[Wednesday, January 3, 2007] By counting craters, scientists have broken the geologic history of Mars into three eras: Noachian, Hesperian, and the present-day Amazonian. Each era is named for the location where the characteristic terrain was first identified.

[Thursday, January 4, 2007] Scientists report definitive evidence of the presence of lakes filled with liquid methane on Saturn's moon Titan in this week's journal Nature cover story.

[Friday, January 5, 2007] Ulrich Christensen of the Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, presents a new model, in which the outer part of Mercury's iron core does not convect and a dynamo operates only in its deep part.

[Friday, January 5, 2007] The transition from an ice age to an ice-free planet 300 million years ago was highly unstable, marked by dips and rises in carbon dioxide, extreme swings in climate and drastic effects on tropical vegetation.

[Friday, January 5, 2007] Satellite health remains nominal. Payload temperature is holding steady at its set point of 25 degrees C, with sensor values in the 24.00 to 26.98 deg C range. Payload pressure is 14.441, and humidity is 92.063%.

[Monday, January 8, 2007] We may already have 'met' Martian organisms, according to a paper presented Sunday (Jan. 7) at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.

[Monday, January 8, 2007] "One of the most enjoyable responsibilities of being the NAI Director is staying on top of (or at least trying to!) all the great research done by NAI members and their colleagues."

[Monday, January 8, 2007] Gas-giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn form soon after their stars do, according to new research. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that gas giants either form within the first 10 million years of a sun-like star's life, or not at a

[Tuesday, January 9, 2007] The Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) is meeting today and tomorrow. Keith Cowing will be live blogging on NASA Watch here

[Tuesday, January 9, 2007] If indeed "a diamond is forever," the most primitive origins of Earth's so-called black diamonds were in deep, universal time, geologists have discovered. Black diamonds came from none other than interstellar space.

[Monday, January 15, 2007] A very small NASA satellite has proven that scientists can quickly design and launch a new class of inexpensive spacecraft -- and conduct significant science.

[Monday, January 22, 2007] The MARS Journal, a new online peer reviewed open access journal, is now open for submission of manuscripts. The MARS Journal will publish scholarly papers in three general categories.

[Monday, January 22, 2007] Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed an elegantly simple, miniaturized technique for rapidly separating minute samples of proteins, amino acids and other chemical mixtures.

[Wednesday, January 24, 2007] In the night between 17 and 18 January 2007, the protective cover of the COROT telescope has been successfully opened, and COROT has seen for the first time light coming from stars.

[Friday, January 26, 2007] "Understanding the complex, changing planet on which we live, how it supports life, and how human activities affect its ability to do so in the future is one of the greatest intellectual challenges facing humanity."

[Wednesday, January 31, 2007] Probes designed to find life on Mars do not drill deep enough to find the living cells that scientists believe may exist well below the surface of Mars, according to research led by UCL (University College London).

[Wednesday, January 31, 2007] Hubble has allowed astronomers to study the layer-cake structure of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star. Hubble discovered a dense upper layer of hot hydrogen gas where the super-hot planet's atmosphere is bleeding off into space.