Posted: Sat, Mar 20 9:27 AM ET (1327 GMT)
Astronomers announced this week the discovery of a Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet in an orbit distant enough from its parent star to have relatively moderate temperatures. Scientists detected CoRoT-9b with the French astronomy satellite CoRoT by observing the planet transit in front of its Sun-like star, temporarily dimming the light from the star 1,500 light-years away. Those data, coupled with additional observations at the European Southern Observatory, found that the planet was roughly the size of Jupiter in a nearly circular orbit at roughly the same distance from the star as Mercury is from the Sun. That orbit allows the gas giant planet to have "temperate" conditions, with surface temperatures estimated to be between -20 and 160 degrees Celsius. Astronomers said they believed this planet could be a "Rosetta stone" that allows them to better understand many other exoplanets.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  Scientific American article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Science News article
•  ESO press release

Posted: Fri, Mar 19 6:21 AM ET (1021 GMT)
Two members of the International Space Station crew safely returned to Earth early Thursday in a Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft landed at 7:24 am EDT (1124 GMT) Thursday at the planned landing site northeast of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk. On board the spacecraft were NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Max Suraev, who each spent 167 days on the station. Three other people, Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi, and T.J. Creamer, remain on the ISS, and will be joined by three others when a new Soyuz spacecraft is launched on April 2.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  Reuters article
•  CBS News/Spaceflight Now article
•  RIA Novosti article
•  NASA press release

ESA releases Phobos flyby images
Posted: Wed, Mar 17 5:35 AM ET (0935 GMT)
The European Space Agency released this week some of the best images ever of the Martian moon Phobos, taken by an ESA spacecraft earlier this...

Valve problem could delay shuttle launch
Posted: Tue, Mar 16 6:02 AM ET (1002 GMT)
Shuttle engineers are investigating a valve problem on the shuttle Discovery that could delay its scheduled launch next month. The issue is with an isolator...

SpaceX tests Falcon 9 engines, wins contract
Posted: Tue, Mar 16 5:54 AM ET (0954 GMT)
SpaceX successfully performed a "hot fire" of its first Falcon 9 rocket on its Florida launchpad on Saturday, and also announced a new launch contract....