Wednesday, April 7, 2010 as of 11:14 AM ET
Planetary science (rarely planetology) is the scientific study of planets (including Earth), moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them.
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NASA plans to drop nearly $310 million from the budget for its Planetary Science division in 2013, a 20 percent cut that affects future missions to Mars, lunar science, and the study of the outer planets.
The cuts are part of a $17.7 billion budget request NASA unveiled Monday a mere 0.3 percent cut from the 17.8 billion Congress approved in November for 2012. But it represents a 5 percent cut from the $18.7 billion President Barack Obama penciled in for 2013 in the five-year budget he sent to Congress this time last year.And it leaves NASA funded at its lowest level in four years, forcing the space agency to juggle priorities and "devastating planetary science," said Bill Nye, CEO of space exploration group The Planetary Society.“Science is the part of NASA that’s actually conducting interesting and scientifically important missions," Nye said in a statement about the 2013 budgetary figures. "Spacecraft sent to Mars, Saturn, Mercury, the Moon, comets, and asteroids have been making inc...A gang of heavily insulated scientists has wrapped up its Antarctic expedition, with its members thawing out from the experience, but pleased to have bagged more tha...
Last year, using the exoplanets discovered by the Kepler space telescope as a guide, astronomers took a statistical stab at estimating the number of exoplanets that ...
Ancient rock deposits, laid down between two massive ice ages, reveal the oldest known fossils for two types of single-celled creatures: Tube-shelled foraminifera an...
More than 50 new alien planets — including one so-called super-Earth that could potentially support life — have been discovered by an exoplanet-hunting telescope fro...
New planet may be able to support life
Distant planet may have similar living conditions
NASA: new planet just about right for life
NASA announced a major milestone in the quest for life in the universe Monday: The discovery of another planet close enough to the sun it orbits to potentially suppo...
Four decades after landing men on the moon, NASA is returning to Earth's orbiting companion -- this time with a set of robotic twins that will measure lunar gravity ...
Astronomers have spotted an exotic planet that seems to be made of diamond racing around a tiny star in our galactic backyard.The new planet is far denser than any o...
GOP presidential candidate surging in polls
With over 400 active volcanoes, Jupiter’s moon Io is considered to be one of the most unique planets in the solar system. Newly analyzed research may hold the key to...
Scientists say NASA is about to propose major cuts in its exploration of other planets, especially Mars. And NASA's former science chief is calling it irrational.Wit...
Missions to Mars in jeopardy?
Michio Kaku weighs in on discovery
Why aren't more members of Congress who served with Gingrich supporting his presidential campaign?
A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found aro...
Michio Kaku weighs in
Scientists are confirming a recent and rare invasion from Mars: meteorite chunks from the red planet that fell in Morocco last July.This is only the fifth time scien...
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