Exoplanets may reveal their location through radio emissions (NASA) In 2009, I wrote about a fascinating idea: in the hunt for “Earth-like” exoplanets, perhaps we could detect the radio emissions from a distant world possessing a magnetosphere. This basically builds on the premise that planets...

It's a chocolate Mars rover! Photo credit and cake-making skills: Will Gater OK, so Astroengine has been a little quiet of late due to some uber-cool space news writing over at Discovery News, but to kick off an era of increased productivity (and not just Photoshop fun), I just had to share this...

"A big rusty transporter came over the hill and the Jawas sold it for scrap metal..." -- Paul Quinn NASA is giving Mars rover Spirit one more month to signal that she’s still alive before search operations are scaled back and attention shifted to her sister rover Opportunity. Unfortunately,...

"Dad?" A scene from War of the Worlds. This rather outlandish, sci-fi notion comes straight from the fertile minds of researchers from MIT, the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University who are proposing a biology experiment that could be sent on a future Mars surface mission....

UPDATE (Mon. 9:50 a.m. PT): Shocker. NASA refutes Hoover’s claims. Apparently his paper failed peer review for publication in the International Journal of Astrobiology… in 2007! More here: “NASA Refutes Alien Discovery Claim — Discovery News” Original post: On Saturday,...

Comet Tempel 1 near Stardust-NExT close approach (NASA) A NASA spacecraft, a lonely comet and a Valentine’s date with no comparison. Last night, NASA’s veteran Stardust-NExT mission successfully visited its second comet, Tempel 1. Having already been visited by NASA’s Deep Impact mission...

I join FOX News host Megyn Kelly (center) and astrologer Constance Stella (right) on America Live. Today’s horoscope says: Expect some angry emails. Early this morning I get the call from Lori, my Director at Discovery News, saying, “You’re appearing on FOX this morning!” My...

The black hole lurking inside galaxy M87 has a mass of 6.6 billion suns, according to today's announcement (NASA) Fresh from the Department Of I Really Shouldn’t Have Eaten That Last Binary, astronomers attending the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle, Wash., have announced a supermassive...

Solar spicules as imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (NASA) There’s one recurring question I’ve been asking for nearly a decade: Why is the Sun’s corona (its atmosphere) so hot? When asking this out loud I inevitably get the sarcastic “um, because the Sun is…...

Just in case you didn’t know, Roland Emmerich’s 2012 wasn’t the best of movies. Actually, from a science perspective, it sucked. It sucked in so many ways that I can’t be bothered to list why it sucked (so have a read of my Discovery News review instead). Now, I’m happy...