London: A 150-foot-wide, 140,000 tonne asteroid may come so close to Earth next year that it might destroy communications satellites.
The asteroid, DA14, discovered by astronomers at LaSagra Observatory in Spain, is estimated to come near enough to Earth on February 15, 2013, that it could disrupt geosynchronous satellites.

Astronauts Being Trained For Mission To Look For Minerals, Get Info On How To Destroy It. Washington: Nasa is reportedly training a team of astronauts for a mission to land on an asteroid by the end of the next decade. The US space agency is training the astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth, ‘The Daily Telegraph’ reported.

Washington: Earth-like rocky planets that humans could live on may be more common in the universe than stars, says an international team of planetary scientists which included an Indian-origin researcher. Aditya Chopra at Australian National University and colleagues claim that determining whether these planets are habitable has become the new holy grail of astronomy.

SRIHARIKOTA (ANDHRA PRADESH): India's second Moon mission Chandrayaan-2, slated for 2014, will have to wait till the country's space agency flies two of its heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - successfully, a top official said Thursday. Speaking to reporters after the successful launch of indigenously built Radar Imaging Satellite I (Risat-1) from here, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said: "We plan to fly two GSLV rockets at an interval of six months before the Chandrayaan-2 mission."

Europa, Callisto & Ganymede Fulfil All Conditions Needed To Sustain Life
Washington: Researchers are keen on exploring Jupiter’s icy moons, which may resemble some of the planets found orbiting stars beyond our solar system, to assess their suitability for life.

Europa, Callisto and Jupiter’s largest moon, Ganymede, are all believed to have liquid oceans beneath their icy shells, as well as organic chemistry and possible sources of energy beyond the dim amount of sunlight that reaches their distant surfaces.

Boston: A recent study by four scientists has revealed that Nasa’s Viking missions in 1976 could have detected life on Mars. Their findings which has already triggered a lot of controversy in Nasa and other space groups has been published in the current issue of the International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences brought out by the Korean Society of for Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

Washington: The early days of our solar system might look quite different than previously thought, claim physicists. In its research, a team at the US department of energy’s Argonne National Laboratory used sensitive instruments to find a different half-life for samarium, one of the isotopes used to chart the evolution of the solar system.

China’s third lunar probe, Chang’e-3, is expected to be launched next year and it will conduct moon landing and lunar explorations, a top space official has said.
Different from the previous two orbiters, Chang’e-3 has “legs” to support the spacecraft in landing, Ye Peijian, chief commander of Chang’e-3 at the China Academy of Space Technology, said.

Experts Suggest New Theory On Formation Of Our Planet. Washington: Earth might have formed from collisions of many different types of meteorites, scientists suggest. Our planet is thought to have formed around 4.5 billion years ago from a disk of dust grains left over from the cloud of material that built our sun.

These grains slowly clumped together, drawn by gravity into pebbles, then boulders, then planetary embryos. Eventually, enough mass coalesced to form the planet Earth.

A Nasa spacecraft has detected oxygen around one of Saturn's icy moons, Dione.

The discovery supports a theory that suggests all of the moons near Saturn and Jupiter might have oxygen around them.

Researchers say that their finding increases the likelihood of discovering the ingredients for life on one of the moons orbiting gas giants.

The study has been published in Geophysical Research Letters.