with many majorRussian planetary exploration programs. He will look at how our increasing knowledge of the planets helps us to understand the nature of our home planet, the origins of life on Earth and the origins and evolution of the Solar System. Bookings essential on 02 9217 0485.
28 May 04 NewSci: Tiny bugs retrieved from glacial deep freeze - "they should not be confused with nanobacteria, whose very existence is highly controversial amongst microbiologists."
28 May 04 Science: ESA Licks Wounds, But Beagle's Loss Remains a Mystery + Saturn: The Unfinished Symphony
28 May 04 NASA: Raw Ingredients for Life Detected in Planetary Construction Zones + Mars on Earth (volcanic island)
27 May 04 Space.com: Survival of the Smallest: Mini-Microbes Redefine Extreme Living - American Society for Microbiology 104th General Meeting. Nanobes?
27 May 04 Nature: Evidence from massive siderite beds for a CO2-rich atmosphere before ~ 1.8 billion years ago.(CO2 more likely methane to have warmed the Earth).
27 May 04 UT: MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ICY MOONS MISSION (NASA invitation)+ SWIRLS ON SATURN (NASA release)
26 May 04 Space.com: Beagle Mission Hampered by Funding, Management Problems.
26 May 04 BBC: Venus clouds 'might harbour life' - transpermia possibilities.
21 May 04 Science: The Cradle of the Solar System. + Hotter-Than-Hot Newcomers Push the Planetary Envelope.
20 May 04 ABC: [Australian] SCRAMJET LAUNCH SET FOR MACH 10 [next year].
20 May 04 UT: How to Avoid Space Madness (Mars Society Australia project)
15 May 04 SpaceDaily: Bringing Mars Back Home
15 May 04 BBC: Private spaceship almost in space + Probe reveals Saturn's stripes.
11 May 04 Space talks in Sydney ACA: Rolling the dice on Mars: applying probability to remote sensing datasets by Dr Michael Storrie-Lombardi, 13 May, 1-2pm, Macquarie University + UTS: BUILDING THE FUTURE by Dr. Jack Bacon NASA Johnson Space Center, Monday 17 May 2004, 4.00 – 5.30pm, UTS, Building 2, Room 2.4.13, enquiries Peter Smith, (thanks Michael West, MSA)
11 May 04 Science (letters): Is Human Spaceflight Now Obsolete? James A. Van Allen ; Making a Case for Humans in Space Harrison H. Schmitt . 7 May 4 issue (subs)
11 May 04 BBC: Image reveals Mars' active past
8 May 04 SpaceDaily: An Enduring Opportunity On Mars + The Spirit Of A Country Mile On Mars + Planning for Mars, The Stafford Way
8 May 04 ESO: Two Extremely Hot Exoplanets Caught in Transit.
8 May 04 Space.com: Scientists Confront 'Weird Life' on Other Worlds.
7 May 04 NASA: The Veils of Titan - Cassini's first images of the [very hazy] surface of Titan (gettimg ready for a fly-by on 2 Jul 04) + Mars Rover Arrival at Deeper Crater Provides a Tempting Eyeful.
7 May 04 SpaceDaily: Study May Cast Doubt On Some 1996 Evidence Of Past Life On Mars + Life In The Universe Could Be Just About Everywhere + NASA Genesis Spacecraft On Final Lap Toward Home.
5 May 04 BBC: [Endurance] Crater looms large for Mars rover + Space.com.
4 May 04 SMH: Triple treat for rugged-up sky watchers (eclipse, meteor shower and comet on morning of 5 May - light cloud in Sydney but it was still a great sight).
4 May 04 NAI: Interview with Beagle 2 Scientist.
4 May 04 BBC: Saturn spacecraft gets an eyeful.
30 Apr 04 NewSci: Molecular rings could shelter Venus bugs. + from Sep03: Venus possibly habitable for billions of years
30 Apr 04 NASA: Cassini image of Saturn.
29 Apr 04 NASA: Mars Rovers Finish Primary Mission and Roll Onward.
28 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: The Plausibility of Martian Microbes - from NAS. See also Transpermia.
27 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: Cassini Could Rival Mars Rovers + New Clues To Origin Of Life.
27 Apr 04 NAI: How Advanced Could They Be?
26 Apr 04 Space.com: New Case for Oldest Life on Earth + BBC: Early life thrived in lava flows
22 Apr 04 NAI: White Paper: Lunar Astrobiology (powerpoint presentation)
22 Apr 04 NYT: Some Things Are Better Left on Mars (CA)
22 Apr 04 MSA: 3rd Space Elevator Conference is being held in Washington from the 28th to 30th June
22 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: Hanging By A Thread On Mars - how threads from the MER airbag caused some excitment.
19 Apr 04 The Age: Asteroid searchers strike it lucky - "NASA got sick of waiting for Australia to do it," Mr Garradd said.
19 Apr 04 ESO: Most Detailed Titan Surface Map .
19 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: Mars Rover Finds Rock Resembling Meteorites That Fell to Earth + Mars Water Past Still Mysterious
19 Apr 04 BBC: Lens effect reveals distant world + Saturn probe sights mystery moons.
9 Apr 04 NASA: NASA Extends Mars Rovers' Mission + Two Storms Caught in the Act on Saturn.
5 Apr 04 Mercury: Planet-Building on the Grandest Scales + The Transit of Venus (8 Jun 04): Twice in a Lifetime
3 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: Spirit Finds Multi-Layer Hints Of Past Water At Mars' Gusev Site + Galaxy holds dozens of other Earths, astronomer suggests
3 Apr 04 ESA: Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 - What are the themes for space science?
3 Apr 04 NASA: Spots on Saturn (Cassini mission)
3 Apr 04 Space.com: Spirit Backs Up Water Finding on 2nd Rock
2 Apr 04 TPS Australian Volunteers - free talk: Exoplanets, the Galactic Habitable Zone and the Age Distribution of
Complex Life in the Milky Way by Dr. Charles Lineweaver (from University of New South Wales). Thursday, April 22, at 7pm, in the Prince Phillip Theatre, School of Architecture, University of Melbourne. No need to book. For more information contact Dr Kevin Walsh at Melbourne of University School of Earth Sciences.
2 Apr 04 SpaceDaily: Hunt For Extrasolar Earth-Like Planets Intensifies+ Why Teams Of Co-Operating Robots Make Good Planetary Explorers + Europe Targets Human Exploration Of The Moon And Mars + Analysis: Mars methane bodes big news + MarsExpress Commissioning Now In Final Phase + A UK-Led Micro-Mission To The Moons Of Mars? + Life Beneath The Ice In The Outer Solar System? + Does Huygens Face A Wipeout After Splashdown On Titan
1 Apr 04 Space.com: Moon-to-Mars Feasible, Experts Say, but Politics, Lack of Industry Cooperation Could Jeopardize Vision.
1 Apr 04 Astrobiology: Can Intelligent Life Thrive in Close Quarters?
25 Mar 04 NewSci: Life on Mars – but 'we sent it'
25 Mar 04 Astrobiology: Opportunity Finds Beachfront Property on Mars .
25 Mar 04 NASA MGS: More gullies on Mars.
25 Mar 04 Space.com: Politics of Water: Ancient Sea on Mars Begs Human Exploration.
24 Mar 04 BBC: Mars rover sits on ancient beach.
24 Mar 04 Space.com: Salty Sea Covered Part of Mars: 'Excellent' Site to Search for Past Life + The New Hunt for Life on Mars.
24 Mar 04 NASA: Standing Body of Water Left Its Mark in Mars Rocks - latest annoucement about Opportunity landing site. Excellent view of the crater in which Opportunity landed - what luck!
22 Mar 04 Astrobiology: Iron Blueberries.
22 Mar 04 NewSci: Lost in Space - Beagle lander
19 Mar 04 ABC Radio: THE SCIENCE SHOW - Mars or Clitoris? - The Nation must decide Saturday March 20, 12.10pm & Monday March 22, 7.10pm - Paul Davies says we should go and with a one way ticket. RAM broadcast.
19 Mar 04 Space.com: Era Ends: Looking Back on Project Phoenix (SETI)
18 Mar 04 SpaceDaily: Surrey Successfully Demonstrates Steam Micro-Propulsion In-Orbit - see Riches in the Rubble for more about steam propulsion.
18 Mar 04 SpaceDaily: Probing Europa Ice Will Take A New Class Of Plantary Exploration Tools + A Little Planet's Big Impact.
18 Mar 04 MGS: Mid-Latitude Gullies [in Martian crater] - puzzling steps where gullies seems to originate.
18 Mar 04 BBC: Martian soil is 'same everywhere'.
16 Mar 04 SpaceDaily; Yuri's Night - 12 April - celebrates mankind's first venture into space.
16 Mar 04 ESA: Venus Express - First European Mission to Venus
16 Mar 04 Astrobiology: Clues to Life in the Mines of Murgul.
16 Mar 04 NewSci: Crabs in Space.
16 Mar 04 BBC: Plan to melt through Europa's ice.
15 Mar 04 BBC: Astronomers discover 'new planet' (what is a planet?) - Update: NASA press release.
14 Mar 04 Yahoo: Neil Armstrong Endorses Bush's Space Plan
13 Mar 04 SpaceDaily: Can Mars Be Made Into An Oasis + Mars Horizon, the Big Plans + Spirit Looks Down Into Crater After Reaching Rim
12 Mar 04 Science (subs): Moon's 'Abundant Resources' Largely an Unknown Quantity + Looking for Life in Far Distant Places
12 Mar 04 BBC: Nasa rover looks into the abyss [Bonneville Crater]
9 Mar 04 BBC: Beagle descent possibly too fast
9 Mar 04 Space.com: Mars Underground: The Harsh Reality of Life Below.
7 Mar 04 NYT: Former Senator [Glenn]-Astronaut Criticizes [Mars] Space Plan
7 Mar 04 BBC: More signs of water found on Mars [by Spirit]
6 Mar 04 NASA: Volcanic Rock in Mars' Gusev Crater Hints at Past Water - rock at second lander site has "bright material in interior crevices and cracks that looks like minerals crystallized out of water"
4 Mar 04 SMH: Mars outlook: wet and hot [?], with possible scattered life
3 Mar 04 6am AEST - NASA LiveTV: Opportunity landed in an area of Mars "that was once drenched by liquid water". NASA media release.
3 Mar 04 Royal Society: Beagle 2 - the next generation: in conversation with Colin Pillinger - live webstream Monday 8 March 2004 at 7pm (GMT) (MSA)
2 Mar 04 BBC: Nasa to reveal Mars water secrets.(NASA media release - watch live on NASA TV (Real Player) at 2pm US EST = 6am, 3 Mar Sydney time = 7pm 2 Mar London)
24 Feb 04 Apple/NASA: Maestro - A publicly available version of the tool used by scientists to plan daily activities for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Requires Apple OS X.
21 Feb 04 Science Museum of Minnesota:"MARS: FUTURE FRONTIERS" movie released.
21 Feb 04 Space.com: Mars Rovers Explore Hints of Salty Water. + Huge Mini-World Found in Outer Solar System.
21 Feb 04 BBC: New world found far beyond Pluto
19 Feb 04 SciAm: The Spirit of Exploration
19 Feb 04 Uni Queensland: UQ researchers edge closer to question of life on Mars - "...many of the bacteria found had the same biosignature, which resembles a tiny backbone surrounded by cartilage, as that of the Martian fossils,” (CA)
18 Feb 04 SciAm: Opportunity Zooms In on Martian Bedrock.
18 Feb 04 Space.com: Using Titan to Understand Earth and Mars.
18 Feb 04 BBC: Nasa rover digs trench on Mars
14 Feb 04 Space.com: New Insight into Martian Winds + Students Prepare for Spirit's Crater Rim Run + Layers in Mars Rocks Offer Formation Clues + Shifts in Political Winds Biggest Challenge to Bush's Space Vision Team.
14 Feb 04 BBC: Mars Express stares at volcano
14 feb 04 Yahoo: Expert Warns NASA Can't Afford Mars Plan
13 Feb 04 NewSci: Close-ups narrow theories on Mars bedrock + Life could be tough on acid Europa - Far from being a haven of ice and water and an ideal spot for the search for alien life, Jupiter's moon may be a corrosive hotbed of acid and peroxide :(
12 Feb 04 SpaceDaily: "Heavy Metal" Snow On Blazing Venus Is Lead Sulfide + Exploring Mars With Balloons
12 Feb 04 BBC: Robot balloons could explore Mars.
11 Feb 04 Astrobiology (Vol 3, No4): Does Life's Rapid Appearance Imply a Martian Origin? (Paul Davies) + The Search for Life on Europa: Limiting Environmental Factors, Potential Habitats, and Earth Analogues + many more.
11 Feb 04 ESA: Mars Express continues to examine the Valles Marineris region in unprecidented detail. This latest image reveals erosional features possibly caused by water. + The Rosetta Lander has completed a final on-gound test series
10 Feb 03 MSSS: Stunning Mars Global Surveyor images of Opportunity on Mars
5 Feb 04 BBC: Round Mars grains excite NASA.
4 Feb 04 Space.com: The Growing Case for Water on Mars + Saturn's Titan Eyed For Increased Exploration + Oxygen at Extrasolar Planet, a First [but not very "friendly] + Spirit Healthy, New Opportunity Photo Out + Prominent Business Leaders, Scientists on Bush's Mars-Moon Commission.
3 Feb 04: Bioastronomy 04 - Iceland, July 2004.
1 Feb 04 UCSB: Exploring Antarctica: understanding life on Earth and beyond - research by Luann Becker, especially PT boundary sites.
1 Feb 04 BBC: Second rover safe on Mars surface - hematite confirmed. NASA PR.
31 Jan 04 Space.com: Student Astronauts Celebrate Opportunity and Keep Spirits Up - TPS project
30 Jan 04 SpaceDaily: Oxygen Triggered The Evolution Of Complex Life Forms + Australian scientists, and their dog, say life once existed on Mars.- J Microscopy abstract (CA)
29 Jan 04 ABC: Science Show 31 Jan at 12.10pm - Shuttle Designed for Disaster - “The shuttle is the most dangerous vehicle ever contrived”. So says Story Musgrave who flew on six space shuttle missions and led the team who walked in space to repair the Hubble Telescope. Meanwhile, on Mars, the various explorers are having a mixed success – as Paul Davies reviews.
29 Jan 04 NAI: Follow the Fire - exploring volcanoes on Mars.
29 Jan 04 Nature: Mars Q & A.
28 Jan 04 BBC: Mars rock may point to past water - apparent layers in a rock imaged by Opportunity
27 Jan 04 NAI: Scientists Home in on Opportunity's Location
27 Jan 04 BBC: Crater site delights rover team + Files 'overloaded' Mars probe + 'Don't grieve' for Beagle probe - Attempts by the Mars Express orbiter to hail Beagle at the weekend failed.
27 Jan 04 ESA: JUPITER ENCOUNTER APPROACHES (long-running Ulysses spacecraft returns to Jupiter's region)
25 Jan 04 NASA: First pictures from Opportunity show a weird landscape.
25 Jan 04 (17:20 AEST) Yahoo: Second Rover Lands Successfully on Mars + NASA: Spirit Condition Upgraded As Twin Rover Nears Mars
23 Jan 04 Space.com: Mars Express Confirms Water Ice on Red Planet
23 Jan 04 NASA: Engineers Working on Spirit Communication Problem - update 24/1: limited comms resume
23 Jan 04 BBC: Nasa rover breaks down on Mars (note a similar anomaly ocurred with Pathfinder, which recovered) + Next Mars landing 'on a volcano'
23 Jan 04 NewSci: Europe's orbiter reveals savage Martian landscape
22 Jan 04 BBC: New Mars rock [meteorite] hints at past water + Rover's stunning image of lander - Spirit's landing site has been named the Columbia Memorial Station, in honour of the of seven crew who died in last year's space shuttle disaster
21 Jan 04 SpaceDaily: Spirit Yields Surprise With First Soil Analysis - Olivine is not good news for those who were hoping for evidence of recent water on Mars.
20 Jan 04 ABC: Aust firm at forefront of Mars research
20 Jan 04 Space.com: Spirit Moves Into Martian Rock Garden + Mystery at Gusev Crater
20 Jan 04 BBC: Europe's stunning Red Planet view - The first image of the Red Planet taken by Europe's Mars Express probe since it arrived in orbit
17 Jan 04 Yahoo: Spirit Rover Captures Mars Up Close
17 Jan 04 SpaceDaily: US has big ambitions, limited means for reaching moon, Mars and beyond + Spirit robot rolls onto surface of Mars
17 Jan 04 The Guardian: To boldly go ... Bush tells Nasa to build new shuttle for Mars
16 Jan 04 MGS: High-resolution View of [Martian] Gullies
14 Jan 04 NASA: Spirit's Surroundings Beckon in Color Panorama (image page - has a bug!)
14 Jan 04 Space.com: The Moon: NASA's Proving Ground for Mars Missions and Beyond + Commentary: The Reasonable Cost of Putting Humans on the Moon and Mars - On Wednesday (15th), the Bush Administration is expected to reveal a long-awaited White House strategy for the future of the United States' space ambitions, one that purportedly includes a NASA go-ahead for returning humans to the Moon as early as 2013
14 Jan 04 BBC: Reworked images reveal hot Venus
14 Jan 04 SciAm: What sort of patterns do scientists working on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) look for?
12 Jan 04 NewSci: One tenth of stars may support life
A ring-shaped band of stars circling the core of our galaxy meets the basic physical requirements to support complex life
11 Jan 04 Nature: Life on Mars? Spirit is level, but Beagle 2 is stranded
11 Jan 04 SpaceDaily: The Bright Side of Beagle [loss]
11 Jan 04 Space.com: Engineers Urge Caution as Anxious Mars Rover Scientists Await Rolloff + Mars: 'Beautiful, Simply Beautiful!'
11 Jan 04 BBC: Moon fever grips US space agency + Mars probe returns colour images
11 Jan 04 Mars Society: Daily Live Webcasts from the Mars Desert Research Station.
11 Jan 04 S&T: FOOTPRINT OF A MAGNETIC EXOPLANET
23 Dec 03 NAI: A Traveler's Guide To Mars - Arizona planetary scientist, Dr. Bill Hartmann, offers a visual grand tour of
Mars, in anticipation of the trio of landers scheduled in the next few weeks.
20 Dec 03 BBC: Beagle glides solo towards Mars - Beagle 2 has successfully separated from its "mothership" for the final leg of the journey to Mars.
20 Dec 03 Space.com: NASA Needs New Vision, No Agreement on Specifics
18 Dec 03 ABC: WHY REINDEER DON'T [CAN'T] FLY :(
18 Dec 03 NAI: Two Worlds, One Sun - TPS initiative
18 Dec 03 ESA: ION DRIVE SMASHES 1000 HOURS MILESTONE!
16 Dec 03 AGU Annual Meeting: Basal Melting of Snow on Early Mars: Possible Origin of Valley Networks. + Comparing Topography of Martian and Terrestrial Drainage Basins Using Integral-Geometry Morphological Image Analysis + A Numerical Study of Possible Water Distribution in the Subsurface of Mars+ A Search for Signs of Life and Habitability on Europa
12 Dec 03 SMH; Earthlike planets 'common in Universe'
11 Dec 03 SMH: 'Man could survive on Mars'
11 Dec 03 Space,com: Mars Emerging from Ice Age, Data Suggest.
9 Dec 03 NAI: The Big Crunch: Interview with Dan Werthimer (SETI data processing)
9 Dec 03 NASA: Odyssey Studies Changing Weather and Climate on Mars
5 Dec 03 ABC: ROCKS COULD WRECK MARS LANDING.
4 Dec 03 NAI: Carl Sagan: The Lonely Pale Blue Dots?
4 Dec 03 NASA: Membranes on Mars - chemical processing
2 Dec 03 BBC: Dusty disc may mean other Earths.
2 Dec 03 NAI: Lonely Planets and Rare Earths.
2 Dec 03 ESA: TOOLS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR FUTURE PLANETARY EXPLORATION - 37th ESLAB Symposium, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 02-04 December 2003.
26 Nov 03 SciAm: Why are planets round?
26 Nov 03 SpaceDaily: A Traveler's Guide to Mars + NASA Successfully Tests Ion Engine
26 Nov 03 BBC: Venus has 'heavy metal mountains' + Time running out for [Japanese] Mars mission
20 Nov 03 NAI: NASA's RATs Go Roving on Mars
20 Nov 03 BBC: Money doubts haunt UK Mars effort.
19 Nov 03 SciAm: The Equivocal Success of the Wright Brothers.
18 Nov 03 Panspermia papers:Interstellar transfer of planetary microbiota," by Wallis and Wickramasinghe, to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, [PDF, 17 pages], + A Mechanism for Interstellar Panspermia," by Bill Napier, to appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society [PDF, 6 pages, image format] (CA)
18 Nov 03 NG: Alien Life? Astronomers Predict Contact by 2025 + Did Comets Make Life on Earth Possible?
18 Nov 03 NAI: Skepticism With Wonder - by Carol Oliver from the Australian Centre for Astrobiology.
18 Nov 03 NewSci: Big Blue - ocean planets
16 Nov 03 Science (subs): Self-Assembled Silica-Carbonate Structures and Detection of Ancient Microfossils + Minerals Cooked Up in the Laboratory Call Ancient [West Australian] Microfossils Into Question
15 Nov 03 SpaceDaily: NOZOMI IS ON A [possible] COLLISION COURSE WITH MARS (UT) - slight risk of contamination since it was not sterilized before launch.
15 Nov 03 NASA: Cassini Captures Jupiter in Close-Up Portrait - [Beautiful] Cassini Jupiter Portrait. + Delta-Like Fan on Mars Suggests Ancient Rivers Were Persistent + MOC: Distributary Fan: "Smoking Gun" Evidence for Persistent Water Flow and Sediment Deposition on Ancient Mars.
13 Nov 03 Nature: Radar imaging of the lunar poles (1st para) - Long-wavelength measurements reveal a paucity of ice in the Moon's polar craters (unlike Mercury).
13 Nov 03 BBC: Beagle set for festive encounter.
13 Nov 03 NAI: Worms in the Mist
12 Nov 03 SpaceDaily: Go To Mars Says Planetary Society + Seeds, Rocket Ships, The Space Station And The Red Planet
12 Nov 03 ABC: Psychological issues relating to a mission to Mars (transcripts) (MSA)
12 Nov 03 MGS: Defrosting Scene (on Mars) (CA)
12 Nov 03 NAI: Preemies from the Precambrian + Mars and Muddied Waters?
12 Nov 03 Space.com: European Planet-Finding Mission Cancelled
12 Nov 03 PSRD: Pretty Green Mineral--Pretty Dry Mars? + Show Me the Carbonates
6 Nov 03 Nature: Planetary Science: Over the edge?
6 Nov 03 BBC: Astronomers fight to save mission.
6 Nov 03 Space.com: Worlds in Collision: NASA, White House Play Planetary Politics.
6 Nov 03 ABC: Funding cuts threaten [medical] research progress, prize winner says.

29 Oct 03 BBC: Row erupts over 'life-starter' vents.
29 Oct 03 SciAm: Artificial Proteins Assembled from Scratch
28 Oct 03: Cable Science Network - new TV service dedicated to science.
24 Oct 03 Space.com: Mystery [black] Spot on Jupiter Baffles Astronomers + Can Aliens Find Us?
24 Oct 03 UT: PRIMITIVE LIFE IN LAKE COULD BE SIMILAR TO LIFE ON MARS.
23 Oct 03 SpaceDaily: Dyson's Long Shot + European MPs Favours Ambitious Space Program + Scientists To Study Lake's Primitive Life To Learn About Mars.
22 Oct 03 SciAm: Light Sails to Orbit - NASA watches from the sidelines as Cosmos 1, the first solar sail, goes up + New Light on the Solar System (subscription only - a collection of articles about recent solar system research)
18 Oct 03 SpaceDaily: Planetary Society Leaders To Tell Congress We Must Explore
18 Oct 03 TPS: Solar sail launch now planned for 2004.
17 Oct 03 Sunday Mail (Brisbane): Mini-Mars in the Outback.(MSA)
15 Oct 03 Space.com: Touchdown or Splashdown? Titan Probe May Get All Wet
13 Oct 03 Cornell Uni: Cornell-led astronomers cut through Titan's atmosphere to find evidence for hydrocarbon lakes
13 Oct 03 NAI: Our Lonely Galaxy: Part II
13 Oct 03 SpaceDaily: An Odyssey Of Martian Science
13 Oct 03 NewSci: Search for habitable planets narrows
13 Oct 03 Space.com: Red Planet Calling: How Mars Probes Phone Home
13 Oct 03 TPS: BOUNCING TO MARS (59 minute video!) + PLUTO: A CALL TO ACTION - We did it! The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee included full funding for the New Frontiers program
13 Oct 03 BBC: Found: The best place for alien life
13 Oct 03 UT: NEW METHOD FOR FINDING LIFE ON MARS
23 Sep 03 BBC: Long wait for Jupiter return.
22 Sep 03 Space.com: Space Elevator: High Hopes, Lofty Goals.
22 Sep 03 S&T: SATURN'S VARIED COLORS.
22 Sep 03 BBC: Galileo ends in blaze of glory.
22 Sep 03 MarsNews: The Columbia Aftermath: Humans to Mars? Versatile Space Capsule?
19 Sep 03 NewSci: Plasma blobs hint at new form of life + Giant star caught swallowing three planets.
18 Sep 03 NAI: Chomping on Nano-Nuggets
18 Sep 03 BBC: Mars rocks Beagle team
18 Sep 03 Space.com: The Future of Mars: Plans for NASA's Next Decade of Red Planet Probing
16 Sep 03 NAI: Early Mars Was Frozen, But Habitable
15 Sep 05 DPS: Did Venus Experience One Great Transition or Two?, + NewSci: Venus possibly habitable for billions of years (CA) - Venus is another possibility for transpermia.
5 Sep 03 NewSci: Red planet's hue due to meteors, not water. "I'm sticking my neck out here and making a prediction - I believe that the Mars rovers will find nickel in the soil,"
5 Sep 03 SpaceDaily: Senators Deplore Lack Of Vision In US Space Program + Mars Was Coloured By Meteorites: Scientist.
5 Sep 03 Space.com: Lab Test Shows Mars Surface Water Possible + Fate of Pluto Mission in Senate's Hands Thursday.
31 Aug 03 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta: Kinetic model of carbonate dissolution in Martian meteorite ALH84001 (absrtact) - ...the plausibly biogenic minerals (single-domain magnetite of characteristic morphology and sulfide) reported from the rims may be the products of terrestrial microbial activity.
30 Aug 03 S&T: ERASING THE ANCIENT MARTIAN LANDSCAPE.
30 Aug 03 NASA: Celebrate the Legacy of Jupiter Exploration. (Galileo due to "retire" - actually dive into Jupiter to protect Europa from possible Earthly contamination- The Galileo mission will end when the spacecraft impacts Jupiter on September 21, 2003.)
30 Aug 03 PSRD: Gullied Slopes on Mars (a review of hypotheses) + A New Type of Stardust
30 Aug 03: Themis image showing another Mars crater with an ancient "mantle" (snow?) and another showing possible evidence of past glaciers.
29 Aug 03 NSF: Nanoparticles Change Crystal Structure When They Get Wet, Research Shows - ...could provide a way to tell whether space rocks came from planets that contain water.
29 Aug 03 NASA: 2003 Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting - Monterey, California, Tuesday September 2, 2003 - Saturday September 6, 2003. On Friday, Sept. 5 at 7pm, The Planetary Society will sponsor a free public lecture in the Steinbeck Forum of the Monterey Conference Center. On Wednesday, Sept. 3, at the 8:30 a.m. PDT plenary session, Dr. Phil Christensen of Arizona State University and Dr. William Boynton of the University of Arizona will discuss life science experiment results of the Mars Odyssey mission.
29 Aug 03 Uni Hawaii: EARTH-BASED TELESCOPES SEARCH FOR MARTIAN WATER (UT)
29 Aug 03 ESO: Infrared Halo Frames a Newborn Star.
29 Aug 03: 35th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference - March 15-19, 2004, League City, Texas (NASA)
28 Aug 03 Nature Events: The 3rd European Workshop on Exo/Astrobiology. Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid, 18-20 November 2003 - Mars: the search for life.
28 Aug 03 NASA AI: Earth's Radio-Wave Halo - by Jill Tarter.
27 Aug 03 AIAA: The Future of US Planetary Exploration - talk by JPL engineer, Dr Randii Wessen. Date: Monday 1th September 2003, Time: 5:30pm for 6:00pm, General Theatre (Opposite side to the Clock Tower/Quadrangle), University of Sydney, Camperdown. For more information contact Ron Houghton ronh@aeromech.usyd.edu.au
27 Aug 03 Nature: Earth-like planets probably water-logged (CA)
25 Aug 03 ABC: Red wine molecule extends life: US study (oops - how did that slip in!) + Nature.
25 Aug 03 Nature: All eyes on red planet + Earth-like planets probably water-logged + Europe to shoot for the moon
25 Aug 03 SciAm: How do planets acquire rings?
22 Aug 03 SpaceDaily: Pluto Mission Might Get Nuked In Growing Budget Crisis. ...the House's biggest cut was in the "New Frontiers" program of medium-cost Solar System missions - fully $55 million out of the requested $130 million. ...possibility of replacing New Horizons completely with a huge, very expensive nuclear-powered Pluto orbiter...
22 Aug 03 Space.com: New Poll: Support for Space High, But Public Wants Money in Health, Defense First + The Evolution of Intelligence: An Integral Part of SETI and Astrobiology.
22 Aug 03 NASA: New Findings Could Dash Hopes for Past Oceans on Mars - lack of large carbonate deposits. Science abstract. BBC: Mars 'not a watery world' + LAT: Study Disputes Mars Ocean Theory (CA)
21 Aug 03 NASA: Harvesting Mars.
21 Aug 03 Space.com: Man vs. Machine: Are Robots Getting the Upper Hand in Space Exploration?
21 Aug UT: Worldwide Mars Events.
21 Aug 03 Nature: NASA braced as Columbia inquiry reaches verdict (all) + Water worlds make a splash as the best hope for alien life (subscribers only).
19 Aug 03 NSF: Microbe from Depths Takes Life to Hottest Known Limit (121C)
19 Aug 03 Space.com: Humans to Mars: Crossroad and Crisis - Mars Society conference.
16 Aug 03 SpaceDaily: Hot Spots On Mars Give Hunt For Life New Target + Search For Life Could Include Planets, Stars Unlike Ours + Cassini In Fine Shapes As Spacecraft Checkouts Continue + Understanding The Centaurs And Kin.
15 Aug 03 Space.com: Spotlight on Saturn's Moon Titan.
14 Aug 03 NASA AI: Bridging the Gap: Part I - debate about interstellar travel.
12 Aug 03 NASA AI: Mars Up Close.
12 Aug 03 NewSci: Private spacecraft performs crucial test flight
10 Aug 03 ASP: Red Rover’s Rocky Road + Mars Fever
9 Aug 03 THEMIS: Houses and streets on Mars? (my headline - just kidding - see the rows of rectangular boulders at the bottom of this complex THEMIS picture)

8 Aug 03 Space.com: Mars Rover Update: Instrument on Spirit Malfunctions + Liquid Water Likely Supports Life On Mars Today, Scientists Claim + Environments for Life on Europa + Riding the Sun: Maiden Flight Looms for Solar Sail Satellite.
8 Aug 03 NASA: Mars is Melting
7 Aug 03 ABC: Mars hotspots may be best sites for life
6 Aug 03 Space.com: NASA Picks Mars Lander For First Scout Mission
6 Aug 03 BBC: Nasa selects next Mars lander
6 Aug 03 SciAm: Better Red Than Dead (review of book on Mars)
2 Aug 03 Space.com; Diamond in the Rough: Looking for Life in Rocks.
1 Aug 03 TPS: SOLAR SAIL (replica) ON EXHIBIT IN NEW YORK (UT)
31 Jul 03 Space.com: Pluto Mission Jeopardized by Possible Funding Slash - what a way to run a business!
30 Jul 03 SpaceDev: SpaceDev To Design Lunar Dish Observatory Mission - see these notes about a base at the South Lunar Pole.
29 Jul 03 SpaceDaily: Hydrothermal Vents May Persist Millions Of Years Incubating Life.
29 Jul 03 Space.com: NASA Pluto Mission to Rely on Lockheed Martin Atlas 5. NASA mission page. New Horizons.
28 Jul 03 SpaceDaily: Cosmos 1 [solar sail] Hardware Continues to Pass Tests.
25 Jul 03 SpaceDaily: Los Alamos Releases New Maps Of A Martian Ice World + Space Elevators Maybe Closer To Reality Than Imagined.
25 Jul 03 Space.com: Earth, Mars Similarities Fuel Speculation About Life + Panspermia: Spreading Life Through the Universe.
23 Jul 03 SpaceDaily: NASA Research Seeks To Discover If Comets Seeded Life + China's First Lunar Steps Outlined In Sydney IAU Presentation.
18 Jul 03 SpaceDaily: Russia To Launch European Venus Probe In 2005 + Farewell To Earth And Lunar As MarsExpress Looks Back.
17 Jul 03 PSRD: Ancient Floodwaters and Seas on Mars.
14 Jul 03 BBC: Astronomers debate the universe + SpaceDaily: World's Top Astronomers Gather In Sydney.
4 Jul 03 NewSci: Solar sailing 'breaks laws of physics' - The dispute could be settled in September, when the Pasadena-based Planetary Society hopes to launch Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sail. The 100-kilogram craft will be sent into orbit around the Earth, before unfurling a set of reflecting blades in an attempt to boost its altitude. Louis Friedman, the project's director, is undaunted by Gold's criticism. "Solar sailing is possible," he insists.
3 Jul 03 NASA MGS: Schiaparelli Sedimentary Rock - this ancient crater looks like a sawn-off tree truck. And more gullies in a crater wall.
1 Jul 03 Space.com; Mars Orbiters Chip Away at an Icy World.
1 Jul 03 Science: The Surface of Mars: Not Just Dust and Rocks + Morphology and Composition of the Surface of Mars: Mars Odyssey THEMIS Results + CO2 Snow Depth and Subsurface Water-Ice Abundance in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars (abstracts)
28 Jun 03: 'Spacefutures' conference - 14-17 July Melbourne (caution: Flash website!).
27 Jun 03 Space.com: The Search for Life in the Universe + Japan [+ESA] Aims for First Landing on Mercury.
24 Jun 03 SpaceDaily: Mars Express Has Lost Communication With Beagle-2 Lander.
23 Jun 03 NAI: Mars: Life Pinned on Viking Horns? (see also Rocks from Space)
20 Jun 03 SMH: Astronomers eye up Oz - The International Astronomical Union's meeting coincides with next month's Australian Festival of Astronomy. Heavenly events will take place across the country, including a talk in Sydney by the cosmologist and author Professor Paul Davies...
20 Jun 03 Space.com: SETI Today: Part of the Growing Astrobiology Community + Race to Mars: Track the Robots En Route.
20 Jun 03 BBC: Crunch day for [Japanese] Mars Mission + Ancient organism challenges cell evolution.

18 Jun 03 CA: Live Moderated Chat Event about Panspermia - to be held at 9PM EDT, 19 June 2003.
18 Jun 03 SpaceDaily: First Mars, Then Venus With Starsem + Launch Of Second US Mars Probe Postponed.
16 Jun 03 Science: The Tree of Life: View from a Twig.

12 Jun 03 SpaceDaily: Odyssey Thermal Data Reveals a Changing Mars. + The Edge of Life.
9 Jun 03 Nature: Making a wormhole just got [a little] easier.
8 Jun 03 MP: I was watching Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy the other day and noticed an interesting scene of the mythical planet Magrathea - note the erosion gullies on the hillside in the background of this picture. An analogue for the crater gullies on Mars?
6 Jun 03 Uni Arizona: Odyssey thermal data reveals a changing Mars (JPL) - "This shows a dynamic Mars – it's an active place." "We know that some places on Mars have water, but here we see that some really don't."
5 Jun 03 Space.com: Lunar South Pole (robotic) Landing Sites Studied.
4 Jun 03 BBC: Mars was a water world.(MSA)
4 Jun 03 LPI: Workshop on Europa's Icy Shell: Past, Present, and Future. (JPL)
1 Jun 03 BBC: Maybe we are the Martians - see also these links.
31 May 03 SpaceDaily: Mars Attacked: Three Missions Aim At Enigma Of The Red Planet + Beagle2 To Probe Europe's Strength In Robot Race Against US, Japan + Is Russell Crater A Martian Mud Bath?
31 May 03 Space.com: Earth-Sized Planets Confirmed, But They're Dead Worlds + Trio of Red Planet Robots Set for June Sendoff.
30 May 03 Space.com; SETI and Astrobiology + Europa Diary 3: Living on Polar Bear Time.
30 May 03 BBC: Historic Mars lander 'did find life' . But see these references.
29 May 03 NAI: Has mud flowed in the last thousand years on Mars?
29 May 03 SpaceDaily: Scientists Eager To Get On Board ExoMars.
29 May 03 Space.com: NASA Delays First Mars Rover Launch at Least Three Days.
29 May 03 Nature: Missions to Mars.
28 May 03 SciAm: The Unearthly Landscapes of Mars (June 03 issue)
27 May 03 IAU Symposium (Sydney, July03): Star Formation at High Angular Resolution + Many public events.
27 May 03 Yahoo: Planets Could Form in Just 3 Million Years-Report
27 May 03 ABC: Springtime on Neptune
25 May 03 PSRD: Triggering the Formation of the Solar System (supernova)
25 May 03 BBC: Life clues on Red Planet (actually, signs of water flow). + Europa's ice crust probed.
25 May 03 S&T: VIEWS OF THE PALE BLUE DOT (view of Earth from Mars orbit).
16 May 03 Space.com: Other Evidence for Water on Europa.
16 May 03 Spacedaily: The Deep Secrets Of Deep Space Might Just Be Alien Chit Chat.
16 May 03 Nature; An abundant population of small irregular satellites around Jupiter + Chaos-assisted capture of irregular moons (abs)
16 May 03 NAI: Primordial Recipe: Spark and Stir
16 May 03 Space.com: Riding on Mars Express: Europe's Fast Track to the Red Planet + [Australian] Scramjet Search Teams Remain Empty Handed + Searching for Signs: Mars Exploration Rovers Science Explained + Europa Diary 1: Landing on Alien Terrain.
16 May 03 NCSU: A new way to explore the surface of Mars.[tumbleweed design]
15 May 03 SpaceDaily: Lunar Ice Explorers Could Power Up With Solar Over Laser Transmission.
15 May 03 Space.com: All Systems Go: The Mars Exploration Rovers are Ready for Launch + The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World.
15 May 03 CSM: Hello? Anybody out there?
13 May 03 Washington Uni St Louis: Venus, in Treatise on Geochemistry by Bruce Fegley - a review of research findings (400K PDF). Also Tremolite Decomposition on Venus. II. Products, Kinetics, and Mechanism - These kinetic analyses strengthen our previous conclusion (Johnson N. M., and B. Fegley, Jr. 2000. Water on Venus: New insights from tremolite decomposition. Icarus 146, 301-306) that tremolite would not decompose on Venus' surface at current temperatures for billions of years.
9 May 03 Space.com: Counting on Distant Worlds: Math as an Interstellar Language + Darwin Proved Right by Experiment with 'Alien' Life (see also this 1987 computer simulation)
7 May 03 BBC: Europe ready for Mars.
7 May 03 Space.com: Pluto's Other Moons: Why They Might Exist and Who's Looking.
6 May 03 Science: Prebiotic Soup--Revisiting the Miller Experiment (free download! - thanks CA)
6 May 03 BBC: US and Russia agree Mars mission - unmanned but it's a start!
6 May 03 Space.com: Extreme Beings: How Life Scrounges for Photons (also NAI) + On the Edge: Interplanetary Internet.
4 May 03 NASA: Instant [Mars] Glider--Just add Light.
2 May 03 ESA: Mercury shows its dark side - transit on 7th May. Do NOT try to observe it directly (ie with binoculars or a telescope) - watch it on the Internet. +BBC.
1 May 03 New Scientist: 26th April edition (p53) - quote from Arthur C Clarke on Fermi's paradox: "I'm sure that the Universe is full of intelligent life - it's just been too intelligent to come here"
1 May 03 ABC: ET Discovered . he's Hungarian. (Science Show on radio)
29 Apr 03 Space.com: NASA Offers Expertise For Solar Sail Spacecraft Project. + Star Search: SETI's To-Do List Grows.
27 Apr 03 NAI: Beagle Points to Mars
27 Apr 03 Space.com: Amazing Mars: Wind Plays Starring Role in 11,664 New Mars Images.
27 Apr 03 ASU THEMIS: Is It Snow [on Mars]?
27 Apr 03 BBC: Titan's icy surface revealed.
19 Apr 03 SpaceRef: Europe goes to Mars - The Science of Mars Express and Beagle 2 (MSA)
19 Apr 03 NASA: Close up of one of the landing sites for a Mars Rover (see thumbnail).
18 Apr 03 SpaceDaily: Europe Goes To Mars.
18 Apr 03 Space.com: The Stars of Project Phoenix: The Best Are Not Always the Brightest.
17 Apr 03 Space.com: Mars rovers.
16 Apr 03 SciAm: Parallel Universes
12 Apr 03 SpaceDaily: Pluto-Kuiper Mission Moves Ahead
12 Apr 03 NASA: NASA Rovers Slated to Examine Two Intriguing Sites on Mars.
10 Apr 03 MSA: Australian MarsSkin Project makes the news in the USA
10 Apr 03: ABC: HUMUNGOUS FUNGUS: WORLD'S LARGEST ORGANISM? - lessons here for astrobiology - we overlooked an organism that covers 10 sq km!
9 Apr 03 SpaceDaily: Beyond Buck and Wernher.
9 Apr 03 Space.com: Mars Gullies Could Harbor Martian Biology.
9 Apr 03 ESA: How far can a dentist's drill go? (Beagle Lander)
9 Apr 03 Uni Hawaii: Saturn's New Satellite S/2003 S1 (NNN)
8 Apr 03 NAI: Earth's Oldest Fossils (WA Pilbara) Reverse Course
7 Apr 03 BBC: Mapping the Moon.
3 Apr 03 ESA: Splashing down on Titan's oceans.
2 Apr 03 Space.com: File Compression: New Tool for Life Detection? (from NAI)
29 Mar 03 BBC: ET fails to 'phone home'.
27 Mar 03 NAI: Mighty Aphrodite (Venus)
25 Mar 03 Space.com: An interview with the reclusive Sir Arthur C. Clarke will be broadcast on the Planetary Society's public radio show, Planetary Radio, Monday, March 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET. The broadcast is available on the web at www.KUCI.org, and will be archived at the Planetary Society's website.
25 Mar 03 BBC: UK seeks to go it alone in space.
25 Mar 03 SpaceDaily: Pasteur: Payload Opportunities To Search For Life On Mars
20 Mar 03 MSA: The Australian Centre for Astrobiology: What on Earth is it? - lecture by Malcolm Walter at Sydney Uni, 6pm, Wed 26 Mar.
20 Mar 03 NAI: Lakeside Landing [on Mars]
18 Mar 03 TPS: SETI@home to re-observe the top candidates.
18 Mar 03 BBC: Spacecraft transforms Mars knowledge The Mars Odyssey spacecraft is providing a new understanding of the Red Planet.
14 Mar 03 PSRD: Gray Iron Oxide on Mars -- A deposit of gray hematite in Terra Meridiani

may suggest that water once circulated through the rock layers in this region of Mars

14 Mar 03 IAU: Public events during IAU General Congress in Sydney in July 2003.
14 Mar 03 BBC: Water 'flows' on Mars.
14 Mar 03 Space.com: Exploring Everything: An Astrobiologist's Life. + Incredible Shrinking Planet May Become Liquid Lava World + JPL Seeks Students, Teachers for Mars Mission
12 Mar 03 SMH: PLUTO MAY LOSE PLANET STATUS (see also Microplanets)
6 Mar 03 NewSci: China plans three-phase Moon exploration.
6 Mar 03 Nature: Formation of recent martian gullies through melting of extensive water-rich snow deposits (1st para) - recent or current occurrence of liquid water within them provides a potential abode for life...
6 Mar 03 Uni Hawaii: New Satellites of Jupiter Discovered in 2003 (count now 47!) (NNN)
6 Mar 03 ESA: ESA's first deep space ground station opens in Western Australia (NNN)
6 Mar 03 JPL: Athena Student Interns Program - work on a Mars mission!
5 Mar 03 SpaceDaily: The Kuipers Beckon As Pluto Mission Funded + China May Launch Unmanned Moon Mission In 2005: Report
5 Mar 03 Space.com: Catching up with Mars: Maps & Charts for March
5 Mar 03 BBC: Europe targets the Moon.
4 Mar 03 BBC: Mars mission 'looking good'.
4 Mar 03 Space.com: Controversial Proposal Would Boost Solar System's Planet Tally to 12 (see Microplanets)
28 Feb 03 ABC Radio: THE SCIENCE SHOW with Robyn Williams - The Science Show goes to the Stars

(and Planets)

28 Feb 03 SpaceDaily: Solar Sail Launch Awaits Clearing of Volna Rocket. TPS item.
28 Feb 03 Space.com: Race Against Time: Long Road to Pluto and Why We're Going
27 Feb 03 NAI: Mars: Tilting towards Life?.
27 Feb 03 SpaceDaily: First Mars Exploration Rover Arrives At Cape For May Launch

Why We Fly

27 Feb 03 Space.com: Pluto Mission a Go! Initial Funding Secured. + Probe to Jupiter's Icy Moons Backed by Scientists. + Immediate Search Planned for More Moons of Pluto.
27 Feb 03 NASA: PIONEER 10 SPACECRAFT SENDS LAST SIGNAL. ...launched on March 2, 1972 ...Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt, considered a spectacular achievement, and then headed toward Jupiter. (Thanks Evan Dembskey) + BBC: Deep space probe says farewell.
25 Feb 03 Monash Uni Science Centre: The Mars Rovers - 2003, 7.00 p.m. Thursday 6th March and Extrasolar Planets - Discovering other Worlds, 7.00 p.m. Thursday 10th April
25 Feb 03 SMH: Stellar grant for burnt [Mount Stromlo] observatory.
24 Feb 03 Quick links (I have been away):

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_gullies_030219.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2781699.stm

http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20030218a.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-03f.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2779633.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/2780399.stm

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mars_future_030218.html

15 Feb 03 Arizona Uni: Europa surface missions necessary step in extraterrestrial search (NNN)
15 Feb 03 IEAust: Going to Mars with a nuclear [fusion] boost.
15 Feb 03 Space.com: Mars Ice is Mostly Water: Good for Biologists, Bad for Terraformers. Also SpaceDaily: The Martian Polar Caps Are Almost Entirely Water Ice
14 Feb 03 SpaceDaily: NASA Study Shows How Water May Have Flowed On Ancient Mars
14 Feb 03 Space.com: Gully Search Supports Liquid Water on Mars
13 Feb 03 Nature (abstract): Volcanism or aqueous alteration on Mars?
13 Feb 03 Space.com: Astrobiologists Say Prometheus Jupiter Mission Should Have Landing Craft + Life Zone on Venus Possible.
12 Feb 03: Carnegie Mellon Scientist Receives NASA Award to Develop Probes to Detect Life on Mars.(NNN)
12 Feb 03 Space.com: NASA's Astrobiology Institute General Meeting Begins.
9 Feb 03 S&T: TITAN'S "GREAT LAKES". (Methane?)
8 Feb 03 SpaceDaily: [Mars] Landers Feel The Heat.
8 Feb 03 Space.com: NASA Science Sets its Sights on Human Mars Mission.
7 Feb 03 BBC: Britain's rocky road to Mars.
6 Feb 03 Nature: Where now for NASA? The loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts has cast a shadow over America's space agency. But it also presents an opportunity to redirect the US space programme towards the lofty goal of exploration.
5 Feb 03 MSA: Australian Mars Exploration Conference 2003, Perth 22-24 of August 2003.
5 Feb 03 TPS-UK: DUCK AND COVER ASTEROID SUNDAY - lecture last Sunday!
5 Feb 3 SpaceDaily: Increased US Space Budget Highlights Search For [microbial] Extraterrestrial Life
3 Feb 03 SpaceDaily/TPS : Using an Earth Wind Tunnel to Test a Parachute Bound for Mars.
Feb 03 Yahoo: Columbia's Problems Began on Left Wing. See also 28 Jan: [Columbia] Astronauts Honor Challenger Victims + SciAm (Feb 00): NASA's Not Shining Moments by James Oberg + (Jan 86 - not online) 'Space Science, Space Technology and the Space Station' by James van Allen - written just before the Challenger disaster. 4 Feb SMH: Experts who warned of disaster claim NASA tried to gag them.

31 Jan 03 Telegraph: Is this how life on Earth began? Faraday Prize lecture by Paul Davies.(CC)
31 Jan 03 Pravda: Deep-Water Worms Bring Up Idea of Life on Distant Planets.
31 Jan 03 ESA: Landers feel the heat on space missions.
31 Jan 03 Space.com: How to Sort Signs of Artifical Life from the Real Thing.
30 Jan 03 Astrobiology Magazine: Hitch-Hiker's Guide to Biology's Second Datum - transpermia experiments aboard the Shuttle. TPS press release.
29 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Mars Society Issues Resolution Supporting Space Nuclear Power
29 Jan 03 BBC: Odds against Earth-like planets.
29 Jan 03 ESA: Titan - From Discovery to Encounter - International Conference to commemorate the
29 Jan 03 JPL: 2003: A JPL Space Odyssey - Join the Journey with Free Lectures [in Pasadena, USA]. Annual program (a smorgasbord of planetary science).
28 Jan 03 Space.com: Two Mars Rover Sites Get Science Stamp Of Approval.
28 Jan 03 Astrobiology Magazine: Early Mars: Oceans Away? The surface of Mars is scarred by ancient river valleys, apparently carved by liquid water. But was Mars warm and wet continuously for millions of years - or only temporarily when massive asteroids slammed into it? The likelihood of life on Mars may depend on the answer.
25 Jan 03 Mars Society Germany: European Mars Conference 2003.(MSA)
25 Jan 03 Space.com: Geology of Europa: Evidence for Water?
25 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Meteorite Hints At Mars's Watery Past. + Mars May Be Much Older Or Younger Than Thought.[or "just right"!]
23 Jan 03 Space.com: Senate Recommends $200 Million Cut To NASA’s 2003 Budget.+ Life on Earth: How Jupiter Helped and Hurt.
23 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Electromagnetic Pulse Shockwaves As A result of Nuclear Pulse Propulsion.[Project Orion]
20 Jan 03 SMH: [Australian] Astronomy projects in ruins as [Mt Stromlo] observatory obliterated [by bushfires].
19 Jan 03 Aurora Exhibitions: Space Adventures is looking for an Australian to go into space! (free lecture in Sydney on 21 Jan). (thanks Michael West, MSA)
17 Jan 03 ESA: [What are] Vital signs of life on distant worlds [?]
17 Jan 03 SpaceDev: SpaceDev [CHIPS] Spacecraft Performing Well In Orbit.
15 Jan 03 NASA: HOMESTRETCH FOR NASA & LEGO "NAME THE ROVERS CONTEST".
14 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Radiation-Resistant Organism Reveals Its Defense Strategies.+ New Moons Found Around Neptune.(Harvard PR) +Expanding The Genetic Code: The World's First Artificial Organism.
14 Jan 03 Space.com: Mars Rover Planners in Time Crunch to Prepare Spacecraft, Select Landing Sites.
11 Jan 03 SpaeDaily: Planet Hunting Machine Ready For Even Better Upgrade + Extrasolar Meteors Hint At Distant Planet Formation + Farthest Known Planet Opens the Door For Finding New Earths + Research Finds Life 1,000 Feet Beneath Ocean Floor
10 Jan 03 Space.com: Scorched! Planetary Seeds Fried by Superhot Stars.
10 Jan 03 Astrobiology: Volume 2 Number 3 2002 online. Articles by Australians Malcolm Walter, Nick Hoffman and Rick Cavicchioli (subscription required).
10 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Finding Life Away From Earth Will Be A Tough Ask
8 Jan 03 TPS: Great Expectations for a New Year - A Message from Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society.
8 Jan 03 Space.com: Way-Out World: New Technique Finds Most Distant [extra-solar] Planet Ever.
8 Jan 03 Uni Toronto: Extrasolar meteors hint at distant planet formation (NNN)
8 Jan 02 BBC: Gullies seen to form on Mars + India plans [manned!]Moon landing.
7 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Co2 Flows Could Carve Mars Gullies (but see this critical review of "White Mars" - PDF and this session at LPSC2002) + Ringworlds Beyond Saturn.
6 Jan 03 SpaceDaily: Germans get ready to go to Mars.
6 Jan 03 Nature: Planetary science: Sodium at Io + Outer planets: Origins of atmospheric zonal winds (subs required)
4 Jan 03 Space.com: Where is Mars Now? On Aug. 27, 2003, Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles (55.76 million kilometers) away -- closer to our planet than it's been in about 73,000 years...
3 Jan 03 New Sci: Habitable planets may be common.
3 Jan 03 Astrobiology Magazine: Evidence of bacteria on Europa? (big question mark!)
1 Jan 03 BBC: Planet Uranus caught on VLT.
1 Jan 03 Space.com: Mysteries of Mercury: New Search for Heat and Ice.
23 Dec 02 BBC: British lander gears up for Mars.
23 Dec 02 SpaceDaily: Seeing Red: Revolutionary Probe Gears For Martian Exploration +
23 Dec 02 Space.com: Telling ET We Care.
20 Dec 02 ABC Radio: THE SCIENCE SHOW with Robyn Williams - Life on Mars and Life on the trees - Saturday January 4, midday and Monday January 6, 7pm - Paul Davies presents the latest ideas on life in space and under the surfaceof Mars. Could Martian bugs have seeded life on Earth? Online audio.
20 Dec 02 BBC: UK astronaut sets sights on Mars.
20 Dec 02 Space.com: Detailed Photos Reveal Clouds on Saturn's Moon Titan.+ National Geographic.
18 Dec 02 CCNet: TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS AND THE FUTURE OF SPACE EXPLORATION by Paul Davies (first item).
18 Dec 02 SciAm: Digits and Fidgets - Is the universe fine-tuned for life?
18 Dec 02 SpaceDaily: Researchers Uncover Extreme Lake. + BBC. + SciAm.
18 Dec 02 Astrobiology magazine: Minimalist Life. Nanoarchaeum - what a dull name for Nanobes!
18 Dec 02 RoPP: Astrophysical and astrochemical insights into the origin of life (Abstract + full article is free!) - this is a milestone study.
18 Dec 02 Space.com: Ancient, Frozen Antarctic Life Revived, Along with Hopes for Life on Mars
18 Dec 02 SpaceDaily: Planets Aplenty In T Tauri Furnaces. + The Weathermen Of Mars
18 Dec 02 New Scientist: [Earth?] Microbes from edge of space revived (CC) + Space.com.
17 Dec 02 Astrobiology Magazine: Anybody Out There? Part II. + Interview with Ann Druyan and Steven Soter: Life beyond Earth. (Part 1 starts here)
17 Dec 02 BBC: The legacy of Apollo - why it is time to go back.
16 Dec 02 SpaceDaily: Venting Provides Clues To Finding Life Elsewhere + Saturn's Moon Titan May Hold Clues To Origin Of Life
16 Dec 02 Space.com: Scientists Answer Kids' Mars Questions.
13 Dec 02 NASA: Researchers Find Possible Precursors To Early Life On Earth In Tagish Lake Meteorite. PSRD article.
13 Dec 02 SpaceDaily: A Warm, Wet Mars Takes A Bath - Conditions on Mars at the best of times were worse than the best locations in Antarctica today (Nick Hoffman) + Revolutionary New Theory For Origins Of Life On Earth (iron sulphide crystals)
12 Dec 02 Space.com: Swiss Cheese Moon: Jovian Satellite [Amalthea] Full of Holes. (One of the last discoveries of the magnificant Galileo mission) + Cyber Planets: Building Virtual Worlds to Explore Signs of Real Life + Meet the Four Finalists in NASA's Search for the Mars Scout Mission (including an airplane) + Final Attempts to Contact Two Mute Spacecraft, CONTOUR and NEAR.
10 Dec 02 UA: Dark Streaks on Martian Slopes May Signal Active Water.(NNN) Space.com.
10 Dec 02 NASA: Imagine Mars Webcast on December 13.
7 Dec 02 Nature: New theory for origin of life.
6 Dec 02 USGS: Exposed Water Ice Discovered Near the South Pole of Mars (from Science). Updates: Space.com.
6 Dec 02 NASA: Scientists Say Ancient Asteroids, Comets May Have Caused Mars Rain. Environmental Effects of Large Impacts on Mars - Science 2002 298: 1977-1980.[Abstract]. Updates: Space.com. BBC.
6 Dec 02 Space.com: Interstellar Signal from the 70s Continues to Puzzle [SETI] Researchers.
6 Dec 02 BBC: Scientists 'weigh' distant world + Life 'began on the ocean floor' + World's 'oldest' volcanic rocks...could give clues as to how life began on Earth.
4 Dec 02 Space.com: The 10 Best Mars Images Ever + Alien Intelligence Depends on Time Needed to Grow Brains
29 Nov 02: Issue 3 of Geobiology available online.
28 Nov 02: Solar eclipse on 4 Dec - views from cities in Australia (all partial eclipses, around sunset - never look directly at the Sun, even through a filter - try projecting the Sun's image using a pinhole in a piece of cardboard ).
28 Nov 02 NAI: Focus on Titan.
27 Nov 02 Space.com: Surviving Space: How Bugs Might Travel Between Planets.
27 Nov 02 SpaceDaily: Driving Force Behind Mars Express.
26 Nov 02 Astronomy Now: Where are the other Earths beyond the solar system? + Maintenance on Voyager from 7 billion miles away.
22 Nov 02 ASP Mercury: Why SETI Will Fail + SETI’s Prospects Are Bright + 2002: A Martian Odyssey.
21 Nov 02 Space.com: Space Elevator Upstarts Settle Down To Business.
20 Nov 02 Space.com: How Life Might Have Formed in Martian Impact Craters.
20 Nov 02 SpaceDaily: Where on Earth Is Mars?
15 Nov 02 Space.com: Planetary Society Petitions Congress to Support Solar System Exploration. TPS news release.
15 Nov 02 Science298: 1320-1322: NASA's New Road to Faster, Cheaper, Better Exploration by Richard A. Kerr.
14 Nov 02 SpaceDaily: Mars Rover Takes Baby Steps + SETI 2020: A Roadmap For The Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence + DARE [balloon technology] for Planetary Exploration .
13 Nov 02 NAI: Studying Europa from the Outside In. Innovative research and funding potentials may help scientists answer questions about life within Europa in the nearer term.
11 Nov 02 Boston Globe: Scientists debate the existence of intelligent life beyond Cambridge (CA)
9 Nov 02 Space.com: Why a Mars Rock Hits Earth Every Month (Transpermia is even more likely than first thought) + Scientific American.+ New Scientist. But there are critics.
5 Nov 02 Guardian: It's true, men really are from Mars by Paul Davies (Transpermia) (CA)
31 Oct 02 CU-BOULDER UNI: SPACE TEAM STUDYING WATER, ICE
31 Oct 02: Australian International Aerospace Congress, 29 July - 1 August 2003. Abstracts due now.
30 Oct 02 Discovery.com: Mars Water Debate Rages.
29 Oct 02 Sky and Space magazine Oct/Nov: Life among the stars (text version)
28 Oct 02 SciAm: An Ear to the Stars - Despite long odds, astronomer Jill C. Tarter forges ahead to improve the chances of picking up signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.
27 Oct 02 BBC: Cheaper, smarter space drive.
27 Oct 02 SpaceflightNow: Challenges of landing on alien worlds (ESA projects).
26 Oct 02: Living Off the Ice on Europa - research notes.
25 Oct 02 PSRD: The First Rock in the Solar System.
25 Oct 02 SpaceDaily: International SETI Launches New Detection Scale.
25 Oct 02 Space.com: Project Phoenix and the New Search System + Smallest Known Extrasolar Planet Possibly Found.
24 Oct 02 BBC: Martian rock 'does contain [fossilized] life' [but is it from Mars or contamination?] + Earth's deepest lake explored + Success for star [planet] hunters.
22 Oct 02 Sky & Space magazine: Life among the stars - report on the Bioastronomy conference held on Hamilton Island in July. Oct/Nov issue (article not online)
18 Oct 02 Space.com: Titan - Key to Earth's Evolution?
17 Oct 02 SpaceDaily: Public Funding Of Space Exploration Has Never Been More Important.
17 Oct 02 Space.com: French Role in Mars Exploration At Risk + Zoom in on Mars: New Highly Detailed Images.
15 Oct 02 Space.com: Scientists Disagree over How, When Life Began on Earth + Survival of the Flattest: Digital Organisms Replicate and Mutate (see also Natural Selection)
13 Oct 02 Nature: Alien hunters take screen test - algorithms search for intelligence in movies!
13 Oct 02 S&T: PLUTO'S WARMING WISPS + PLUTO MISSION GETS BOOST IN CONGRESS + A NEW KUIPER KINGPIN.
13 Oct 02 SpaceDaily: Pluto Mission Set To Be Fully Funded.
13 Oct 02 BBC: Manned Mars mission 'will happen'.
13 Oct 02 New Scientist: MASTER BUILDER - space construction.
10 Oct 02 BBC: Large world found beyond Pluto + Space.com + SpaceDaily. Should it be called a planet?
4 Oct 02 Space.com: High Tide on Europa.
3 Oct 02 BBC: Life may swim within distant moons. See this caution about seeding icy surfaces with life.
3 Oct 02 Space.com: Mars Climate Clues Found in Slice of Ice (remote analysis of polar ice cap) + New Uranian Moon Found in Months-long Effort.
1 Oct 02 SpaceDaily: Exploring Mars Beyond 2010.
30 Sep 02 New website: Earth & Planetary Sciences - Elsevier
29 Sep 02 BBC: Boost for life on Jupiter moon (Europa).
28 Sep 02 New Scientist: Tough Earth bug may be from Mars + Acidic clouds of Venus could harbour life.
26 Sep 02 BBC: Martian 'wobbles' shift climate - Changes in the orbit of Mars may cause it to endure ice ages and may sometimes allow the entire planet to be flooded with water.
20 Sep 02 SpaceDaily: Tantalising Signs Of Water Seen On Planets Orbiting Distant Stars.
20 Sep 02 BBC: Trouble for British Mars lander (Beagle 2 behind schedule).
20 Sep 02 ESA: ESA to search for life, but not as we know it (Titan mission)
18 Sep 02 Astrobiology: Mars Exploration Rover 2003 Landing Sites.
18 Sep 02 Space.com: Newfound Planet in Circular Orbit Around Another Star.
13 Sep 02 SpaceDaily: A Case for Life on Mars.
2 Sep 02 SpaceDaily: Just Park It Down Over Near Olympus + Microorganisms Grow At Low Pressures: And Maybe On Mars + The Spirit of Mars. (MSA) + Hydrocarbon Wind Stirs On Titan.
2 Sep 02 PSRD: The Wet, Oxidizing Crust of Mars.
2 Sep 02 ISA: Exploring Mars Surface and its Earth Analogues - workshop 22-25 Sep, Italy (thanks MSA)
2 Sep 02 Space.com: The Meaning of Life.

23 Aug 02 Space.com: A Summer on 'Mars' by Devon Island researcher Pascal Lee.
22 Aug 02 SpaceDaily: Breathing Life Into Old Martian Rocks + Russian Scientists Set Ambitious Mars Mission For 2007.
21 Aug 02 Space.com: Mars-like Lab Conditions Support Life. Also don't forget the (Australian) ABC special on Nanobes tonight.
20 Aug 02 Space.com: Going Up? Private Group Begins Work on Space Elevator. (see also 13 Aug)
16 Aug 02 (Aust) ABC TV: Alien Underworld - Thu 21st Aug at 8.30pm - latest news on Nanobes.
14 Aug 02 Wired News: Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out There.
14 Aug 02 NYT: Voyagers Reap a Bounty of Discovery and Beauty (login) + space exploration forum.
14 Aug 02 BBC: Einstein's theory 'may be wrong' - Australian researchers raise possibility that speed of liught has changed over time.
13 Aug 02 SpaceDaily: Russians To Launch European Probe Towards Mars In 2003.
13 Aug 02 Space.com: Rover Revealed: Secret Mars Robot Test to be Webcast.
13 Aug 02 BBC: Space elevator takes off. Arthur C Clarke (New Scientist, 2001): "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing".
8 Aug 02 IAU: IAU General Assembly to be held in Sydney 13th to 26th July 2003.(thanks Duncan Steel)
7 Aug 02 NASA: Magnetofossils from Ancient Mars: a Robust Biosignature in the Martian Meteorite ALH84001 + MAGNETOFOSSILS IN TERRESTRIAL SAMPLES AND

MARTIAN METEORITE ALH84001

JSC/NASA news

2 Aug 02 ESO: Disks around Failed Stars [Brown Dwarfs] - a Question of Age.
31 Jul 02 SpaceDaily: Aussie Rocket Scientists Fly Successful ScramJet Test.
30 Jul 02 SciAm: Why ET hasn't called.
30 Jul 02 CA: Search for early Earth microbes on the Moon? + RNA World: the latest.
30 Jul 02 Space.com: Rare Earth Debate Part 5: Elusive ET.
27 Jul 02 NASA: The Science of Surfing - Surfers Use Satellites to Chase Big Waves (dear to my heart!)
23 Jul 02 CNN: New planet freeway could transform space travel.
23 Jul 02 SpaceDaily: Final Pluto Showdown Looming +
23 Jul 02 BBC: Mars lander (Beagle 2) takes shape.
23 Jul 02: Space.com: Rare Earth Debate Part 3: Complex Life + Astrobiology Report: NASA Needs Course Shift + MOON IS A STEPPING STONE, BUT NASA IS FALLING BEHIND TECHNOLOGICALLY+ A Sneak Peek at NASA's Plans for Exploring Mars and Beyond.
18 Jul 02 Space.com: Bioastronomy 2002: The Earth is a Tough Place + Rare Earth Debate Part 1: The Hostile Universe
18 Jul 02 SpaceDaily: Venus Express Comes Into Vision + ESA + NASA Funding On The Blink During Amalthea Flyby. + Geologist's Discovery May Unlock Secrets to Start of Life on Earth .
18 July 02 Yahoo: Russians Propose Human Mars Mission (UT)
18 Jul 02 (back from holiday!) ESA: ESA Paves The Way For An Avalance Of new Extrasolar Planet Discoveries. (NNN)
4 Jul 02 Nature: Planet formation: Mark of a plane + An older face for Mars (subscribers)
2 Jul 02 BBC: Scientists estimate 30 billion Earths.
2 Jul 02 NASA AI: Former Flood Identified on Mars + High-pressure Living + Defining Life.
29 Jun 02 Space.com: Would Aliens Visit?
24 Jun 02 BBC: Giant Martian lake traced. Also Space.com.
20 Jun 02 Space.com: Gearing Up to Harvest Mars' Water Resource + Another Jupiter Twin Found in Flood of Planet Discoveries.
14 Jun 02 Yahoo: New Planet System Looks a Lot Like Home.
14 Jun 02 Space.com: What to Say When ET Finally Calls.
13 Jun 02 Cosmic Ancestry: Two New Astrobiology Journals -- Astrobiology and International Journal of Astrobiology.
13 Jun 02 TPS: Planetary Society of Japan Will Send [TPS Memeber] Names to Asteroid - join TPS to have your name included join TPS before 5 July 2002. + The Bits Flow Free Again for SETI@home [downloading delays overcome]
13 Jun 02 Space.com: Mars Airplane Soars on Earth + Whither Europa? Researchers Regroup to Make Jupiter's Moon NASA's Priority.
12 Jun 02 TAMS: Is the Universe Made for Life? - Paul Davies, Malcolm Walter, Seth Shostak and Vikki Meadows. University of Sydney, Friday 5 July 2002, 6.30pm
12 Jun 02 SpaceDaily: Worlds of Life Beyond Earth (UNSW research)
7 Jun 02 Conference: Why Is Mars So Hard [to land on]?
6 Jun 02 BBC: Europe heads for space.
6 Jun 02 PSRD: Dirty Ice on Mars.
5 Jun 02 NAI: Tandem Evolution (deep sea life on Earth) + Uranus and Neptune - and the Origin of Life on Earth.
5 Jun 02 Keck: Io's Volcanic Surface Captured in Full Motion (NNN) - from Keck telescope on Earth, using adaptive optics.
5 Jun 02 Space.com: Reclaiming the Moon.
31 May 02 BBC: Alien life could be out there + Space.com: Intelligent Aliens? (but see this comment from 1998)
30 May 02 Space.com: Water Ice Discovery on Mars May Be 'Tip of an Iceberg' + Odyssey's Icy Discovery Warms Up Controversial Theories.
30 May 02 MSA: Australian Mars Exploration Conference (AMEC) in Sydney, July 12-14.
29 May 02 JPL: Galileo's Last Look at Io (UT)
29 May 02 ESA: Is life the rule or the exception? The answer may be in the interstellar clouds.
29 May 02 BBC: Mars ice could flood planet + Solar flare [temporarily] silences [Japanese] Mars probe + NASA says Mars assault is on. SciAm.
29 May 02 SMH: Humans on Mars? (MSA)
28 May 02 SciAm: Lost in Space - Both the space shuttle and the International Space Station are facing severe cutbacks, forcing NASA to reallocate funds from unmanned missions that would probably yield greater scientific returns.
28 May 02 BBC: Mars lander team encouraged (by possible water discovery) + Vent systems found off New Zealand - new submarine hydrothermal vents and their associated chimneys, or "black smokers"...turned up bacteria and animals new to science living around the vents.
27 May 02 BBC: Ice reservoirs found on Mars (see 25/5) - Water-ice has been found in vast quantities just below the surface across great swathes of the planet Mars.
25 May 02 BBC: Boost for life on Mars hunt (Beagle 2).
25 May 02 SpaceRef: Another Major Mars Water Announcement Coming Soon (UT) - they were right!
23 May 02 SETI Institute: Europa Has Right Stuff.(NNN)
22 May 02 Space.com: The Search for the Scum of the Universe - odds of ET on an Earth-like planet.
18 May 02 Uni Hawaii: Astronomers Announce Discovery of 11 New Satellites of Jupiter.(NNN)
16 May 02 Nature: Odds on aliens - One in three planets like Earth probably harbour life say UNSW researchers. (UT)
7 May 02 The Guardian: Next challenge in space: hitching a ride on a sunbeam.
6 May 02 MSA: The Mars Society Australia has released the first version of the

proposal document for the Australian Mars analogue research station Mars-OZ

2 May 02 Nature: New bug found on bug - Marine microbe sets miniaturization records. (haven't they heard of Nanobes?)
2 May 02 SpaceDaily: Fabrication of EuroMARS Begins.
2 May 02 SpaceFlight Now: Work continues to ready solar sail for launch (by TPS).
2 May 02 SpaceDev: USAF has signed a contract for a SpaceDev hybrid rocket.
25 Apr 02 TPS: Index of past articles published in The Planetary Report now available as a PDF.
25 Apr 02 NYT: Supercomputing '@Home' Paying Off for Other Research - 1 million computer years!
22 Apr 02 SciAm: The Exquisite Balance - excellent quote about from Carl Sagan on discriminating sense from nonsense.
21 Apr 02 SpaceDaily: Greenhouse For A Red Planet - the Haughton Crater project in the Arctic will soon get a greenhouse to simulate a base on Mars. It will be known as the Arthur Clarke Mars Greenhouse.
20 Apr 02 SciAm: Journey to the Farthest Planet + Last Chance for the Last Planet.
19 Apr 02 SpaceDaily: Pluto Team Continues Development Of OuterPlanets Explorer + Evidence For Young Planets Found In Dusty Nearby Star.
10 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: Building A Case For Life On Mars.
10 Mar 02 BBC: All aboard the Venus Express? + Galaxy 'may hold [a billion] Earth-like planets'.
10 Apr 02 NAI abstracts: Biological potential of martian hydrothermal systems. + Convective Plumes as 'Columns of Life' [on Mars].
10 Apr 02 AGU: Conference abstracts - Mars sample return missions.
6 Apr 02 BBC: Life on Mars hopes raised - [very preliminary] analysis of data obtained by the Pathfinder mission to the Red Planet in 1997 suggests there could be chlorophyll...[but recall that exotic chemistry may have caused positive Viking results] Update from Space.com: Story of Possible Life on Mars Overstated, NASA Says.
6 Apr 02 EPSL: Signatures of early differentiation of Mars (login required)
4 Apr 02 Space.com: Re-Think Planetary Exploration Plans, Advisory Group Urges.- The Pluto-Kuiper Belt mission "remains the highest outer planets priority of the SSES. It is also urgent..."
31 Mar 02 The Times of India: Scientists find signs of life in cosmic sample.(CA)
29 Mar 02 Space.com: Mars, Like Earth, Sculpted by Super Eruptions and Epic Floods + Mars Odyssey's Picture of the Day: Nirgal Vallis + Seeds [ingredients?]of Life are Everywhere, NASA Researchers Say + Mars Society Research Blossoms In Desert
29 Mar 02 ABC Radio: SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO DOUGLAS ADAMS - "So Long and Thanks for all The Fish" Monday April 1, 12.30pm (Sydney time)
28 Mar 02 BBC: Space bug specialist killed in crash - Dr David Wynn-Williams from Cambridge.
28 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: How to Land Softly on a Hard Planet + ESA To Test Smarter Ground Based Exo Planet Method + Meteorites Tell Of Shocking Experience In Planetary Formation
28 Mar 02 Space.com: The Space Elevator Comes Closer to Reality.
27 Mar 02 Space.com: Human Mars Project Studied By U.S. and Russia.
25 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: Exploring Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt
23 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: The Carbon Versus Water Battle Goes Hemispherical + Exploring Lake Vostok Without Destroying It.
23 Mar 02 Space.com: New Uranus Image Captures Its Rings, Moons.
21 Mar 01 S&T: NO KNOCKOUTS IN MARTIAN METEORITE SHOWDOWN.
16 Mar 02 S&T: PROSPECTS DIM FOR FOSSILS IN MARTIAN METEORITE.(but see 21/3)
14 Mar 02 ESA: Martian spots warrant a close look - Are dark spots that appear near the south pole of Mars in early spring, a sign of life on the Red Planet? No-one can say for sure...
13 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: Support For Critical Role Of Carbon Dioxide On Mars Grows. new evidence that liquid carbon dioxide, not running water, may have been the primary cause of erosional features such as gullies, valley networks, and channels that cover the surface of Mars. See also Mars Explorers to Benefit from Australian Research. and White Mars.
13 Mar 02 SciAm: [Water] Ice Field Spied at Mars's South Pole.
12 Mar 02 Nature: Earliest life or rare dirt? Also SciAm: New Evidence for Earliest Life Sparks Controversy.
9 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: Mars Simulation Base Completes Second Crew Rotation
9 Mar 02 Space.com: New Map Reveals Red Planet's Radioactive Hot Spots.
9 Mar 02 JPL: Off-The-Shelf Camera Device to Hunt for Distant Planets.
8 Mar 02 BBC: 'Snowball Earth' theory melted.
7 Mar 02 BBC: Life's early 'footprint'.
7 Mar 02 Baltimore Sun: Cuts threaten mission to Pluto.
2 Mar 02 Space.com: The Race to Find Life.
2 Mar 02 ESA: European astronomers get their first chance to detect rocky planets around other worlds.
2 Mar 02 SpaceDaily: Distant Pioneer Sought Once More.
22 Feb 02 BBC: Dig deep to find alien life (extremophiles) + Digital data puts Mars on map. (interactive Mars Digial Atlas)
22 Feb 02 Nature: They know we're here - Alien cultures more advanced than our own will have spotted us by now, say astronomers.
21 Feb 02 SpaceDaily: Odyssey Ready To Do Some Science + Floods At Mars' Equator Appear To Be "Recent".
20 Feb 02 S&T: A Saturn-Moon Spectacle - A Saturn occultation on February 20th favors North Americans. [not Australia :<( ] (UT)
19 Feb 02 NASA AI: From Lightbulbs to Life (tungsten utilising extremophile) + Interview with Michael Meyer (from NASA AI)
16 Feb 02 ESA: ESA scientist discovers a way to shortlist stars that might have planets.
13 Feb 01 Space.com: Our Solar System as Seen by Alien Astronomers + Taking To The Air On Saturn's Moon Titan + New Space Sail Concept Rides Stream of Laser Driven Bomblets.
13 Feb 02 NASA: New images of Mars.
12 Feb 02 Uni Arizona: Europa Might Foster Life, Says UA Member of Galileo Imaging Team (UT)
8 Feb 02 SpaceDaily: Mars Simulation Base Goes Operational In Utah Desert
8 Feb 02 Space.com: Wrenching Tides on Europa Could Force Life to Evolve + Born Again Planets + Mars Odyssey Deploys Antenna, Nearly Ready for Science Mission.
5 Feb 02 National Museum of Australia (Canberra): Visions Public lecture The search for life on earth and Mars. Presented by Professor Malcolm Walter, curator of the exhibition ‘To Mars and Beyond: Search for the Origins of Life’. Thursday 14 6.00pm - 7.30pm. Review of exhibition by Matthew James.
5 Feb 02 TPS: 50,000 People Jam Planetary Society Website to Take Space Survey about NASA Priorities.
29 Jan 02 BBC: Martian rocks bonanza.
29 Jan 02 Space.com: Reaching For Pluto - A Rendezvous Between Planetary Science and Politics.
27 Jan 02 SpaceDaily: Taking The Middle Class Route To Deep Space - review of NASA's Discovery Plus mission ideas.
19 Jan 02 TPS: Public Survey for Input to the Planetary Decadal Survey - seeking input from the general public about planetary exploration. Data must be input by January 31, 2002.
18 Jan 02 NASA JPL: Farewell, Io; Galileo Paying Last Visit to a Restless Moon (UT). Update from NASA: Unfortunately the spacecraft went into 'safe' mode and failed to take pictures but it is now on course for a 'death dive' into Jupiter in 2003. (UT)
18 Jan 02 ABC: Antarctic microbes could live on Mars. Also BBC.
18 Jan 02 Space.com: Finding Challenges Assumptions of Mars Meteorite, Planet Formation. Based on an article from Nature (reg).
18 Jan 02 ESA: When did liquid water fill the planets?
17 Jan 02 Nature: Life, as it was in the beginning? - A hydrogen-based subsurface microbial community dominated by methanogens. Also Space.com: Bizarre Creature in Idaho Raises Prospects for Life on Mars. I assume that the fuss is about the quantity of methanogens, rather than their metabolism, which has been known for years! See Viking Data Still Cause Stir About Mars Life.
17 Jan 02 Space.com: Europe Shapes Future Moon, Mars Exploration Plans + Milstar Safely Arrives in Orbit Following Titan 4B Rocket Ride (new large booster rocket).
16 Jan 02 SpaceDaily: Antarctic Microbes Suggest Life Is Possible in Terrains On Mars.
16 Jan 02 BBC: Arctic sea floor gives up secrets - New lifeforms are discovered around the volcanic vents that line the Gakkel Ridge on the Arctic sea floor.
16 Jan 02 Yahoo: NASA Robot Melts Arctic Ice in Test + NASA PR.
13 Jan 02 Space.com: Kepler: The Search [for habitable planets] is On
13 Jan 02 SpaceDaily: Bugs-from-space theory gets a boost + Primordial Earth Atmosphere May Have Been Breathable + Cruising On Sunshine.
13 Jan 02 NASA JPL: Mars Odyssey Mission Status - Flight controllers for NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft sent commands overnight to raise the spacecraft up out of the atmosphere and conclude the aerobraking phase of the mission.
11 Jan 02 New Scientist: Bugs could travel in comfort aboard meteorites (space experiments confirm hardiness of bacteria and chances of transpermia)
10 Jan 02 ABC: Yabby (freshwater lobster) tails under microscope for Mars exploration project. ! Also SpaceDaily.
7 Jan 02 Spaceflight Now: Lowell astronomers to help lead Pluto-Kuiper mission.
5 Jan 02 Space.com: Ancient Mars: [artist's] Renderings Show Raging Floods, Vast Oceans + Signs of Life: On the Lookout for Extraterrestrial Sweet Spots. NRC report 'Signs of Life: A Report Based on the April 2000 Workshop on Life Detection Techniques'.
2 Jan 02 NYT: The Universe Might Last Forever, Astronomers Say, but Life Might Not.
29 Dec 01 Space.com: The Ultimate Long Distance Call (SETI)
27 Dec 01 Space.com: Kepler Mission to Find Earth-Like Planets Gets Green Light.
24 Dec 01 UniSci: Oceans Could Be Common In Our Solar System And Others.
24 Dec 01 NASA AI: The Heat is On: Asteroid Belt Found around Nearby Star.
21 Dec 01 ABC: More evidence for 'nanobes' An Australian researcher may have quietly strengthened the evidence for extra-terrestrial life this week. More on Nanobes.
21 Dec 01 NASA: ALL-TERRAIN ROVERS MAY SCALE MARS' CLIFFS.
21 Dec 01 Space.com: Decoding E.T.: In Search of a Cosmic Rosetta Stone.
18 Dec 01 NASA AI: The First Sulfur Eaters - possibly one of the oldest known life forms on the planet. Also SpaceDaily.
18 Dec 01 Space.com: New Signs of Water on Mars Create Hope of Great Discovery.
14 Dec 01 NASA AI: NASA’s Global Surveyor Sees Possible Climate Change on Mars (also TPS) + Test-tube RNA.
14 Dec 01 Space.com: Seeking Contact: Carl Sagan Center To Focus On Life In The Universe. Carl was an incredible visionary, and now his legacy can be preserved and advanced by a 2lst century research and education laboratory committed to enhancing our understanding of life in the universe and furthering the cause of space exploration for all time. + New Images of Jupiter's Moon Io Reveal Volcanic Action
14 Dec 01 SciAm: Shermer's Last Law - Any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God.
14 Dec 01 ESA: ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series - hands-on experience in astronomy by making

realistic calculations with data obtained by the world's best telescopes. +

Space.com

14 Dec 01 SpaceDaily: Where to Land on Mars? It's not as Easy as It Looks.
14 Dec 01 BBC: First finding for Mars Odyssey.
13 Dec 01 NASA: Deep Space 1 Says Farewell - this ground-breaking (well - space breaking) mission ends next week. NYT: Comet May Be the Darkest Object Yet Seen
13 Dec 01: MSA press release (PDF) about To Mars and Beyond: Search for the Origins of Life at National Museum of Australia. Opens today.
12 Dec 01 Yahoo: Scientists Unveil New Images of Io + WP: In Hot Pursuit Of an Icy Planet.
11 Dec 01 Space.com: Bacteria on Jupiter's Moon Europa? From New Scientist. Also TPS.
8 Dec 01 AGU annual meeting: numerous Mars items.
8 Dec 01 BBC: Mars may be changing.
7 Dec 01 ABC: Snow on Mars affected by climatic changes. From Science + Clues to the Martian Atmosphere.
7 Dec 01 Nature: Physical, chemical and biological processes in Lake Vostok and other

Antarctic subglacial lakes

Lake Vostok is an extreme, yet viable, environment for life

6 Dec 01 STOP PRESS HotAIR: The Cosmic Finger of Friendship! - does this Hubble image reveal a message from ETI? I see this sign quite often while driving around Sydney.
6 Dec 01 Space.cm: Mars Rendered in 3-D Using Spacecraft Data.
4 Dec 01 Space.com: Space Telescope Finds Piece of Martian Atmosphere Puzzle + Slippery Surface of Europa Slides, Migrates around Moon.
3 Dec 01 NASA AI: Doubts About ALH84001: The JSC Mars Meteorite Team Responds. The Buseck et al. paper appears to be little more than a poorly disguised advertisement... !
1 Dec 01 NASA: MARS WAS ONCE ALL WET.
1 Dec 01 Space.com: Pluto Mission Design Chosen; Must Be Ready For 2006 Launch. + Spaceflight Now.
30 Nov 01 Space.com: Fermi's Paradox III: Zookeepers, Alien Visitors, Or Simple Life; How Can We Explain Our Isolation?
29 Nov 01 National Museum of Australia: Mars and Beyond: Out of this World - The largest exhibition on space exploration ever seen in Australia will soon be blasting into the new National Museum of Australia in Canberra. From 13 December 2001 until 26 May 2002
29 Nov 01 NASA AI: Dedication of the Carl Sagan Center - "Carl was an incredible visionary, and now his legacy can be preserved and advanced by a 2lst century research and education laboratory committed to enhancing our understanding of life in the universe and furthering the cause of space exploration for all time," said NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin.
29 Nov 01 SpaceDaily: No Bucks Without ET - "astrobiology", received much attention as the main motivator for funding Solar System exploration
28 Nov 01 BBC: Planet circling another star probed - The first direct detection and chemical analysis of the atmosphere of a planet outside our Solar System + Space.com, NYT.
28 Nov 01 NASA: NEW IMAGES CATCH JUPITER'S MOON IO IN ACTION.
22 Nov 01: The December 2001 issue of the journal Planetary and Space Science has a special on Mercury.
22 Nov 01 Space.com: Researcher Says NASA Has Failed To Prove Case for Bacteria Fossils in Martian Meteorite. Arizona Uni: Evidence of Martian Life Dealt Critical Blow + BBC.
17 Nov 01 NASA AI: Europe Heads for Mars. (note that the NASA Astrobiology Institute web page structure seems to have changed).
17 Nov 01 UniSci: Digging Up Dirt To Help Search For [tiny] Extraterrestials.
15 Nov 01 Space.com: New Estimate for Thickness of Crust over Europa's Ocean.
13 Nov 01 ESA: Europe joins the search for life elsewhere in the Universe.
11 Nov 01 JPL: NASA Selects 10 Investigations for 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
10 Nov 01 ABC: Researchers finalise shortlist for Aussie outback 'Mars base'.
9 Nov 01 GSA: GSA Conference Abstracts on Planetary Science (thanks Sandy Dance)
9 Nov 01 TPS: VICTORY! House - Senate Conference Approves Pluto Mission Funding. BBC.
9 Nov 01 Space.com: Fermi's Paradox II: What's Blocking Galactic Civilization? Or Are We Just Blind To It? - Seth Shostak.
8 Nov 01 NASA AI: Hydrothermal Vents – Life’s First Home?
8 Nov 01 Space.com: New Mars Photos Show Lively Landscape.
7 Nov 01 CNN: That search for intelligent life - Chris Chyba.
7 Nov 01 ACA: Eminent scientist joins Macquarie Astrobiology Centre - One of Australia’s best-known scientists, Professor Paul Davies, has taken up the adjunct position of Professor of Natural Philosophy at Macquarie University’s Australian Centre for Astrobiology. The Centre has a course covering the origin of life, molecular biology, planetary geology and cosmology.
5 Nov 01 Star Bulletin: Lecture series kicks off with discussion on planetary life.
3 Nov 01 SpaceDaily: Astrobiologists to Launch Mission to Early Earth.
2 Nov 01 NASA AI: The Invasion of the Deep-sea Microbes - genetic comparisons suggest that modern vent microbes are close kin to the earliest forms of life on Earth.
31 Oct 01 NASA AI: The Three Domains of Life + Glass Munchers under the Sea + The USA Returns to Mars .
27 Oct 01 SpaceDaily: Mars Without Liquid Water (White Mars hypothesis) + Odyssey In Mars Orbit.
26 Oct 01 Space.com: Our Galaxy Should Be Teeming With Civilizations, But Where Are They?
24 Oct 01 Livefromspace: Mars Odyssey Successfully Enters Orbit! Also Space.com, JPL.
24 Oct 01 MSA: MARS ODYSSEY - THE DOWN UNDER CONNECTION - members of Mars Society Australia’s Jarntimarra science expedition will head off into the Outback, to search for

Mars-like environments for future research field sites.

ABC News

24 Oct 01 Space.com: Big Test for Futuristic Propulsion System.
23 Oct 01 PSRD: New Data, New Ideas, and Lively Debate about Mercury.
23 Oct 01 The Kansas City Star: Exciting discoveries await us in the cosmos - Astronomers -- those scientists with one eye on the sky and one on the source of their next government grant -- have found yet more planets wandering around yet more stars in the cosmos.
23 Oct 01 BBC: Countdown to Red Planet arrival + Space.com: Mars Odyssey: Why Failure Is Not an Option + Landing Sites for 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers Mission Identified.
21 Oct 01 SMH: Red alert as Mars mania sweeps alien territory - MSA-supported human operations prototype, or pressurised Mars rover vehicle called the Marsupial to be tested in Central Australia.
17 Oct 01 MSA: MARS: EXPLORING THE RED PLANET - Free public forum by the Mars Society of Australia and Adelaide University, Friday, 26 October 2001, 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm, Mawson Theatre, Adelaide University (enter Victoria Drive, near Gate 8)
17 Oct 01 BBC: Colonise space or die, says Hawking.
17 Oct 01 Space.com: Birth of Uranus' Provacative Moon (Miranda) Still Puzzles Scientists.
16 Oct 01 SciAm: Scientists Find Evidence of a Vast, Ancient Drainage Basin on Mars (see 11 Oct)
16 Oct 01 BBC: Eight More Planets Discovered + Space.com (UT)
15 Oct 01 NASA AI: Carbonaceous Clues to the Early Solar System.
15 Oct 01 Space.com: Galileo to Swing Even Closer to Io + (Mars) Odyssey Managers Plan Aerobraking by Halloween + Detecting Other Worlds: Timing Eclipsing Binary Stars or The 'Do-Si-Do' Method + Ghosts of Mars (movie review:"The Curse of the Mummy… on Mars.")
13 Oct 01 SciAm,Nov 01: Baloney Detection: How to draw boundaries between science and pseudoscience, Part I. See also Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit.
12 Oct 01 JPL: Scientists Track "Perfect Storm" on Mars.
12 Oct 01 Space.com: Hobbled Odyssey Nears Mars - the headline is a little unfair! + Massive Mars Dust Storm Has Odyssey Mission Managers Watching + BBC.
12 Oct 01 SpaceDaily: Wind Turbines Could Be Used on Mars. (UT) Note that at the time of the Viking mission in the 1970s Dr Harold Klein, in responding to my suggestion of the possibility of wind-borne microbes, advised that strong winds were a rare event on Mars- the global dust storms are spectacular but not very common. The SpaceDaily article discusses this.
12 Oct 01 TPS: Help Save the Pluto Mission!
11 Oct 01 UT: Researchers Discover Giant Aquifer on Mars. SpaceDaily.
11 Oct 01 Space.com: The Making of Jupiter's Moons: A Slow Process.
11 Oct 01 SpaceFlight Now: Getting a close-up view of planetary birth - Keck Interferometer soon to go into service .
10 Oct 01 The West Australian: WA desert craters may help conquer Mars' alien geology (MSA).
10 Oct 01 TPS: The Planetary Society Announces New Officers (+Space.com.) + SETI@home Gearing to Expand its Search.
9 Oct 01 BBC: 'Hot breath' of Jupiter's moon.
5 Oct 01 New website: Australian Centre for Astrobiology.
3 Oct 01 Space.com:Mars Before Odyssey: A Baffling Legacy of Water and Dust.
2 Oct 01 Spacedaily: IF LIFE EXISTS ON MARS, OUR ROBOTIC PROBES MAY HAVE BROUGHT IT THERE . See also Transpermia - I estimate that, averaged over millions of years, the equivalent of 10kg of microbe-bearing Earth rocks have reached Mars every year. Also the October issue of Astronomy Now describes Jupiter space missions. It makes the point that NASA is insisting that the Gallileo spacecraft that has been orbiting Jupiter for several years will end its life by being plunged into Jupiter rather than risk a crash landing on Europa and possibly contaminating that watery moon with Earth-life.
2 Oct 01 Space.com: Returning Rocks from Mars: The Latest Plans.
1 Oct 01 Space.com: First Phase of Pluto Kuiper Mission Proposal Completed.
1 Oct 01 Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta :Lunar dust: a negative control for biomarker analyses of extraterrestrial samples? See also Fossilized Bacteria Found in Ancient Meteorite.
29 Sep 01 ESA: ESA takes another step towards the search for Earth-like planets and gravitational waves.
29 Sep 01 Space.com: Deep Space Missions Hit Pay Dirt in Overtime.
25 Sep 01 NASA: Making the Moon - giant impact theory receives a boost.
23 Sep 01 Opinion: CARL SAGAN'S WARNING ABOUT THE REPTILE WITHIN US.
23 Sep 01 JPL: LATEST IMAGES FROM MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR NOW ONLINE.
22 Sep 01 Nature: The stowaways - Over the coming decade, exploration of Mars may reveal whether or not life ever existed on the red planet - but only if the missions can avoid detecting any microbes they bring with them. However, Earth bugs have probably already reached Mars.
21 Sep 01 BBC: Lost Moon-landing tape found - listen to the Houston Control audio tape of the Apollo 11 moon landing - tense times.
9 Sep 01 ABC: Scientists to test Mars water-seekers in Egyptian desert.
7 Sep 01 SpaceDaily: Hungarian scientists claim potential evidence of life on Mars (CA) + Why Microbes (on Mars) matter.
7 Sep 01 NASA: Evidence of Recent Climate Change on Mars (see also 26 July) (CA)
6 Sep 01 Space.com: Viking Data Still Cause Stir About Mars Life - refs.
5 Sep 01 CNN: For Mars pro-life camp, an unlikely ally - NASA releases Viking LR data.
5 Sep 01 Space.com: Human Habitats at Mars: Defending Against Contamination.
1 Sep 01 NASA Astrobiology Institute: Scientists Hunt For Light Flashes From Extraterrestrial Civilizations.
29 Aug 01 Space.com: SETI@home: Signal Crunching Yields Little So Far + Mars Explorers Call for Opening the 'New World'.
29 Aug 01 SciAm: From Mars to Earth in a Meteorite? ...the temperature at ALH84001's core never exceeded 40 degrees Celsius en route from the Red Planet (see also Transpermia)
27 Aug 01 ESA: Europe to identify underground water on Mars. Also Conference on the Geophysical detection of sub-surface water on Mars.
24 Aug 01 TPS: COSMOS 1 SOLAR SAIL TEAM ANNOUNCES AMBITIOUS NEW FLIGHT PLANS. Also Space.com(UT).
23 Aug 01 BBC: 'Big bang' astronomer dies - Professor Sir Fred Hoyle - a great proponent of panspermia. Daily Telegraph Obituary.
21 Aug 01 UT: The Melbourne Herald Sun is publishing a special 16-part insert on space exploration in their newspaper. The first issue comes out on August 22, and will go on for the next 16 weeks.
20 Aug 01 NASA Astrobiology Institute: Advances in our Understanding of Life
18 Aug 01 Spaceflight Now: Galileo's recent Io flyby yields some pictures after all.
17 Aug 01 Space.com: 'Marsplane' Completes Successful Test Flight. + Canceled Mars Lander Could Be Resurrected for 2007 Launch + How Far is ET? + Study Doubles Number of Potential Earth-Like Planets.
16 Aug 01 Space.com: JUPITER-SIZED PLANET DISCOVERED (UT) BBC.
16 Aug 01 NASA AI: Water on Mars: Not So Ancient, After All.
16 Aug 01 BBC: [Computer simulations suggest] Moon younger than thought (see also Nature) + Life from space dust? (Genesis Mission).
15 Aug 01 Space.com: Mars Watering Hole Found, Scientists Say + Waste Not, Want Not: Recycling the Martian Way.
14 Aug 01 LAT': Mapping the Planet of Fire and Ice - "Messenger" Spacecraft Will Seek Answers to the Mystery of Temperature Extremes on Mercury.
13 Aug 01 NASA/JPL: Space Flight Basics course updated. This great series of articles originally appeared in Planetary Report.
11 Aug 01 TPS: There's Water-Ice In That Martian Ground! If Mustard and his team are correct and there is water ice just below the surface, a future human mission to the Red Planet would be able to use the ice as a water source. Note that Dr Nick Hoffman has advised caution when drilling into Mars - there might be pockets of frozen carbon dioxide that explode on contact with the thin atmosphere.
10 Aug 01 Space.com: Galileo Flies By Io, Camera Malfunctions + Detecting Other Worlds: The Photometric Transit or 'Wink' Method + Study Doubles Number of Potential Earth-Like Planets.
8 Aug 01 NASA Astrobiology Institute: Are We Alone? Where are our Nearest Neighbors? + Did Tectonics Get an Early Start? "Because hot volcanic vents on the sea floor may have provided the nutrients and temperatures needed for life to flourish and develop, it's possible that life developed and diversified around these vents as plate tectonics began.."
8 Aug 01 NASA/JPL: NASA's Galileo spacecraft has successfully completed a flyby of Jupiter's moon Io, skimming about 200 kilometers above the surface.
7 Aug 01 NYT: Searching for Alien Heartbeats (SETI, Mars life ...)
6 Aug 01 Space.com: How the Scum of the Earth Led to Advanced Life. Also SciAm: New Theory Explains How Earth's Early Atmosphere Became Oxygen-Rich.
4 Aug 01 SciAm: Why are planets round?
4 Aug 01 Space.com: Newly Found Channels on Mars Billed as Largest Ever. The largest flood channels in the solar system, caused by "catastrophic floods of enormous magnitude."
1 Aug 01 NASA: SETI and the Search for Life - Excerpts from the written testimony submitted by Christopher F. Chyba, SETI Institute, to the "Life in the Universe" hearings held by the House Subcommitee on Space and Aeronautics on July 12, 2001.
1 Aug 01 Yahoo: Scientists Claim Evidence of Life in Outer Space (results of Indian rocket experiments) but they look like common terrestrial bacteria but there is no explanation of how they could have risen so high. ``There would have to be some unusual event which would take particles from the Earth to a height of 40 kilometers,'' Lloyd said in a telephone interview. The bacteria could have hitched a ride on a rocket or satellite into space or they really could be from another planet. ``We have no evidence for one or the other as yet..." BBC: Scepticism greets 'space bugs' claim + Space.com. + Guardian/SMH: Bugs in space have scientists on edge (Paul Davies is skeptical) + SciAm: Max Bernstein, a space scientist associated with the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, "it would strain one's credulity less to believe that terrestrial organisms had somehow been transported upwards than to assume that extraterrestrial organisms are falling inward."
30 Jul 01 Space.com: Scientists Say Mars Viking Mission Found Life + SciAm + SPIE Conference but see also (not online) 'Did Viking Discover Life on Mars' by Viking Biology Leader Harold Klein, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 29: 625-631, 1999: [the assertion that] results of the Labelled Release experiment are analogous to those observed with terrestrial organisms...is found to be implausible. Sadly, Dr Klein died earlier this month.
28 Jul 01 NASA Astrobiology Institute: The Search for Life in the Universe + Happy Anniversary, Viking Lander + Starved for Nitrogen (early life).
28 Jul 01 Space.com: Optical SETI Hunts For Bursts of Alien Data + New Images Reveal Martian Ice Age, Signs of Water.
28 Jul 01 Nature: Callisto's watery secret.
26 Jul 01 BBC: Water reserves found on Mars. But see White Mars for a possible alternative explanation (it might be CO2 ice).
26 Jul 01 Spaceflight Now: U.S. Senate finds money for Pluto space probe. Also Space.com.
25 Jul 01 BBC: Alien hunters see the light.
25 Jul 01 Space.com: Life On Mars: Swimming Right Under the Surface? Also BBC.
23 Jul 01 TPS: COSMOS 1 Solar Sail Test Flight (sail was not deployed). Space.com report.
23 Jul 01 Nature: And now: the weather on Mars.
23 Jul 01 (return from holiday): Rethinking Viking: The Life on Mars Debate Rages On + NASA astrobiology report + NASA How Small can life be? + Space Daily: The Moon And Plate Tectonics: Why We Are Alone (Cosmic Ancestry).
16 Jun 01 SETI Institute: Hidden Oceans Could Still Support Life. (CA)
15 Jun 01 Nature: Celestial backspin inevitable (Venus)
15 Jun 01 Space.com: Team Sees New Signs of Recent Ice on Mars + In Search of Alien Lasers + NASA OKs 10 Mars Scout Concepts.
15 Jun 01 PSRD: Outflow Channels May Make a Case for a Bygone Ocean on Mars.
15 Jun 01 GSUK: Mars's hotspots may have been crucibles of life.
13 Jun 01 SpaceDaily: Life's Rocky Road Between Worlds (Paper on transpermia by Michael Paine). Also Newly-found meteorite may point to water under Martian surface (also BBC) and Active Volcanism On Mars And The Search For Water.
13 Jun 01 SciAm: How do one-celled organisms survive dormancy? Also Sailing on sunlight (report on TPS project).
12 Jun 01 Nature: Cones on Mars - could be evidence for recent water ice. Also Wind blows west on Titan.
12 Jun 01 TPS: Cosmos 1 solar sail is now repaired and ready for launch.
10 Jun 01 Space.com: Arthur C. Clarke Stands By His Belief in Life on Mars.
10 Jun 01 CNN: First Mercury orbiter could find ice near the sun - NASA has given official approval to proceed with a mission to Mercury. BBC.
8 Jun 01: Astrobiology IV. The conference will be held Sunday and Monday, 29-30 July 2001 in San Diego. (thanks Cosmic Ancestry).
8 Jun 01 BBC: Row over ancient bacteria - Scientists are arguing over whether a strain of bacteria has really been revived after 250 million years.
8 Jun 01 ESA: Mars Express to investigate Phobos.
8 Jun 01 Space.com: Two Teams OK'd for Pluto Mission Study.
7 Jun 01 Space.com: Humans on Europa: A Plan for Colonies on the Icy Moon.
7 Jun 01 New Scientist: MISSION TO MARS - a flying machine to cruise effortlessly through the Martian skies. BBC No women on (unlikely Russian) Mars trip.
6 Jun 01 LA Times: Planet Search at 67 and Counting - We've got planetary systems coming out of our ears.
6 Jun 01 Space.com: Australia Looks To Become Major Space Player.
6 Jun 01 Subaru Telescope: Subaru Discovers Small Objects in Outer Solar System (NNN).
6 Jun 01: University of Oregon has an online astronomy course with lectures on astrobiology.
5 Jun 01 CCNet: Notice of 34 Post-Doctoral positions at Centro de Astrobiologia, Madrid. Also University of Colorado-Boulder - PLANET FORMATION MAY BE RARE IN UNIVERSE (Also Astronomy (UT)) and MIT - SEEKING FOR OCEANS ON JUPITER'S MOON.
5 Jun 01 Space.com: Asteroid Belt Like Ours Spotted Around Another Star (UCLA PR) and NASA Cuts Smaller Mars Studies - [no longer] working on all these secondary studies and architectural studies of going to Mars (Goldin).
5 Jun 01 Chicago Times: Space probes may not escape sun's pull - Pioneers 10 and 11.
1 Jun 01 JPL: Cassini spacecraft recorded glows from auroras and volcanoes on Io during eclipse.
31 May 01 CNN: Canada wants Mars probe of its own.
31 May 01 Space.com: Future Martian Samples Should Be Quarantined, Report Says. Also New Scientist.
30 May 01 Space.com have been busy: Cryobot Explores Antarctica, Preparing for ET Hunt, Moon Seen as Haven for Protolife and New Streaks Revealed on Martian Surface.
30 May 01 BBC: Jupiter probe back on track.
30 May 01 News.com: Aussie astronomer sets up with NASA.
29 May 01 Space.com: Australia, Russia Sign Space Cooperation Agreement.
29 May 01 ESA: Life, the universe and everything discussed in Frascati. Report on the first European workshop on exo/astrobiology.
28 May 01 BBC: Jupiter probe in trouble. In 2003, the spacecraft is due to plunge into Jupiter's dense atmosphere...
26 May 01 NASA: New Images of Dust Devils, Dunes and "The Face" (on Mars)
24 May 01 ESA: Europe launches into astrobiology.
24 May 01 Space.com: Canadian University Works to Sustain Life in [simulated] Deep Space , Callisto Close-up: Galileo's Final Swing Past 'Ugly Duckling' Moon and Detecting Other Worlds: The Wobble Method.
24 May 01 BBC: New world rivals Pluto - at 900km, it is just under my preferred definition of a "planet". Also Space.com. Plus (at BBC) Antarctic lake disappoints scientists - unlikely to be hydrothermal Lake Vostok.
23 May 01 Space.com: Menagerie of Mars Scouts: Bold New Proposals for Exploring The Red Planet. Also Complex Life Conditions Arose Earlier on Earth (hydrothermal vents may have begun much earlier than previously thought)..
17 May 01: Astrobiology Workshop Macquarie University, Sydney, July 12-13 2001. A public lecture by Prof. Paul Davies will be held on the evening of July 11th at 6.30pm in the Macquarie Theatre. The title of

17 May 01 Space.com: Ancient Erosion Scoured Vast Region of Mars. But see White Mars for an alternative explanation.
16 May 01 Space.com: Mars Explorers to Benefit from Australian Research.
15 May 01 SMH: Tidbinbilla to get double vision so it can manage the Mars traffic.
15 May 01 Bioscience: Life from Space: An Emerging Paradigm by N. Chandra Wickramasinghe (link from Cosmic Ancestry)
14 May 01 BBC: Author Douglas Adams dies - creator of the magnificant and highly imaginative space fiction show Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the weirdest of co-incidences, on the day he died an asteroid was formally named 'Arthurdent'. He was also a prominent critic of the quality of PC software.
9 May 01 Space.com: Humans to Mars in 20 Years or Less, NASA Chief Says.
9 May 01 ESA: Watch the (slow) assembly of the Mars Express and Rosetta spacecraft via webcam.
8 May 01 SciAm: Scientists Learn How Tube Worms Colonize Hydrothermal Vents.
8 May 01 Space.com: Pluto Probe Faces Budget Battleground. Also Seti@home nears 3 million.
6 May 01 Space.com: Japan Plans 2007 Mission to Venus.
5 May 01 New Scientist: Going up - Rockets, schmokets! If you want to get into orbit, just take the space elevator.(CC) Arthur C Clarke: "The space elevator will be built about 50 years after everyone stops laughing".
3 May 2001 SpaceDaily: LPSC 2001: A MARTIAN ODYSSEY.(CC)
3 May 01 UNiSci: Possible Key Step In The Origin Of Life Identified.
1 May 01 Space.com: NASA Contacts Pioneer 10 Spacecraft. Also BBC.
30 Apr 01 ENN: Do asteroids contain seeds of life?
28 Apr 01 Space.com: Circumstellar Habitable Zones V: Planning Far Ahead - long term hazards to civilisation.
28 Apr 01 BBC: Barren world of stars. Extra-solar planets may be rarer in our Galaxy than previously thought. Also WP, MSNBC.
25 Apr 01 PSRD: Gullies and Canyons, Rocks and Experiments: The Mystery of Water on Mars.
23 Apr 01 SMH: (UK) UFO bureau shuts down due to lack of flying saucers Those inconsiderate extraterrestrials!
22 Apr 01: Australian Mars Exploration Conference - in Melbourne on 12th and 13th May, more details from Mars Society Australia
14 Apr 01 TPS: SOLAR SAIL SUFFERS A SETBACK (UT). Also Pluto Action Alert.
12 Apr 01 ABC: Revolutionary engine tests successful - scramjet, that it hopes will propel rockets at speeds of more than 8,000 km/h.
12 Apr 01 Space.com: Pluto Mission Needs Money The road to Pluto is paved with political potholes.
12 Apr 01 ESA: ISO provides first measurements of cold water in the Milky Way -water is more abundant than expected - in fact it is the third most abundant molecule in the regions which were studied.
9 Apr 01 New Scientist: Wish upon a star - Life may spread in space when star systems pass close by. See also "Swapping Rocks".
8 Apr 01 ABJ: LANL Team Eager to Search for Water on Mars. The neutron spectrometer is a payload on NASA's Mars Odyssey.
8 Apr 01 Seattle Times: Meteorite raises questions, fails to yield answers. To scientists' disappointment, a meteorite that fell on a frozen Canadian lake has been found to contain none of the organic ingredients believed necessary to have initiated life on Earth.
8 Apr 01 SFGate : Celestial Collisions (between stars!) May Have Turned Iron Into Gold
8 Apr 01 Unisci: Organic Molecules Could Have Survived Comet Collision.
8 Apr 01 BBC: Mars mission lifts off - Mars Odyssey.
6 Apr 01 New Scientist: MAKING A HOME ON MARS.
6 Apr 01 Space.com: NASA: Limited Missions Not Enough to Fuel Public's Imagination - America's space program should embark on a plan to explore the solar system if it wants to keep the public excited and interested, space experts said this week.
5 Apr 01 UPI: Life could have come from space. (CC)
5 Apr 01 ABC: Mars 'ocean' was an empty plain - from Nature 'Enigmatic northern plains of Mars'

5 Apr 01 ESO: Exoplanets: The Hunt Continues! - 11 new planets discovered. BBC.
4 Apr 01 Space.com: Microphone to Go to Mars in 2007 - The Planetary Society said the microphone will be included in the French space agency's NetLander mission, which will land four small spacecraft on Mars.

Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'?

Free-Floating Planets -- British Team Restakes Its Claim

Mars Attacks? Protecting Earth From Off-World Infections

3 Apr 01 BBC: Doubts over water on Mars.
2 Apr 01 SpaceDaily: Beyond Odyssey: Mars 2003 and NASA's Twin Rovers +
Spider Eyes For Martian Robots + Exotic CO2 Process May Have Carved Martian Gullies
31 Mar 01 Space.com: Seth Shostak: Reflections on The Dish

Earth's First-Ever Global Biological Record Documented from Space

Cassini and Galileo Spy Massive Plumes on Io

Scientists Press NASA To Reconsider Luna

29 Mar 01 Space.com: Does The Famous Martian Meteorite Really Point To Life?
29 Mar 01 SpaceDaily: What Should We Tell The Universe? (Pluot mission), When Will Television Invade Mars and Can Liquid Water Still Exist On (the surface of) Mars.
28 Mar 01 UT: Home Alone? The Search Continues - interview with Paul Shuch, Executive Director of the SETI League.
28 Mar 01 NASA: THE NEW AERIAL EXPLORERS: SELF-INFLATING SOLAR-HEATED BALLOONS. (Note that TPS was involved with a Mars balloon on an unsuccessful Russian mission in the early 1990s).
28 Mar 01 Space.com: Mars or Europa: Where Does Life Exist? Including interviews with leading scientists.
27 Mar 01 Space.com: Mars Polar Lander: NASA and NIMA at Odds Over Spy Agency Findings.
26 Mar 01 Sci Am: The space elevator - see comments by Arthur C Clarke in Letters.
24 Mar 01 Astronomy.com: NASA Fuels Search for Extraterrestrial Life.
24 Mar 01 Space.com: Circumstellar Habitable Zones IV: What Makes a Friendly Neighborhood?
23 Mar 01 New Scientist: Vapour trail - Miniature spacecraft could puff their way across the galaxy using steam engines. Told you so.
22 Mar 01: Sci Am: New Mars Probe Ready; Old One Found?
20 Mar 01: Mars and Water: the search for life elsewhere - Ed Stone, the outgoing Director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be presenting a seminar series in Canberra at the National Museum on Thu 22 March at 6pm (phone phone 6208 5345 for bookings) , and in Sydney at the Sydney Observatory on Mon 26 March at 6pm (phone 9217 0485).
20 Mar 01 Space.com: 2001 Mars Odyssey: A Solid Mission. Also (scoop!): Spy Agency May Have Located Mars Polar Lander.
20 Mar 01: An Estimate of the Age Distribution of Terrestrial Planets in the Universe: Quantifying Metallicity as a Selection Effect (CC)
18 Mar 01: Astronomy.com: Water May Have Erupted onto Martian Surface.
17 Mar 01 SpaceDaily: All Aboard the Meteor Express of Life (interstellar transfers) and Researchers Pinpoint Region Responsible for Mars Heyday.
17 Mar 01 New Scientist: Galactic hitchhikers - Microbes could fly across the Galaxy aboard a fleet of meteorites (interstellar transfers)
16 Mar 01 JPL: GALILEO GETS ONE LAST FREQUENT-FLYER UPGRADE - plans to plunge into Jupiter.
16 Mar 01 Yahoo: Mars Calamity May Have Created Conditions for Life (Volcanic eruptions)
16 Mar 01 Space.com: Scientists Evaluate a 'New Mars'. Including Tsunamis on Mars!
16 Mar 01 JPL: TELESCOPES DOUBLE-TEAM HAWAIIAN NIGHT SKY - The project will eventually search for planets around nearby stars and help NASA design future space-based missions that can search for habitable, Earth-like planets. Also Student robotic competition.
15 Mar 01 JPL:JUPITER WEBCAST WILL LINK STUDENTS AND ASTRONOMERS. (Today noon eastern US time) (NNN)
13 Mar 01 BBC: Volcanoes on Mars 'may be active'. LPSC abstract.
10 Mar 01 Space.com: SETI at Arecibo: How Do We Know the Darn Thing Works?
7 Mar 01 SMH: Flash in the pan may be messages from outer space.
7 Mar 01 Space.com: SETI@Arecibo: Scientists Will Be Slow to Celebrate Any Contact. Also Bush's Budget Plan Bolsters Mars Exploration (?)
3 Mar 01 Astronomy: Comets: Vehicles of Life?
2 Mar 01 BBC: Ice volcanoes resurface Jupiter moon.
1 Mar 01 UniSci: New Information On How Life On Earth May Have Begun.
1 Mar 01 Space.com: NASA Kills Solar Probe and Pluto Missions (but maybe not!) and Bush Budget Plan Recommends Sweeping Changes at NASA.
1 Mar 01Uni California : NEW ANALYSIS OF METEORITE SHOWS KEY INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE ON EARTH MAY HAVE BEEN DELIVERED BY COMETS (NNN).
28 Feb 01 SpaceDaily: Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life on Mars, Case For Life On Mars Withstands Criticisms As Support Grows and Meteorites Point To Abundant Water On Mars Long Ago. New proof of life on Mars: report.
28 Feb 01 Space.com: More Evidence of Life on Mars Rock? Not So Fast. See also "Rocks from Space" links.
27 Feb 01 BBC: New evidence for life on Mars? Scientists have published what they claim is conclusive evidence that bacteria once lived on Mars. PNAS (PDF2, PDF1 ). Space.com. ScienceDaily. Scientific American.
27 Feb 01 TPS: THE PLANETARY SOCIETY AND COSMOS STUDIOS ANNOUNCE COSMOS 1 THE FIRST SOLAR SAIL SPACE MISSION. Solar sails or solar mirrors are alternatives to using nuclear weapons to deflect asteroids and comets that threaten the Earth. Yahoo coverage.
27 Feb 01 NASA: Images of volcanoes on Io. Space.com.
27 Feb 01 PSRD: The Europa Scene in the Voyager-Galileo Era.
27 Space.com: Ouster of NASA Center Director is Prelude to Major Reforms - NASA in for tough times under Bush.
26 Feb 01 Nature: Astrobiology special. (subscription required to view full text)
24 Feb 01 Space.com: Open Season on the Outer Planets - review of possible space missions.
23 Feb 01 Space.com: Astrobiology Special Report.
22 Feb 01 UniSyd: Young star caught eating doughnut! - planetary system being formed? Also in Nature.
22 Feb 01 The Age: New signs of planets like Earth.
22 Feb 01: Is there water on Mars? Lecture by Nick Hoffman, 7:30 pm, April 5th, 2001

Kevin Walsh

22 Feb 01 TPS: School Kids Find Mars Mystery. (Igloos?!)
21 Feb 01 BBC: 'Hungry' stars reveal planet presence. Also Small objects seen floating in space.
21 Feb 01 Yahoo: Astronomers Find Life Ingredients. Also Space.com.
20 Feb 01 AJ: Satellite Detects Odd Flash of Light - ETI industrial accident? (to quote Arthur C Clarke's comment on the potential of zero point energy - see 3001 the Final Odyssey)
20 Feb 01 Starclass: Red Rover Goes to Mars (RRGTM) Student Navigator contest - Australian winners.
20 Feb 01 NYT: New Telescope to Search Skies for Intelligent Life - optical SETI
17 Feb 01: Mars by Stealth - A Sci-Fi comedy adventure.
16 Feb 01 Nature: Vikings would have missed life on Mars.
16 Feb 01 JPL/TPS: BUDDING YOUNG SCIENTISTS SET THEIR SIGHTS ON MARTIAN SOIL - Nine students have been selected to serve on the Planetary Society's weeklong Red Rover Goes to Mars Training Mission.
16 Feb 01 Australian Science Communicators: Basking in the Sunshine: a new encounter with our closest star - talk by SOHO scientist Dr Robert Walsh. Uni of NSW, 7 pm, Wednesday 21 February. Please book by phoning UNSW's Outreach Centre for Sciences on 9385 5752 or scitech@unsw.edu.au
15 Feb 01 NASA: 32nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference - March 12-16, 2001, Houston. See the abstracts.
15 Feb 01: Planetary Science Research Discoveries - new URL
15 Feb 01 Space.com: Mars Sample Return Presents Daunting Technical Challenges.
14 Feb 01 NYT: Icy Pluto's Fall From the Planetary Ranks: A Conversation and It May Be Now or Never for a Mission to Pluto.
11 Feb 01: SETI@home users - you must upgrade to version 3.03 in order to be able to connect to the SETI@home server. You will receive a 'server down' type of error message if you try to connect with an older version.
9 Feb 01: Astrobiology Australasia - a new Australian astrobiology website
9 Feb 01 SpaceDaily: Classic Lunar Atlas From 1960s Orbital Survey Now Online.
9 Feb 01 Space.com: Is Europa a Wet Io?
9 Feb 01: Swinburne Astronomy Online is offering a new short course on "Searching for Extrasolar Planets and Extraterrestrial Life". This is a six week internet-based course starting 23rd April 2001. (UT)
7 Feb 01 Space.com: New Mars Images: 'Shark's Teeth' Dunes and More Signs of Water.

A Mass of Inertia

if gravitational and inertial mass do emerge from the vacuum, perhaps we could take control of them. It might be possible to cancel mass, creating an inertia-less drive...

3 Feb 01 Space.com: SETI 2020: A New Action Plan for the Search for Life. Also Remote Pioneer 10 Remains Silent.
1 Feb 01 Sci Am: How do planets acquire rings?
1 Feb 01 Space.com: Battlefield Mars: Turf Wars Over Rover Landing Sites. Also Mars Global Surveyor's First Mission Nears End.
31 Jan 01 CSM: Life on Mars? The answer might just be in Arkansas.
31 Jan 01 Space.com: Children of the Stars - education initiative by SETI Institute.
31 Jan 01 NASA: WITHOUT JUPITER, HOME ALONE - advanced life may require a Jupiter-sized planet in the solar neighborhood (CC)
31 Jan 01 The Independent: SEEDS OF LIFE MAY HAVE REACHED EARTH ON A COMET (CC)
31 Jan 01: The Pluto is/is not a planet debate has flared again - see my microplanet comments for one view. Aso this Uni Arizona book.
30 Jan 01 Astronomy: Organic Compounds Vital to Life May Be Offspring of White Dwarf Stars. BBC, Washington Post, Space.com.
30 Jan 01 New Scientist: Light of life - optical SETI
30 Jan 01 ScienceDaily: Study Suggests Venus Could Have Been Wet - it seems only that the scientists are suggesting a method of detecting evidence of past water on Venus. There is no indication that such evidence has been found (or even looked for).
27 Jan 01 Space.com: Life-Building Carbon Rings Found in Space , Scientists Target Mars Rover Landing Site and Other Earths: Are They Out There?
26 Jan 01 Space.com: SETI: What To Do If a Signal Arrives.
26 Jan 01 SpaceDaily: Despite Periodic Pummeling, Conditions Were Ripe For Earth Life.
25 Jan 01 BBC: Meteorite clue to water on Mars. Also SpaceDaily and Space.com (from Nature "Geochemical evidence for magmatic water within Mars from pyroxenes in the Shergotty meteorite.")
24 Jan 01 TPS: NEW OPTICAL SETI TELESCOPE UNDER CONSTRUCTION. Also BBC and Astronomy (UT).
24 Jan 01 Uni Arizona: NEW CASSINI IMAGES (of Io) RELEASED.(UT)
23 Jan 01 Space.com: Engineers Vie to Build Pluto Probe.
23 Jan 01: YURI'S NIGHT- THE WORLD SPACE PARTY- 12 APRIL 2001
22 Jan 01 New Scientist: Old timer - The oldest mineral on Earth is found, challenging ideas about the birth of the Moon. (see 12 Jan)
22 Jan 01 Space.com: Orion Nebula 'Deep Field' Calls Planet Findings Into Question.
20 Jan 01 Spaceflight Now: NUCLEAR ENGINE CAN CUT TRAVEL TIME TO MARS (UT)
20 Jan 01 UT: EVIDENCE OF ATOMIC OXYGEN CHALLENGES UNDERSTANDING OF VENUS.
20 Jan 01 Space.com: Report of Earth-Sized Planet Around Another Star Premature.
18 Jan 01 Space.com: Mars Channels May Have Been Carved by Ice.
17 Jan 01 NYT: NEW DISCOVERIES COMPLICATE THE MEANING OF 'PLANET' (CC).
16 Jan 01 Space.com: Search For Water Puts Probe on Orbital Fast Track - 2001 Mars Odyssey.
13 Jan 01 Australian ABC Radio National: The Genesis Factor - origin of life discussion by Paul Davies. First episode noon today (repeated 7pm Monday). Second episode, including TPSAVC contribution, at noon on Saturday 20th January.
12 Jan 01 SpaceDaily: New Planetary Systems Are The Most Bizarre Yet, Watery Evidence Suggests Hospitable Young Planet and Drilling for Martians.
12 Jan 01 Space.com: Life on Earth Came Earlier, Crystal Evidence Suggests (my 'lifeboats in space' suggestion has not been raised). From a Nature special.
11 Jan 01 Back from holiday!

White Mars Model - CO2 could explain erosion on Mars (MJ)
Space.com: SOLAR SYSTEMS LIKE OURS MAY BE COMMON, STUDY SHOWS and CASSINI SNAPS EARTH-LIKE WEATHER AT JUPITER.
USA Today: New planets take odd orbital paths Huge worlds circle faraway stars.

2 Jan 01 American Scientist: Superflares and Giant Planets - From time to time, a few sunlike stars produce gargantuan outbursts. Large planets in tight orbits might account for these orbits.
2 Jan 01: More on the new millennium and Sir Arthur: 2001' vs. the real odyssey , space010101, Novelist Arthur Clarke Reflects on '2001' , A year all his own... and the US Navy explanation of the millennium.
23 Dec 2000 SMH: Life beyond 2001 by Arthur C. Clarke.
23 Dec 2000 Space.com: HUNT STARTS FOR MARS ROVER LANDING SITES

Scientists have begun eyeing dozens of prospective landing spots for two Mars robots set to

wheel across the Martian landscape in early 2004

20 Dec 2000 SpaceDaily: NASA Seeks Proposals For Pluto Mission - possible breakthrough. Also ENN.
20 Dec 2000 BBC: LANDING SPOT CHOSEN FOR MARS MISSION (BEAGLE 2). ESA map. (UT)
19 Dec 2000 Space.com: Life: Here? There? Everywhere?
18 Dec 2000 Space.com: Mars Global Surveyor Ready for Extended Mission.
18 Dec 2000 BBC: Jupiter moon (Ganymede) may have ocean. Also LA Times, Washington Post, JPL.
16 Dec 2000 SciAm: Reconsidering Martian Winds.
16 Dec 2000 Space.com: Pluto, Europa Missions Vie for Priority at NASA.
14 Dec 2000 SpaceDaily: Compelling Evidence For Magnetotactic Mars Bacteria - Tiny magnetite crystals -- so called magnetofossils -- embedded in the meteorite were confirmed to be the type produced only by a biological process unique to magnetotactic bacteria. Paper in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. BBC.
12 Dec 2000 SMH: NSW telescope finds planet in right orbit.
11 Dec 2000 Times of India: 'Life-from-space' balloon ready for launch. (CC) See also AN ATMOPSHERIC TEST OF COMETARY PANSPERMIA.
8 Dec 2000 SpaceDaily: Pluto Needs An Express Decision - NASA reconsidering? Louis Friedman's report.
8 Dec 2000 NASA: New images of Jupiter (UT)
6 Dec 2000 TPSAV: Panspermia and exchange of rocks between planetary systems
6 Dec 2000 Columbus Dispatch: Microbes in Antarctic ice could point to life in space.
6 Dec 2000 Space.com: Mars Rock Formations May Contain Fossilized Life . Also Advanced Aliens: Why ET Will Be More Advanced than Humanity by Seth Shostak and Deep Space Network Faces Major Crunch (too many missions coming up!).
5 Dec 2000 Space.com: MARS HOME TO ANCIENT LAKES. Also SpaceDaily and BBC. NASA press conference soon. JPL statement. TPS article. Science article to be released on 8 Dec. Recall 10 Oct 1997 Cobblestones on Mars? + Science article.
5 Dec 2000 ABC: Astrologer killed for incorrect predictions !! (wonder if he predicted his peril?)
2 Dec 2000 BBC: Public prefers science to politics - Almost two-thirds said they were very interested in telecommunications, 47% in space and astronomy, and 43% in genetic testing.
2 Dec 2000 Washington Post: The Man Who Wants a Return Ticket to Mars - tests for life on the ESA lander.
30 Nov 2000: The September issue of Planetary and Space Science has several excellent papers concerning life on Mars. In particular, one covers the possibility of exchange of life between Mars and Earth. You can download PDFs from http://www.elsevier.com/inca/publications/store/2/0/0/ BUT the free download finishes on 1st December 2000.
30 Nov 2000 CNN: New space telescopes to hunt for oldest stars, habitable planets.
30 Nov 2000 Space.com: Mars Probes Take On Tough Challenges - more plans to use airbags on Mars landers. Also Frosty Mars Mugs for Camera.
29 Nov 2000 Scientific American: The Editors Recommend When SETI Succeeds: The Impact of High-Information Contact. Edited by Allen Tough.
29 Nov 2000 NASA: LIFE UNDER BOMBARDMENT (odd that my 'lifeboats in space' suggestion has not been raised). (CC)
28 Nov 2000 UniSci: Any Sirius Second Companion Can Only Be Brown Dwarf. Also Space.com and Observatoire de Paris.
24 Nov 2000 Guardian: With no space of your own - difficulties of human flight to Mars.
24 Nov 2000 Washington Post: NASA Suspends Mission to Pluto.
23 Nov 2000 ENN: Scientists report 'alien' life - Scientists in Wales said they discovered what may be a tiny form of primitive alien life that a passing comet may have dropped into Earth's atmosphere.(CC). Earlier Scientific Paper from University of Cardiff. Also CNNand NASA Astrobiology and Space.com.
21 Nov 2000 BBC: More evidence of flowing water on Mars.
16 Nov 2000: Look out for a new BBC radio series 'The Genesis Factor' by Paul Davies - probably airing in Australia in January.
15 Nov 2000 NASA: LEONID METEORS YIELD RICH ASTROBIOLOGY RESEARCH RESULTS.
13 Nov 2000 Space.com: Curiosity Creates Teaching Opportunities [in SETI].
12 Nov 2000 Project Voyager: OneCosmosrepresents the realization of a shared lifelong hope to organize and lead a team that will deliver the vision of Cosmos through every available screen: spectacular living Internet, engaging television and cinematic works of art.
12 Nov 2000 SpaceDev: Live coverage of the test firing of a hybrid rocket engine - Wednesday morning,

11 Nov 2000 BBC: Wow, look at that! - A montage of all the planets and moons visited by spaceprobes has been produced to celebrate the exploration of space.
10 Nov 2000 The Inquirer: A big push to get NASA to restore mission to Pluto.
9 Nov 2000: International Committee Against Mars Sample Return (ICAMSR) has a website.(UT)
8 Nov 2000 SpaceDaily: Mars In The Early 21st Century.
8 Nov 2000 BBC: MARS MAY STILL BE VOLCANICALLY ACTIVE. (UT)
8 Nov 2000 Space.com: Humans On Mars: NASA on the Defensive.
4 Nov 2000 SpaceDaily: Life In The Cracks - Europa. The cracks in Europa's icy crust are where life is most likely to be found on the Jovian moon. Also New Evidence Suggests Mars Has Been Cold and Dry.
3 Nov 2000 Space.com: What is a Planet? Debate Forces New Definition.
2 Nov 2000 BBC: Four new moons found circling Saturn. + Space.com, UniSci . Also Space.com: Distant Planet Hunt Strikes Out, But That's a Good Thing.
1 Nov 2000 Space.com: The New Case for Panspermia + Q&As with Chandra Wickramasinghe and Jay Melosh.
28 Oct 2000 Caltech: New results on Martian meteorite support hypothesis that life can jump between planets + links. Also Scientific American. See also Swapping Rocks and references for Your Ancestors might be Martian.
28 Oct 2000 Multi-planet items from NASA: VOLCANIC MOON IO WEARS SULFUR-RICH "SNOW" IN NEW NASA IMAGES , RECIPE FOR NEPTUNE REVEALED BY SCIENTISTS , GALILEO SEES AMMONIA ICE CLOUD ON JUPITER , Spacecraft double-team the king of planets and NASA outlines Mars exploration program for next two decades (also at Space.com: What’s missing from the equation are humans...We are doing the groundwork for eventual human missions to Mars. This program is not driven by human exploration. It is driven by science.)
27 Oct 2000 Panspermia: MICROORGANISMS FROM THE MOON: Russian biologists recognize fossils of microorganisms in lunar soil. See cautions about contamination of meteorites. - in particular 'Contamination of the Murchison Meteorite' by Steele, Westall and McKay concludes "The fact that fungi cold grow extensively on a coated sample within a sealed SEM [scanning electron microscope] box is ominous. It then brings into doubt meteorite storage methods and maybe the protocols for meteorite storage should be looked at again."
27 Oct 2000: CARDIFF CENTRE FOR ASTROBIOLOGY established (CCnet)
26 Oct 2000 USAToday: Astronomers Discover Minor Planet Between Neptune and Pluto (2000 EB173). (NNN).
24 Oct 2000 BBC: New view of giant martian volcano.
21 Oct 2000 Space.com: 'Titanic' Discovery: Earth-Like Weather and Methane Rain (on Titan).
19 Oct 2000 New Scientist: Eternal life - The resurrection of a bacterium after 250 million years in salt suggests it may be immortal. Also Nature Methuselan microbes - "And, given this startling example of apparent bacterial durability, do spores in rocks even provide a mechanism for life to be transported between planets by‘panspermia’, as has been proposed" (ref. Davis, P. The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin of Life,Penguin, London, 1998). Also BBC"When we go to explore Mars, salt crystals would be a spot to look at,"
19 Oct 2000: The 2000 Ig Nobel prizes have been announced. Sadly no astronomy prizes!
18 Oct 2000 New Scientist: Space Hoppers and Mercury or Bust.
17 Oct 2000 NASA/MSS: New Mars picture gallery.
17 Oct 2000 New Scientist: Mission to Mercury - The European Space Agency reveals its six major space missions for the next 15 years and Start small - Genetically engineered microbes could make Mars hospitable for humans.
17 Oct 2000 Space.com: Scanning for Signals - SETI back at Arecibo.
11 Oct 2000 NASA: Jupiter flyby website - Cassini flyby in December.
9 Oct 2000 Spaceflight Now: Spacecraft captures postcard view of Martian valleys.
9 Oct 2000 Sky & Telescope: SETI@home upgrade and possible extension to cover data collected by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. (go to News Archive after October).
7 Oct 2000 BBC: Mystery of free-floating 'planets' - The discovery of what may be isolated planets drifting through space could challenge current theories about how planets form. Also Scientific American.
7 Oct 2000 Space.com: Cassini Snaps Jupiter; Glitch May Harm Titan Mission. Also BBC,
5 Oct 2000 Yahoo: China Plans (robotic?) Lunar Landing.
3 Oct 2000 Space.com: Mars Sample Return: Here's the Scoop and Homegrown Movement to Save Scrapped Probe (Mars Surveyor 2001- see SaveThe MarsLander).
27 Sep 2000 Space.com: A Plan to Drill Mars.
27 Sep 2000 SpaceDaily: Russian Scientist Finds Organic Pigments on Mars - detecting evidence of pigments ...in the western Utopia Planitia region of Mars...from Hubble images. Also Spectroscopy Magazine. Note that in the 1950s there were claims of evidence of vegetation on Mars due to erroneous interpretation of spectroscopy results.
20 Sep 2000 Space.com: Mars Researchers Spot Big Ice Deposit and Mars roadmap from NASA-2001 Mars Odyssey
20 Sep 2000: Mars Week 2000 - October 20-22, 2000 - Boston
20 Sep 2000 ENN: Space elevators: mass transit for the future?
15 Sep 2000 Space.com: Why Life Is Not Found on Mars' Surface. Also Robofrogs: Hopping Robots Built for Mars.
15 Sep 2000 SpaceDaily: Concepts and Approaches in Mars Exploration (NASA to give priority to remote sensing rather than sample returns) and Digging For Life On Mars.
14 Sep 2000 Space.com: Pluto Mission Deferred, Europa Gets Priority. See TPS item.
13 Sep 2000 BBC: Battle of the Martian landers - Professor Colin Pillinger criticizes NASA'splans.
13 Sep 2000 Space.com: (European) Space Agency Chooses Landing Site On the Red Planet.
12 Sep 2000 BBC: Australian mammal is medical star - planetary science? Yes - studying the echidna could ...

enable humans to achieve a state of "deep sleep" useful for...space travel.

12 Sep 2000 SpaceflightToday: GALILEO HELPS SOLVE PUZZLE OF JUPITER'S WINDS (UT)
12 Sep 2000 Space.com: Will NASA Go Before Pluto Freezes Over?
12 Sep 2000 Space.com: Protecting the Earth (from microbes in sample returns).
9 Sep 2000 NASA: MAKING SPACE ELEVATORS A REALITY (UT)
6 Sep 2000 SpaceDaily: Building The Infrastructure For Martian Exploration - Louis Friedman and Bruce Murray, emphasized the importance of initiating manned Mars exploration as soon as possible.
6 Sep 2000 Space.com: Torn Away: The Moon's Violent Birth.
5 Sep 2000 SET Institute: Allen (aka Microsoft) Telescope Array. Also Space.com.
5 Sep 2000 BBC: Building for a future on Mars - Scientists are developing bricks designed to withstand cosmic radiation in the event that people are able to colonise Mars. (UT)
4 Sep 2000 Space.com: Balloon to Soar Over Martian Atmosphere + TPS - see also the ill-fated Russian Mars 96 mission (rescheduled from 'Mars 94', launch failed in Nov 1996) with a balloon and SNAKE designed and built by TPS (The Planetary Report Jan/Feb 1991, p12).
4 Sep 2000 TPS: Marsokhod update - Russian Mars lander.
1 Sep 2000 PSRD: A New Moon for the Twenty-First Century - it is clear that some long-held ideas about the Moon might be modified significantly, if not tossed out completely.
1 Sep 2000 Space.com: Life Amidst Glaciers Thrives and Survives and New Clues About Martian Meteorites Baffle Scientists. Also Discovery: Meteorites Could Reveal Martian Life. Abstracts of the meeting of the Meteoritical Society (PDF).
28 Aug 2000 BBC: Clues to origins of life - chemical reactions in hydrothermal vents. Also Science: Life as We Don't Know It - There are two main groups of theories for the origin of life on Earth, the prebiotic broth theories and the hydrothermal theories, exemplified by the iron-sulfur world theory. In his Perspective, Wächtershäuser discusses the report by Cody et al., which provides key support for the latter proposal.
26 Aug 2000 NASA: Space settlements - utilizing asteroids?
26 Aug 2000 BBC: Further Evidence of Europa's Oceans Also CNN, Discovery, Space.com & MSNBC. (UT). Also Science (registration) - the report by Kivelson et al., provide persuasive evidence for a conducting

layer--most likely a global water ocean--near Europa's surface. +

SETI Institute

18 Aug 2000 SpaceDaily: Mars Express Comes Alive As Integration Begins.
16 Aug 2000 SpaceDaily: Has Mars Always Been A Dry World? and Does Titan Have Mountains of Ice?
14 Aug 2000 BBC: Manned flight to Mars in 2014?
14 Aug 2000 Space.com: Scientists Discover Tidal Squeezing On Europa.
11 Aug 2000 BBC: Nasa doubles Mars traffic. Also Space.com.
8 Aug 2000 BBC: Close-up on Titan.
7 Aug 2000 Washington Post: 10 more planets discovered. Also BBC.
6 Aug 2000 CNN: NEW REPORT PROPOSES THAT CARBON DIOXIDE CAUSED ('water') FEATURES ON MARS (UT)
6 Aug 2000 BBC: ASTRONOMERS DISCOVER NEARBY EXTRASOLAR PLANET Also CNN, Discovery (UT).
5 Aug 2000 Space.com: Mission Cancellations Loom for NASA.
4 Aug 2000 SpaceDaily: Athena To Join Beagle On Mars As Recovery From Setbacks Begins also Doubt Cast On Life On Mars and New Information Supports Claim Viking Discovered Life in 1976. (see caution on 18 Jul)
4 Aug 2000 Space.com: Pictures of Mars Crater and Trough Captured By Accident.
2 Aug 2000 Space.com: Microsoft Founder to Help Finance SETI Radio Array. (no not Bill Gates!)
31 Jul 2000 Space.com: Astronaut Gordon Cooper claims a UFO coverup (release of a new book).
29 Jul 2000 TPS: protest the looming cancellation of The Pluto Express. Also CNN and Space.com.
28 Jul 2000 Space.com: NASA To Send Water-Sniffing Rover to Mars in 2003. (+ related stories) Also at BBC, CNN, SpaceDaily (UT).
27 Jul 2000 BBC: Hot-spring bug goes into space. Also SPACE 'BUGS' TO TEST ALIEN MICROBE THEORY.(UT) + UniSci.
21 Jul 2000 TPS: Which Will It Be: a Mars Science Orbiter or a Mars Geological Rover? NASA will reveal its 2003 Mars mission plans at a Washinton press conference on Monday, July 24 at 2pm ET21 Jul 2000
Space.com: 31 Years since Apollo 11's Moon Landing.

Quietly, Evidence Mounts for Active Volcanism and Water On Mars

Study Points to Recent Volcanic Activity (on Mars)

18 Jul 2000 SpaceDaily: Viking Data May Hide New Evidence For Life + The Need For Mars Mission Exobiologists. However see also (not online) 'Did Viking Discover Life on Mars' by Viking Biology Leader Harold Klein, Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere, 29: 625-631, 1999: [the assertion that] results of the Labelled Release experiment are analogous to those observed with terrestrial organisms...is found to be implausible.
15 Jul 2000 SpaceDaily: Did Life Rain Down From The Sky? - not panspermia but a proposal that water droplets could have provided complex molecules.
13 Jul 2000 BBC: TOUGH MICROBES DISCOVERED AT THE SOUTH POLE.
30 Jun 2000 Space.com: Think bigger about Mars - by Louis Friedman. See also the TPS special report.
25 Jun 2000 SciAm: Aliens - where are they?, The Search for Extreme Life - from the July issue.

23 Jun 2000 Space.com: Scientists Report Water In Gullies On Mars - incredible images of (what appear to be) newly formed water gullies. PDF of Science paper available. This announcement tends to confirm the findings reported on 25 May. Also Meteorite Indicates Mars Had Earth-Like Oceans, BBC report...Interview with Kim Stanley Robinson - several of the sites of possible water flow announced by NASA are referred to in Robinson's books Red Mars, Green Mars Blue Mars.
22 Jun 2000 Space.com: Evidence of water found on Mars - look out for a NASA press conference.
22 Jun 2000 NASA: Sugar in space.
22 Jun 2000 Space.com:Seth Shostak: UFOs and SETI.
(10-21 Jun - away on business trip)
9 Jun 2000 ABC: New Evidence of Life’s Origins Researchers have found what they believe are fossils 3.2 billion years old, suggesting that life on Earth originated in volcano-heated ocean depths where sunlight never entered.
6 Jun 2000: There will be a total eclipse of the MOON on July 16th. Check out this map of the event.(UT) If you have a suitable telescope and would like to contribute to a live web broadcast please contact Fraser Cain at info@universetoday.com. Universe Today.
30 May 2000 SpaceDaily: Mercury's Hidden Side Revealed.
27 May 2000: Space.com's selection from NASA's 25,000 Pictures of Mars.
26 May 2000 BBC: How life survived the big freeze - see also Snowball Earth.
25 May 2000 PSRD: Liquid water on Mars: The story from meteorites... these two studies of weathering products in Martian meteorites suggest that small amounts of water were available near the surface of Mars during the past several hundred million years.
24 May 2000 Space.com: U.K. to Launch Mars Probe - actually ESA!
24 May 2000 BBC: Martian meteorite found in Oman.
23 May 2000 Space.com: Will Nuclear Power Put Humans On Mars?
22 May 2000 Space.com: JPL Director Ed Stone to Step Down - Since 1972, he has been project scientist on NASA’s Voyager mission...
21 May 2000 Space.com: New Find Proves Life Can Thrive in Hostile Conditions.(Also SpaceDaily)
18 May 2000: SETI@HOME: A YEAR OLD AND TWO MILLION STRONG (UT) - MSNBC.
17 May 2000: SOHO images of Venus and Jupiter alignment. (click on LASCO C3 image). NASA story.
16 May 2000 Space.com: Air Force Had Plans to Nuke Moon - a young Carl Sagan was apparently consulted for a top secret project in the 1950s.
15 May 2000: AAO releases a movie of a virtual flight through the Universe (minimum download 22Mb).
13 May 2000 Space.com: Pathfinder to Return to Mars?
12 May 2000 SciAm: Space Suits.
12 May 2000 New Scientist: Moon of mystery - Titan
12 May 2000 Space.com: NASA Plans For Lunar Landing.
12 May 2000: New book The Dream of Spaceflight : Essays on the Near Edge of Infinity.
10 May 2000 BBC: 8 new (extra-solar) planets discovered.
10 May 2000 Space.com: To Seed the Heavens with Life: Panspermia In Reverse.
10 May 2000 Space.com: Alien Investigators: A Look at the SETI Institute
6 May 2000 Space.com: The SETI Search Party Starts at Home...Yours - interview with Dan Wertheimer
6 May 2000 Space.com: Faster, Better ...Braver: New Low-Cost Missions Not Shy.
4 May 2000 The Times: Oceans at hottest for 3,000 years. +BBC. Also New Scientist Don't blame the Sun

GREENHOUSE effect sceptics may have lost their final excuse. The Sun has been dethroned as the dominant source of climate change, leaving the finger of blame pointing at humans

4 May 2000 Yahoo: NASA Mulling New Roadmap for Mars.
4 May 2000 MSNBC: SETI software nears milestone.
4 May 2000 Space.com: Lasers Illuminate Search for E.T. - more on optical SETI.
3 May 2000 Space.com: NASA Shuffles Schedule of Three Deep-Space Missions. Also Yahoo.
3 May 2000 SFN: Telescope finds possible planetary system forming.
21 Apr 2000 Space.com: How to get to Mars.
21 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: Special on the 31st Annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference: MGS, Galileo, Europa
20 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: Europa Orbiter Delayed Until 2010.
20 Apr 2000 Space.com: SETI Program to Get Own Telescope - SETI Institute. Also BBC.
19 Apr 2000 Space.com: Cassini Flies Through Asteroid Belt Intact.
19 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: Mars Express Sets A Date With Nozomi Without The Beagle - collaboration between European and Japanese mars missions. Not sure about the reference to the Beagle 2 lander.
17 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS WON'T BE CHEAP
17 Apr 2000 Nature: Take life on Mars with a pinch of salt (CC)
15 Apr 2000: Australian inventor solves spacecraft power problem.
13 Apr 2000 BBC: Wormholes take on a new dimension: one step closer in theory, to the space travel envisaged by Carl Sagan in 'Contact'. In the book "Carl Sagan's Universe" Kip Thorne explains the

New Scientist

12 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: Run-down on AMES astrobiology conference.
10 Apr 2000 Space.com: Mars Sample Mission: All or Nothing Proposition, Scientist Says.
8 Apr 2000 BBC: Life in space: The search continues.
7 Apr 2000 Space.com: Mars - a time to reconsider by Gentry Lee (give the engineers more say!)
6 Apr 2000 Space.com: Astrobiology Field Draws Researchers - Program and abstracts.
4 Apr 2000 CCNet: MARTIAN METEORITE DEBATE ALIVE AND KICKING (see item 10)
3 Apr 2000 MSNBC: Astrobiology: A down-to-earth view - The search for life in the universe begins in your back yard
3 Apr 2000 SpaceDaily: 40 Years Later And Where's ET?
31 Mar 2000 Fox: Dark infernos of the deep (sea vents)
30 Mar 2000: World Spacecraft Digest 1957 - 1999 - review of CD
30 Mar 2000 BBC: Planet hunters find new worlds.
30 Mar 2000 NASA: NEW MARS MANAGEMENT AND FLIGHT PROJECTS OFFICES CREATED. See also Space.com. and CNN.
29 Mar 2000 Space.com: Hands Off the Planet? How Finding Life on Mars Could Stop Exploration. Also Engine Cutoff Doomed Polar Lander, Mismanagement Blamed for NASA/JPL Mars Failures +BBC.
24 Mar 2000 ABC Radio: Science Show It's time to go to Mars with Dr Robert Zubrin - Sat.25th at 12.10pm & Mon.27th March at 7.10pm. See the Mars Society report on Dr Zubrin's visit.
24 Mar 2000: The new TPS website still has a few bugs and is running a little slow - please be patient.
23 Mar 2000 New Scientist: The ice planet: Was Mars once shaped by vast glaciers? MELTING glaciers rather than flowing surface water could have carved out the Red Planet's distinctive valleys.
23 Mar 2000 Space.com: Hunt for Earth-like planets starts.
23 Mar 2000 BBC: Astronomers find 'planets' in Orion.
23 Mar 2000 Spacedaily: Scientist Puts Short Odds On Europan Life. Europa is likelier to harbor life than is Mars...!
23 Mar 2000 BBC: Nasa 'knew Mars mission would fail' - alleged that the descent rockets wouldn't fire after the cold journey through space BUT Nasa rejects 'cold firing' claims (also at Space.com)
23 Mar 2000: New method of finding nannobacteria in rust could be used on Mars ocks. Also NANNOBACTERIA The University of Texas at Austin Department of Geological Sciences (CC).
21 Mar 2000 CNN: Oxygen on Mars? Science fiction could become science fact.
20 Mar 2000 New Scientist: Buried evidence: Have we missed signs of life on Mars?
19 Mar 2000 BBC: Nasa pulls back from Mars. The United States is to abandon its ambitious

plans to bring back rocks from the surface of Mars before the end of the decade. It is a decision that could set back hopes of an astronaut landing on the Red Planet by many years.

14 Mar 2000 MSNBC: Mission to Mars: How and why - comprehensive article on manned missions to Mars.
14 Mar 2000 CCN Movie Review: 'Mission to Mars' a wasted trip Your average "Buck Rogers" serial from the 1930s had better plots, pacing and suspense than this sleeping pill disguised as a movie.
11 Mar 2000 Space.com: NASA Draws Up Big Booster for Mars
11 Mar 2000 SpaceDaily: Mars Gravity Map Reveals Ancient Water Channels.
9 Mar 2000 ABC: Could We Be Wrong? Maybe Radio Isn’t the Right Place to Listen (for SETI). Also A Signal! Wait… Never Mind. Both by Seth Shostak from SETI Institute.
9 Mar 2000 Nature: Resurrecting life on Mars? The 9 Mar issue of Nature also has an article about Martian polar ice caps (subscription required).
8 Mar 2000: The Planetary Society US website is temporarily out of action while it is transferred to a new ISP.
8 Mar 2000 SpaceRef: NASA releases new high resolution maps of Mars. NASA site.
8 Mar 2000 Space.com: Nuclear-Powered Probes In the Plans for Mars - description of revamped Mars robotic missions.
8 Mar 2000 SpaceFlight: SpaceDev plan to take commercial photographs of asteroids.
7 Mar 2000 NASA: New images of Io and Europa released. Also BBC.
7 Mar 2000 Space.com: Mars Exploration Needs a Human Direction by Louis Friedman
6 Mar 2000: You are invited to an exciting evening with Dr. Robert Zubrin when he

The Case For Mars

http://www.living-net.com/msfs

3 Mar 2000 UCSD: Martian Meteorites Reveal Clues To Atmospheric Processes. Also at SpaceDaily. ...The UCSD scientists said the isotopic variations in those meteorites, combined with what is known about the Martian atmosphere from the Viking landers, are best accounted for by inorganic chemical reactions in the atmosphere, not biological processes.
2 Mar 2000 SpaceDaily: MIT STUDENTS TO KEEP MARS PLANE PLANS ALIVE?
1 Mar 2000: Abstracts for the Lunar & Planetary Science Conference to be held this month are available from LPI. See also my brief selection of abstracts.
1 Mar 2000 Space.com: Alien Intelligence? Think Again. (but see these comments from 1997)
29 Feb 2000: It turns out NASA has had previous computer-related spacecraft failures - the 1962 Mariner 1 failure has been nominated as the 'worst computer bug': In 1962, Mariner 1, the first U.S. spacecraft sent to explore the planet Venus, went off-course shortly after launch because of an error in its guidance computer program. The error was small: a wrong punctuation character in one line of code. The result was large: instead of going to Venus, Mariner 1 went into the Atlantic Ocean. (from AIR)
29 Feb 2000 InSCIght: Going Deep for an Unearthly Microbe - ...have recovered a cunning new microbe from the scalding fluid ejected during a submarine eruption. The bug, which Baross hopes to name Saganella, appears to be as multitalented as the famous astronomer, author, and TV star.
27 Feb 2000 Nature: Planetary Core Formation. (24 Feb issue - registered users)
27 Feb 2000 Britannica: Planetary Science: A Space Odyssey - history of planetary science.
26 Feb 2000 MSNBC: Probing meteorites for signs of life.
25 Feb 2000 Discovery.com: SETI returns to Arecibo. (UT) Also MSNBC.
25 Feb 2000: SETI 'debate' at MSNBC.
23 Feb 2000 Space.com: (Claims of) Fossilized Bacteria Found in Ancient Meteorite.(MP)
18 Feb 2000 NASA: Suicide flyby of Io for Galileo? (Not NASA's story title! 200 km close approach on 22 Feb). Update 22 Feb: Survives!
18 Feb 2000 BBC: The forests of Mars - AAAS item about colonisation of Mars.
17 Feb 2000: Louis Friedman to give talk about Mars exploration at AAAS Annual Meeting.
17 Feb 2000 SpaceDaily: Was Polar Lander Doomed By Fatal Design Flaw - did a ground contact sensor trigger when the landing legs locked into place, cutting the rockets prematurely? At least it would be good for future missions if a simple explanation was found for the MPL failure.
16 Feb 2000 PSRD: Jupiter's hot, mushy moon (Io).
12 Feb 2000: Happy Valetines Day from Mars. >>>
10 Feb 2000 SciAm:Mars or Bust. Web special on manned Mars missions.
10 Feb 2000 BBC: Jupiter's thunderous rising damp - weather on Jupiter.
7 Feb 2000 Popular Mechanics: REDISCOVERING LIFE ON MARS - Just found it in the Dec 1999 edition - prior to MPL failure.
2 Feb 2000 San Fran Chronicle: Scientist Says Nutrients May Foster Microbial Life on Jovian Moon Europa.
2 Feb 2000 SpaceDaily: ESA Zeros In On Martian Kennel (landing site for Beagle 2!)
1 Feb 2000 JPL: New Mars Meteorite Found In California
1 Feb 2000: FOSSILISED BACTERIA FOUND IN METEORITES, RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS CLAIM.(CC)
28 Jan 2000 Explorezone: Deadly radiation could power life on Europa. Based on Christopher Chyba's article in Nature (not available online). Also at MSNBC, BBC.
26 Jan 2000 CCNet: Debate about flu from space is "raging" on CCNet. Fred Hoyle defends his ideas.
26 Jan 2000 Space.com: How comets might seed planets.
21 Jan 2000 New Scientist: Gliding into orbit (advanced aerobraking techniques), Seeds of life - Did interstellar clouds give a chemical kick-start to evolution? and Captive moons - Life may thrive on small planets that have been captured and enslaved as moons by giant planets such as Jupiter, a new computer simulation suggests.
20 Jan 2000 CNN: Observatory reveals storms on Neptune, oceans on Titan.
20 Jan 2000 Scientific American Feb 2000: The Galileo Mission to Jupiter and Its Moons and NASA'S Not Shining Moments
19 Jan 2000 Spacedaily: NASA's Mars plans reviewe.- some missions in doubt.
19 Jan 2000 Spacedaily: European Space Agency's Mars Express given approval - includes "Beagle".
14 Jan 2000 Space.com: Did bacteria survive the trip to Mars? Paper delivered at AAS (see also Your ancestors may have been Martian).
13 Jan 2000 Yahoo: Organic Molecules in Space Found. - includes an interview with Curt Mileikowsky about life on Mars.
12 Jan 2000 BBC: Galileo finds more evidence of an ocean on Europa.
7 Jan 2000 CNN: Galileo mission to be extended.
7 Jan 2000 BBC: Mars probe canyon crash theory.
5 Jan 2000 NASA: Galileo skims past Europa. 350km from surface. Pictures due in a few days. Explorezone article.
3 Jan 2000 CNN: Ride the Millennium Time Machine (interactive Javascript). A look a future space missions.
3 Jan 2000 CNN: 'Think Mars:' Online petition urges manned mission Sign the petition here. Also Aerial search turns up no trace of Mars Lander and European Mars mission looks for lessons in polar lander loss.
31 Dec 1999 BBC: Bugs in Space "Astrobiologists are to test whether life from Mars could have survived a journey to Earth by hiding inside meteorites..."
28 Dec 1999 Explorezone: Distant worlds brought to light in 1999 - a review of discoveries in planetary science during 1999.
28 Dec 1999 BBC: Destination Mars on Earth - Mars Society plans a simulated Mars base in Canada.
27 Dec 1999 Space.com: Review of the success of the Mars Global Surveyor. Includes the latest on a possible ancient ocean.
23 Dec 1999 Space.com: Hiding Planets in Distant Dusty Doughnuts.
21 Dec 1999 Spaceviews: NASA Names Leader of Mars Review Panel. Goldin said in a statement

announcing Young's selection. "This independent review team will provide us with some fundamental guidance about how to continue our bold program for exploring the solar system, and how to make it even better."

21 Dec 1999 BBC: Io's fountains of fire (note the words "Interpretive illustration" have been omitted from the picture - the colour has been added). More at NASA/JPL.
18 Dec 1999 PSR: Zapping Mars Rocks with Gamma Rays. One way to sterilize samples from Mars is to zap them with gamma rays. Will this ruin the rock for other studies? Apparently not
18 Dec 1999 CNN: Europa environment 'conducive to life'.
17 Dec 1999 Scientific American: Snowball Earth.
17 Dec 1999: Space.com has a report on a speech by Arthur C Clarke to the UN "The deplorable state of television programming proves that no advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist in Earth's immediate vicinity, British writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke recently told a United Nations forum...Somewhat facetiously, he went on to note that since television signals continue to radiate outward from the Earth at the speed of light, our televised legacy now fills a sphere more than 100 light-years in diameter. Since no alien police force has yet arrived to put an end to the nuisance, this proves that no advanced civilization occupies that vast region, he said."
16 Dec 1999 New Scientist: FOR THE FIRST TIME, astronomers have detected light from a planet in an alien solar system. Also Nature and Explorezone.
13 Dec 1999 BBC: Searching for life on Mars. The UK Astrobiology Forum is to bring scientists from a wide range of different disciplines together to work on the hunt for extra-terrestrial life. Space.com report..
13 Dec 1999 CNN: Y2K in space? NASA one step closer to Hubble Telescope repair mission - Shuttle managers have given themselves a launch deadline of December 18, because, they said, they want Discovery back on Earth in time to avoid any potential Y2K problems in orbit and at Mission Control in Houston. + Panel being assembled to investigate lost Mars Polar Lander.

Mars shoreline? Image from Science

11 Dec 1999 SpaceDaily: Possible Mars Shoreline Found (but see cautionary comments from MSS on 3 Oct concerning Viking images)
10 Dec 1999 Explorezone: Life found near sub-Antarctic lake, fueling ET hopes.
9 Dec 1999 Space.Com: Spontaneous Creation Puts Planet Development on Fast Track - new theories on planet formation. Also Did Jupiter Bully Other Planets in Sibling Rivalry? but see Migrating Planets for an alternative view.
8 Dec 1999: At a time when "economic rationalist" journos are questioning planetary space missions, following the apparent failure of the Mars Polar Lander, Louis Friedman from TPS has somereassuring words. BBC has a pointless survey "Are Mars Missions a waste of money?". New Scientist: The nightmare continues. They have a problem.
7 Dec 1999: Report on Planetfest 99 by Caleb Bloom
5 Dec 1999 Astronomy Now: Mars Polar Lander status page - regular updates - the news is not good, not even the DS2 probes are talking (possibly because they landed/impacted in a crater). See also the official NASA/JPL status page.
2 Dec 1999: Amino acid survival in large cometary impacts by E. Pierazzo and C. F. Chyba, abstract from Meteoritics & Planetary Science. See also the March 2000 abstracts: Investigations into an unknown organism on the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 - evidence of some terrestrial contamination of ALH84001.

30 Nov 1999: BBC: 6 extra-solar planets found.
27 Nov 1999 JPL: Galileo skims within 300km of Io - engineers recovered from a radiation-induced "safe mode" just before the flyby. Pictures should be available in a week or so.
26 Nov 1999 BBC: We saw it too, say astronomers - second group detects possible planet.
24 Nov 1999 BBC quote from an interview with Douglas Adams : "Technology is a word which means something that doesn’t work yet"
23 Nov 1999 Space.com: Report on astrobiology conference.
23 Nov 1999 BBC: Light detected from distant planet.
23 Nov 1999 Yahoo: Ed Stone from NASA (the Voyager project manager) describes his visions for solar system exploration in Robotic Space Outposts Predicted.
21 Nov 1999: MARS POLAR LANDER NEWS

The Planetary Society will have a live internet broadcast of Planetfest 99 including coverage of the Mars Polar Lander touchdown on Dec3. Have RealPlayer G2 ready to run.
Space.com's MPL news page.
Astronomy Now - MPL Status page - regular updates - the news is not good.

21 Nov 1999: CNN Volcanoes on Io.
17 Nov 1999: Look out for the December issue of Scientific American: Is There Life Elsewhere in the Universe?

by Jill C. Tarter and Christopher F. Chyba - Scientists’ search for life beyond Earth has been less thorough than is commonly thought--but that is about to change.

17 Nov 1999: MSNBC Eclipse proves existence of planet - large planet detected through a star's wobble then confirmed as the starlight intensity dipped (1.7% !) when the planet passed in front of the star as predicted.
17 Nov 1999: Explorezone Mars: The frontier humanity needs by Robert Zubrin
14 Nov 1999: BBC ESA SMART-1 Moon mission get the go-ahead.
14 Nov 1999:NASA How to observe the transit of Mercury - 8:11am Tuesday morning in Sydney?
14 Nov 1999:Astronomy Now Britain's Mars lander gets go-ahead
14 Nov 1999: Cornell Uni 25th anniversary of Earth's first (and only) attempt to phone E.T - see also Encounter 2001 (tip off from Nathalie Bugeaud) and the 2nd attempt. Update Nov 17: BBC item.
12 Nov 1999: NASA New map of Earth's crust. (Space.com)
12 Nov 1999: Space.com NASA plans spacesuits for Mars.
12 Nov 1999: Space.com Move Over Mars -- Europa Needs Equal Billing - Europa, a moon of Jupiter, appears to have vast quantities of liquid water below its icy surface, making this world a top candidate in the search for exobiology
10 Nov 1999: Space.com Panel Uncovers Potentially Fatal Problem on Mars Polar Lander. Space.com also covered the problem of establishing radio links without the Mars Climate Orbiter and the scrapping of a planned Mars Airplane mission in 2003.
9 Nov 1999: Space.com Your Ancestors May Be Martian by Michael Paine
9 Nov 1999: Arthur C Clarke was misquoted by the BBC - read the story at CCNet.
9 Nov 1999: European conference on the impact threat - AMICO 2000, Germany, May 2000.(NNN)
9 Nov 1999: NASA Mars Global Surveyor - very clear pictures of a Martian impact crater. (NNN)
5 Nov 1999: NASA Galileo captures stunning pictures of volcano on Io
3 Nov 1999: NSF Astronomers Find Evidence for the First Planet Seen Orbiting a Pair of Stars. Also in Nature (registration required).
2 Nov 1999: Contact 2000 Conference - March 3-5,2000, at NASA Ames and the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara, California
1 Nov 1999: CNN Successful course correction for the mars lander (plus more in the Climate Orbiter mix-up)
27 Oct 1999: Space.com NASA Task Force to Determine Evidence for Extraterrestrial Life
27 Oct 1999: Space.com Dusty Rings May Mark Planetary Systems
26 Oct 1999: San Fransisco Chronicle Biologists raise caution about colonies in space
25 Oct 1999: CNN Surface hazards force NASA to rethink Mars landing site
23 Oct 1999: NASA Pictures of Io now available.(see 9 Oct)
22 Oct 1999: New Scientist Is anybody out there? - astrobiology
20 Oct 1999: SpaceDaily Mars 2001 Landing Sites Reduced To Two.
14 Oct 1999: Explorezone No ice: Lunar prospector crashed mostly in vain
12 Oct 1999: Space Daily Life on Mars: Will It Survive First Contact
9 Oct 1999: NASA Galileo about to fly very close to Io. Success- it will be several weeks before the images are beamed back to Earth.
7 Oct 1999: BBC Possible huge new planet amongst the Oort cloud
6 Oct 1999: Washington Post Hardy Microbes appear to be able to survive in space (ez) - haven't they read Swapping Rocks!
5 Oct 1999: Space.com Dating of Meteorite Mineral Leaves Mars-Life Hypothesis Alive . Also covered by NASA, the ABQ Journaland Spaceviews.
3 Oct 1999: MOC (MGS) Image Tests of the Mars Ocean Hypothesis - "shorelines" of a postulated ancient ocean on Mars don't look so promising in the latest images from Mars Global Surveyor. (JPL)
2 Oct 1999: IgNobel awards for wacky (not Planetary) science
1 Oct 1999: BBC Confusion leads to Mars failure The Mars Climate Orbiter Spacecraft was lost because

one Nasa team used imperial units while another used metric units for a key spacecraft operation. !!

Human error caused loss of Mars orbiter

1 Oct 1999: Explorezone How 22 planetary embryos became Earth, Mars, etc. Computer simulations are rapidly closing in on understanding the chaotic processes under which our solar system developed.
1 Oct 1999: Explorezone Venus, all stressed out and covered in wrinkles Volcanic activity fueled climate change that folded energy back into the planet, creating stress-induced ridges.
1 Oct 1999: Explorezone Earth's core nearly as hot as the Sun With a temperature pinned down, scientists can now better understand of how Earth works.
30 Sept 1999: BBC Hidden Antarctic lake links to alien life.
30 Sept 1999: Explorezone Arsia Mons volcano - MGS image
30 Sept 1999: Explorezone Earth may have many satellites.
30 Sept 1999: Explorezone Stellar dust disks may be planets in the making.
30 Sept 1999: BBC Star wobbles under tug of planet.
30 Sept 1999: ESA ANOTHER ICE-MAKING MACHINE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? - infra-red observations lead to new theories about the origins of water on Uranus and Neptune. (CC)
30 Sept 1999: BBC: Old spacecraft makes surprise discovery - orbital deflection of the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, now 11 billion km away, may indicate it has passed closed to an undiscovered planetoid. (CC)
24 Sept 1999: Mars in the News - Explorezone Mars Climate Orbiter presumed to have crashed. BBC comment. MGS is still taking great pictures, including frost-capped "mountain" peaks (CNN). And don't forget Pathfinder - Explorezone has a new report on the geology of the landing site - the surface has probably been blasted by small meteorites.
21 Sept 1999: Scientific American The Hidden Ocean of Europa This ice-covered moon of Jupiter has unexpectedly emerged as the only place in our solar system other than Earth where liquid water might be abundant. Deep beneath its cracked, frozen surface is likely to be an ocean warmed by geothermal energy--a place where in theory primitive cells might evolve. (full article in hardcopy only - October issue)
21 Sept 1999: Mars Pathfinder VR software
17 Sept 1999: BBC How the ice cracks on Europa
16 Sept 1999: Spacedaily Does Mars Hide Vast Water Deposits
15 Sept 1999: MSNBC New orbiter snaps its first Mars shot
15 Sept 1999: New Carl Sagan biography
15 Sept 1999: BBC 'Earth-sized planet' in deep space - observations of gravitation lensing of stars may have revealed an Earth-size planet (ez). Explorezone follow-up item.
15 Sept 1999: NASA Divining Water on Europa (TPSVOL)
4 Sept 1999: US science budget cuts threaten planetary research - CCNet report from Clark Chapman. If you haven't already, please lobby the US Congress to reverse this crazy development which is the equivalent of a self-inflicted lobotomy! See this opinion
4 Sept 1999: MSNBC Fossil may aid search for life on Mars. Also CNN
3 Sept 1999: Explorezone Stromatolites on Mars? (from New Scientist ET was here - not ETI!)
31 August 1999: NSF Ice-Covered Antarctic Lake May Harbor Unknown Life - similar conditions to Europa? Full report in PDf format
31 August 1999: Scientific American Weather on the Red Planet by Alan Hall
31 August 1999: New Scientist Firebirth - the origin of the Moon (preview only)
31 August 1999: Explorezone Measuring nature's tiniest stuff - If further experiments indeed confirm that neutrinos have mass, they would account for a significant part of the missing "dark matter" necessary to keep the Universe from expanding forever. Perhaps it will turn out that the very smallest of particles are a very important part of what holds together the vastness of space.
31 August 1999: Space Frontier Conference to cover NEOs and cheap launch techniques.
30 August 1999: BBC Mars Polar Lander
30 August 1999: MSNBC New images of Io from Gallileo
21 August 1999: It's on - a race to leave the solar system. MSNBC Solar winds may push probe farther
20 August 1999: New sky survey uncovers a mystery object - "It has a spectrum unlike anything else I have ever seen," says Djorgovski. "We have combed the literature and asked all kinds of experts, but no one can

tell us what it is. It is the first one of something new -- and a complete mystery to us." -

Explorezone

17 August 1999: MSNBC For sale: Missions to Mars - Spacedev Corporation
17 August 1999: BBC Cassini spacecraft to swing by the Earth this week. See also Scientific American
13 August 1999: BBC Once upon a time 3.5 billion years ago - Australian researchers find evidence of life in rocks 2.5 billion years old. The article's author does not appear to have read The Fifth Miracle! Also covered by ABC
11 August 1999: Science American Sept 99 issue Migrating Planets and ONE LIFE, TWO TAKES (about Carl Sagan)
10 August 1999: Spacedaily SETI@home Approaches One Million Users (ez)
10 August 1999: Spacedaily Orbital Resonance and Smashing Planets (ez) - habitable zones in solar systems.
7 August 1999: CNN Scientists discover key to Io light show
3 August 1999: Want a job as NASA? SENIOR SCIENTIST FOR ASTROBIOLOGY
2 August 1999: BBC UK mission to Mars - extraordinary!
2 August 1999: MSNBC No visible splash from moon crash - data from Lunar Prospector's crash still being analysed.
31 July 1999: PSR Contamination of Antarctic Meteorites - "...contamination with micrometer-sized organisms might be a ubiquitous process in Antarctica. This presents a big problem for scientists searching for fossil extraterrestrial life in an Antarctic meteorite."
31 July 1999: BBC Planet discovered orbiting Sun-like star
30 July 1999: BBC Oily ocean found on distant moon (Titan)
28 July 1999: Help the Planetary Society oppose savage budget cuts to NASA's scientific missions
27 July 1999: ABC Lunar Prospector's planned crash into the Moon (looking for evidence of water)
22 July 1999: The Fifth International Conference on Mars - who's on Mars to hold a conference?
22 July 1999: Explorezone Telescope sees possible frozen remnants of our origins on Pluto Data also shows Pluto and Charon are anything but twins
21 July 1999: PSR article An Adulterated Martian Meteorite - not the controversial one with possible fossilized life, but one with information about impacts and geological processes on Mars.
20 July 1999: More great images of Mars from JPL (also MSSS and CNN)
20 July 1999: University of Melbourne July lectures in Physics. These lectures might be of interest to Planetary Society members in Melbourne, as they have some astronomically-related topics (apologies for the late notice)
20 July 1999: NASA astronaut Jim Reilly will speak at a free public lecture from 6pm on 20 July at the National Science and Technology Centre, Canberra. Jim will talk about his shuttle mission (STS89 - which brought David Wolf back and Delivered Andy Thomas to MIR) and a few words about Apollo 11's 30th anniversary on that day.
20 July 1999: The 1999 Australian Space Frontier Conference will be held in Sydney on 7th and 8th August
7 July 1999: CNN Mars photos
2 July 1999: CNN Lost Worlds - interstellar planets?
2 July 1999: BBC 'Planet' loses starring role - too hot to be a planet
29 June 1999: CNN High-resolution images help prepare for Mars landing - Viking images may have been misleading!
29 June 1999: Sky & Telescope The Chance of Finding Aliens: Reevaluating the Drake Equation
28 June 1999: BBC item Muscular robots planned for Mars
28 June 1999: MSNBC has Buzz Aldrin's comments on Lunar Tourism
25 June 1999: To mark the 30th (yes 30th!) anniversary of the Moon Landing, NASA astronaut Jim Reilly plans to give a talk in Canberra on July 20th. Watch this column for more details.
25 June 1999: The Saturn bound Cassini spacecraft gets a slingshot from Venus today during its torturous gravity-assisted mission. (tip off from Bill Wheaton). Update: All went to plan - next "stop" Jupiter in December 2000, then Saturn in July 2004. See the great diagram at Explorezone.
25 June 1999: The April 1999 issue of J Geophysical Research - Planets (Vol. 104) has numerous articles about the Mars Pathfinder mission.
23 June 1999: Explorezone Conference to pick mars landing site
21 June 1999: CNN item From Mars, with love - latest MGS pictures reveal a heart shaped pit. Despite the gimmick there is some very interesting geology involved.
10 June 1999: MSNBC item Life on Europa? Experts raise doubts
10 June 1999: BBC item Australia searches for ET
5 Jun 1999: CNN item Astronomers perplexed by star's weird behavior - watch out for Eta Carinae - it could be about to do something spectactular!
4 Jun 1999: PSR Discoveries item Martian Organic Matter in ALH84001? Indigenous organic compounds found in Martian meteorite ALH84001 are unlikely to have a biological origin, but they do indicate that organic compounds were present on Mars.

MSNBC image of the expected vapour plume

4 Jun 1999: Explorezone item Spaceship to crash land on Moon - NASA is loooking at crashing the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into Mawson Crater at the Moon's South Pole on 31 July this year. They will look for water vapour in the resulting impact cloud (see diagram). MSNBC item. Also BBC item plus Radar finds Moon's cold spots.
3 Jun 1999: CNN item Bacteria thrive in simulated Martian environment. Also MSNBC item
3 Jun 1999: Uni Arizona Press Release Astronomers report observational evidence that terrestrial planets form around nearby stars (NASA's NEO News)
30 May 1999: Australian TV show 60 Minutes item on SETI
28 May 1999: CNN item NASA's 3D map of Mars and NASA
27 May 1999: BBC item about a SETI broadcast (from us!) which contained errors
27 May 1999: BBC item about a new supernova visible in Southern Hemisphere. Finder chart from Sky & Telescope
21 May 1999: MSNBC item SETI@home has mushroomed into the world’s largest experiment in distributed computing....667356 registered participants as at 22 June 1999.
18 May 1999: CNN report Real alien life forms unlikely to resemble E.T. (exobiology conference in London - see 30 April below)
17 May 1999: A Uni of NSW talk by extra-solar planet hunter Dr Paul Butler is on Thursday 20 May at 4pm. See also the Uni NSW course " Are we alone?"
12 May 1999: Essay The Reenchantment of the Solar System:A Proposed Search for Local ET’sIt is argued that, in opposition to the assumptions of current SETI searches, the very advanced occupants of this possible local Dyson Sphere may have as little interest in beaming radio signals in our direction as we do in communicating with termites (CCNet)
10 May 1999: A rundown on the 30th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference is available from PSR Discoveries - Mars meteorite and much more. Copies of papers, in PDF format are available from LPI. There is also a review of papers concerning evidence of life in Martian meteorites.
10 May 1999: MSNBC item Three moonbase sites suggested - (told you so! :) )
8 May 1999: See the report on Dr Ken Russell's talk "Collision course" at the Australian Science Festival.
3 May 1999: The Mars Society of Australia is showing the video "Mars Direct" by Robert Zubrin at 7-9pm on Wednesday 12th May. Upstairs Meeting Room, Richmond Library, Church Street (Cnr Swan), Richmond, Victoria. Admission is free.
30 Apr 1999: Nature item Small spherical object of desire - an update on Martian meteorite ALH94001 (CC).
30 Apr 1999: RAS Press Release about a meeting to disuss SETI (CC)
26 Apr 1999: BBC item When worlds collide - virtual tour of solar system.
16 Apr 1999: New Scientist Like nothing on Earth - comparison of Antartic's dry valleys with Mars.
16 Apr 1999: CNN item Astronomers discover new solar system - three massive planets orbiting a sun-like star.
13 Apr 1999: SETI@home is available for Unix systems.
13 Apr 1999: Spacer.com - SETI assisted by signals from Pioneer 10 spacecraft. The signals enable "calibration" of linked radio telescopes in the USA and UK.
11 Apr 1999: Project BETA, sponsored by TPS, has had a serious setback - the radio telescope toppled in a windstorm.
11 Apr 1999: Welcome to our new South Australian Volunteer Coordinator - Melanie Johnston, an astrophysicist from the University of Adelaide.
1 Apr 1999 (no joke): TPS announces a high-school student competition to design a minature experiment for a Mars Lander
30 Mar 1999: Nature item Evidence for recent volcanism on Mars from crater counts (18 Feb 1999, Vol.397, No.6720 - registered users) - one region-lava flows within the Arsia Mons caldera-that we estimate to be no older than 40-100 million years. We suggest that volcanism is a continuing process on Mars. (CC)
29 Mar 1999: Mars Global Surveyor goes into top gear - JPL News Release and CNN item - great images
27 Mar 1999: JPL Press Releases:

Hydrogen peroxide found on Europa,
experiments to obtain oxygen from the Martian atmosphere and
MGS takes images of patchy snow on Mars.

25 Mar 1999: (Australian) ABC TV Quantum " Deep Bacteria" featuring an interview with Paul Davies (transcripts available in a week or so). Paul's comment on the Queensland University discovery (see 20 Mar), if verified - "Mommentous"
Getting hotter 22 Mar 1999: CNN NASA finds more evidence of possible past life on Mars
Hot 20 Mar 1999: Scientists at Queensland University find nano bacteria which survive the vacuum and radiation of the electron microscope plus heat and pressure 5km under the seabed - implications for interplanetary seeding and "nanofossils" in Martian meteorites (from ABC Radio Science Show). (see also Swapping Rocks) and BBC.
17 Mar 1999: BBC article Best site for Moon Base Revealed" (see also science conjecture).
13 Mar 1999: CNN Item Mars' happy face: Have a nice planet! -
11 Mar 1999: CNN item Surveyor begins mapping of Mars - the primary mission has begun.
5 Mar 1999: MSNBC item The case for ancient life on Mars - a Mars Pathfinder news briefing (cancel the Java alert when loading)
27 Feb 1999: US Symposium in rememberance of Carl Sagan: "SPACE EXPLORATION AT THE MILLENNIUM" to be held on 24 March in Washington DC.

27 Feb 1999: AMES press release LANDMARK EXPERIMENT PRODUCES OXYGEN FOR HUMAN USE FROM MARTIAN ATMOSPHERE"
19 Feb 1999: CNN item New images of Mars disclose more secrets of planet
10 Feb 1999: CNN item on SETI - the SETI Institute's new project
8 February 1999: NASA's Stardust mission on its way(CNN) and MGS successfully completes aerobraking (JPL)
4 February 1999: Proposal for an unmanned aircraft to explore Mars now in NASA's proposed budget.
2 February 1999: For the third time NASA has problems with a flyby of Europa by the Galileo spacecraft - to quote Arthur C Clarke from 2010: "All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there" !
30 Jan 1999: Possible setback for "life on Mars" - New Scientist article - Images from Mars Global Surveyor suggest that the ancient climate may not have been as wet as previously thought - the canyons may have been carved out by sub-surface water.
22 Jan 1999: Scientific American has a special issue about interstellar space travel. Also an item on the NEAR mission
5 Jan 1999: Mars Polar Lander is on its way!
19 Dec 1998: New Scientist Martian mystery - the north polar icecap on Mars is much smaller than expected, deepening the mystery of what happened to water that was once abundant on the now-arid planet.
14 Dec 1998: ABC News item NASA Heads Back to Mars
4 Dec 1998: NASA The frosty plains of Europa - more signs of an ocean.
3 Dec 1998: Stanford University news release The Martian underground was safe place for early life
2 Dec 1998: CNN item France and U.S. plan joint Mars probe - sample return mission.
28 Nov 1998: Australian Federal Parliament Space Activities Bill 1998: First Reading available for downloading
28 Oct 1998: NASA NEW MARS IMAGES SHOW LAVA FLOW PLATES AND ACTIVE DUNES
24 Oct 1998: NASA releases images of layered terrain on Mar's North polar region
22 Oct 1998: NASA press release CALLISTO MAY HIDE SALTY OCEAN - "Until now, we thought Callisto was a dead and boring moon.."
16 Oct 1998: TPS launches the latest SETI program SERENDIP IV at Arecibo Observatory
16 Oct 1998: PSR articles For a Cup of Water on Mars and Europa's Salty Surface (posted 24 Sept)
14 Oct 1998: Mars Global Surveyor images of Olympus Mons
11 Oct 1998: Extract from an early Carl Sagan book "Planets" added to the web site - amazing foresight in 1966!
7 Oct 1998: A mailing list for TPS Volunteers has been started - see http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/tpsvol for more information. This list is intended for the use of Planetary society members and volunteers. This list is not necessarily endorsed by TPS or TPSAVC.
25 Sept 1998: Press release on the Australian NEO search program
24 Sept 1998: The Australian science TV show Quantum had an item on the lack of a major southern hemisphere NEO search.
24 Sept 1998: CNN item Research suggests planet formation may be more common than thought
12 Sept 1998: New Scientist article Survivors from Mars by Paul Davies. More on the theme that microbes might have hitched a ride between Earth and Mars.
12 Sept 1998: Mars Global Surveyor images of Phobos
6 Sept 1998: Bad news for star travellers - New Scientists article about travel through worm holes
6 Sept 1998: ABC News item Prospector Continues to Send Useful Data: More Lunar Water Evidence
27 August 1998: CNN News item Researchers say energy for life on Mars much less than Earth - "a team of researchers has calculated that the Red Planet probably had enough energy for life to begin but not to create an Earth-like abundance".
19 August 1998: ABC NEWS item Enthusiasts Talk About How to Fly to Mars on a Budget: Dreams of the Red Planet by James Oberg.
14 August 1998: University of Hawaii press release No life in Martian meteorite, UH scientists reaffirm - they claim that carbonates in the meteorite formed at high temperatures by impact heating which would rule out a biological explanation. This Press Release by the National Science Foundation also has some bad news: "A critical chemical reaction previously thought to support microbial life deep below Earth's surface, and possibly on Mars, is in fact highly unlikely...". See also CNN News.
14 August 1998: Two scientific papers on the mechanisms for transfer of microbes between planets via asteroid/comet impacts are about to be published. See this note from Jay Melosh.
11 August 1998: ABC News item Eye on Mars - description of images from Mars Global Surveyor
6 August 1998: ABC News item No Agreement in Sight: Was There Life On Mars? an inconclusive update on the ALH84001 case.
21 July 1998: ABC News item Taking Wing Over Mars - a proposal for a pilotless plane to explore Mars.
21 July 1998: CNN item Scientists make plans for seeking life beyond Earth
15 July 1998: NASA issues new images of Ganymede. See also Jupiter's moon Ganymede has crater chain, hints of past ocean (CNN 15 July 1998).
9 July 1998: CNN item Astronomers: Dust ring around star looks like another solar system.
3 July 1998: "Planet Search" announce a new planet discovery Gliese 876 - twice the size of Jupiter, orbiting at 0.2au. 15 light years from us. (announced 22 June 1998)
3 July 1998: JPL has released some spectactular images of Io.
1 July 1998: Disappointing CNN item about NASA's 2001 Mars Mission - "A cash-strapped NASA says it is having to scuttle plans to send a robot rover to search for life on Mars in 2001, but hopes to launch it a few years later".
26 June 1998: TPS News item ISAS(Japanese) Planet-B Spacecraft To Study Martian Atmosphere Set for Launch on July 4 1998, Orbiter will examine how Mars' atmosphere interacts with the solar wind. The probe also will take images of the Martian surface and the planet's two moons. Update 5 July 1998: It's on the way!
26 June 1998: CNN article Astronomers discover huge planet 15 light years away - twice the size of Jupiter. Detected using the Keck I telescope in Hawaii. The Keck Interferometer should be able to obtain a R~100 spectrum of some planets.
25 June 1998: JPL news release Scientists involved with NASA's Mars Pathfinder will present their latest interpretations of results from the mission almost a year after the spacecraft's July 4, 1997, landing during a NASA Television live briefing at 10 a.m. Pacific time Monday, June 29. Update 30 June: See JPL's News page.
25 June 1998: Nature article Global warming on Triton - Triton, Neptune's largest moon, has been predicted to undergo significant seasonal changes that would reveal themselves as changes in its mean frost temperature...
18 June 1998: Nature article Walking on Mars by G A Cavagna, P A Willems & N C Heglund
16 June 1998: NASA releases more images from the Mars Global Surveyor, showing Clouds on Mars
5 June 1998: CNN article California study challenges NASA's finding of life on Mars - more non-biological explanations for the unusual minerals in ALH84001 but NASA scientists dispute the findings.
31 May 1998: Hubble Space Telescope takes image of a possible extra-solar planet
28 May 1998: Mars Global Surveyor finds more evidence of abundant water and thermal activity on ancient Mars. "These relationships are best and most easily explained if, at some time in the past, water seeped out of layers within the crater wall and flowed down into the crater, flooding part of the crater floor. In this interpretation, the dark material may be sediment transported by the seeping water."
25 May 1998: The April 1998 issue of Scientific American (it comes by snail mail!) has a news item "Endangered" which reports on further non-biological explanations for the features in Martian meteorite ALH84001. Chris McKay remains confident: "There is no doubt in our minds that there is evidence for life in ALH84001" - results of new analyses will be released shortly. See also this review of papers by Allan Treiman of the Lunar and Planetary Institute Whatever the features turn out to be they have certainty sparked renewed interest in a diverse range of science.
15 May 1998: Standby for JPL to release more spectacular images of Europa. Check the Galileo News page.
13 May 1998: JPL announces a Day on Europa Internet session, including a live chat with Arthur C Clarke.
5 May 1998: Nature articles about 2 new moons of Uranus and micrometeorites found in well water at the South Pole. (30 April 1998 edition).
1 May 1998: CNN article about Mars Exploration
21 April 1998: ABC (US) News item - possible evidence of the formation of new planets around other stars - dust disks around some stars appear to have gaps/holes which could indicate that planets are sweeping the dust out of orbit. Reported in 23 April 1998 edition of Nature. See also this NASA news release and TPS.
7 Apr 1998: NASA releases the first Mars Global Surveyor image of the Cydonia region. Looks like mud/water flows have created some unusual shapes but no winking face! See also this NSSDC site and ABC News.
29 April 1998: PSR paper Big Mountain, Big Landslide on Jupiter's Moon, Io by Linda M.V. Martel
26 April 1998: NASA news release about a successful Cassini fly-by of Venus, enroute to Saturn.
26 April 1998: NASA releases Global Surveyor images of the "City on mars" - some interesting geometric pattern but no skyscrapers. Also NSSDC.
24 April 1998: NASA announces details of a Mars surface penetrator mission to be launched in 1999.
31 Mar 1998: NASA is waiting for the Mars Global Surveyor to image the now-silent Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landing site. It will then capture a portion of the Cydonia region of Mars, location of the so-called "Face on Mars," on April 5 at 12:33 a.m. Pacific time.
17 Mar 1998: CNN item about Global Surveyor discoveries of canyons and volcanoes on Mars (reported in Science). See also the GISS article Water on Mars (posted March 1998)
12 Mar 98: NASA announces new evidence that an asteroid/comet impact killed the dinosaurs. See also this TPS news item and Spaceguard Australia.
12 March 98!Scientists have discovered an asteriod that will pass within a few 10,000 km of Earth in 2028,. See Spaceguard Australia.
10 Mar 98: CNN item - NASA terminates communications with Mars Pathfinder.
6 Mar 98 NASA announces that the Lunar Prospector has detected ice at the lunar poles. See also this PSR article from 1996 and New Scientist.
3 Mar 98 CNN news report on water on Europa (from the Galileo spacecraft). TPS has an article on this discovery.
26 Feb 98 Carbon dating research casts doubt on the non-terrestrial origin of most (80%) of the organic compounds in the famous martian meteorite ALH84001. (PSR site ). See also Lunar and Planetary Institute.
2 Feb 98 CNN news report on an ancient Martian river bed
31 Jan 98 issue of New Scientist has a report of a possible planet in orbit around Proxima Centauri. (see also Paris Observatory New Release
26 Jan 1998 CNN report on the NEAR space mission with unique pictures of Earth. Scientific American has a Special on the NEAR mission.
24 January 1998: The international conference "SETI in the 21st Century" was held at the University of Western Sydney. Many international guests including Frank Drake. See our SETI site for details.
22 January 1998 issue of Nature has 4 articles about Europa:

Evidence for a subsurface ocean on Europa
Geological evidence for solid-state convection in Europa's ice shell
Evidence for non synchronous rotation of Europa
Episodic plate separation and fracture infill on the surface of Europa

Maintained by Michael Paine