[Monday, November 2, 2009] Two platforms have been developed for testing computer-vision algorithms for robotic planetary exploration.

[Monday, November 2, 2009] An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes.

[Tuesday, November 3, 2009] Dust samples collected by high-flying aircraft in the upper atmosphere have yielded an unexpectedly rich trove of relicts from the ancient cosmos, report scientists from the Carnegie Institution.

[Thursday, November 5, 2009] Nitrogen is an important element in biomolecules but is not abundant in meteorites. The authors note that impact-driven cyanide synthesis may have contributed significantly to the basic chemical building blocks needed for the origin of life.

[Friday, November 6, 2009] While the Kepler spacecraft continues in its orbit, and collecting science data, the Kepler team at the Ames Research Center continues its work on the science data processing pipeline software.

[Friday, November 6, 2009] NASA scientists studying the origin of life have reproduced uracil, a key component of our hereditary material, in the laboratory.

[Sunday, November 8, 2009] "Here's a 1924 telegram from then Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Edward W. Eberle, instructing all Naval stations to monitor the airwaves for any unusual transmissions due to anticipated contact from Martians."

[Wednesday, November 11, 2009] Earth's climate was far cooler billions of years ago, which could mean conditions for life all over the planet were more conducive than previously believed.

[Wednesday, November 11, 2009] A ground-breaking census of 500 stars, 70 of which are known to host planets, has successfully linked the long-standing "lithium mystery" observed in the Sun to the presence of planetary systems.

[Friday, November 13, 2009] Preliminary data from NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater. The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon.

[Friday, November 13, 2009] Two teams of astronomers have found that extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b, discovered in 2008, has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit.

[Monday, November 16, 2009] Unparalleled simulations of an extrasolar planet with a whole new ecology - but it would seem that NASA is not really interested in this film.

[Monday, November 16, 2009] Please look at all six videos and then chose the one that best conveys its message. Your vote (and comments) will help judges select the best video for this course at Santa Clara University.

[Thursday, November 19, 2009] Much of our planet's mineral wealth was deposited billions of years ago when Earth's chemical cycles were different from today's.

[Monday, November 23, 2009] The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) is organizing a session at AbSciCon 2010 on "Integrating Astrobiology Research Across and Beyond the Community."

[Monday, November 30, 2009] Using more advanced analytical instruments now available, a Johnson Space Center research team has reexamined the 1996 finding that a meteorite contains strong evidence that life may have existed on ancient Mars.

[Monday, November 30, 2009] Researchers at the California Institute of Technology that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet's largest moon, Titan