PASADENA — There is now a "Rolling Stones Rock" on Mars, and it's giving Mick, Keith and the boys some serious satisfaction. NASA named a little stone for the legendary rockers after its InSight robotic lander captured it rolling across the surface of Mars last year, and the new moniker...
Earth's Future Is Being Written in Fast-Melting Greenland
HELHEIM GLACIER, Greenland — This is where Earth's refrigerator door is left open, where glaciers dwindle and seas begin to rise. New York University air and ocean scientist David Holland, who is tracking what's happening in Greenland from both above and below, calls it "the end of the planet." He...
NASA Scientists Fly Over Greenland to Track Melting Ice
ABOARD A NASA RESEARCH PLANE — NASA scientists are crisscrossing Greenland on a mission to track melting ice. Greenland has been melting faster in the last decade and this summer, it has seen two of the biggest melts on record since 2012. Global warming is the chief culprit, but scientists...
UN Climate Report: Change Land Use to Avoid a Hungry Future
GENEVA — Human-caused climate change is dramatically degrading the Earth's land and the way people use the land is making global warming worse, a new United Nations scientific report says. That creates a vicious cycle which is already making food more expensive, scarcer and less nutritious. "The cycle is accelerating," said NASA...
Here's a Fact: We Went to the Moon in 1969
NEW YORK — Fifty years after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon, some people insist it never happened and was all a big hoax by the U.S. government. The suspicions arose even as the lunar landing was taking place in 1969, said Roger Launius, NASA's former chief...
Floating Antarctic Ice Goes From Record High to Record Lows
WASHINGTON — The amount of ice circling Antarctica is suddenly plunging from a record high to record lows, baffling scientists. Floating ice off the southern continent steadily increased from 1979 and hit a record high in 2014. But three years later, the annual average extent of Antarctic sea ice hit...
Poll: Scanning for Asteroids More Urgent Than a Trip to Mars
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Americans prefer a space program that focuses on potential asteroid impacts, scientific research and using robots to explore the cosmos over sending humans back to the moon or on to Mars, a poll shows. The poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, released...
NASA Looks to Manage Drone Traffic in Cities
RENO, Nev. — NASA has launched the final stage of a four-year effort to develop a national traffic management system for drones, testing them in cities for the first time beyond the operator's line of sight as businesses look in the future to unleash the unmanned devices in droves above...
SpaceX Suffers Serious Setback With Crew Capsule Accident
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX has suffered a serious setback in its effort to launch NASA astronauts into orbit this year, with the fiery loss of its first crew capsule. Over the weekend, the Dragon crew capsule that flew to the International Space Station last month was engulfed in smoke...
Israel Flying to Moon After SpaceX Launch
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — An Israeli spacecraft rocketed toward the moon for the country's first attempted lunar landing, following a launch Thursday night by SpaceX. A communications satellite for Indonesia was the main cargo aboard the Falcon 9 rocket, which illuminated the sky as it took flight. But Israel's privately...