[Tuesday, September 2, 2008] Scientists have begun to analyze a sample of soil delivered to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's wet chemistry experiment from the deepest trench dug so far in the Martian arctic plains.

[Tuesday, September 2, 2008] "We propose that a sufficiently advanced civilization may employ Cepheid variable stars as beacons to transmit all-call information throughout the galaxy and beyond. "

[Wednesday, September 3, 2008] NASA announced Wednesday the new Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in Exoplanet Exploration, created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars.

[Thursday, September 4, 2008] "We investigate whether it is possible that viable microbes could have been transported to Earth from the planets in extra-solar systems by means of natural vehicles such as ejecta expelled by comet or asteroid impacts on such planets."

[Thursday, September 4, 2008] Early in Earth's history, our solar system was a much different place. When the sun was very young, it was faint and provided little heat for the Earth. However, even in its chilly beginnings, the surface of the Earth was ice-free.

[Thursday, September 4, 2008] A fork-like conductivity probe has sensed humidity rising and falling beside NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, but when stuck into the ground, its measurements so far indicate soil that is thoroughly and perplexingly dry.

[Wednesday, September 10, 2008] Water bears (tardigrades) are the first animals in the world to have survived exposure to the vacuum and radiation of space. This has been established by Ingemar Joensson, a researcher at Kristianstad University in Sweden.

[Wednesday, September 10, 2008] The next soil sample that NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander will deliver to its deck instruments will go to the fourth of the four cells of Phoenix's wet chemistry laboratory, according to the Phoenix team's current plans.

[Monday, September 15, 2008] Astronomers have unveiled what is likely the first picture of a planet around a normal star similar to the Sun. The parent star is similar in mass to the Sun, but is much younger.

[Monday, September 15, 2008] A long-standing scientific belief holds that stars tend to hang out in the same general part of a galaxy where they originally formed. Some astrophysicists have recently questioned whether that is true.

[Monday, September 15, 2008] Dr. Mary A. Voytek, a microbiologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, VA, takes charge of NASA's Astrobiology Program effective September 15 as Interim Senior Scientist for Astrobiology in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HQ.

[Sunday, September 21, 2008] Astronomers have been able to study planet-forming discs around young Sun-like stars in unsurpassed detail, clearly revealing the motion and distribution of the gas in the inner parts of the disc.

[Sunday, September 21, 2008] Chemical clues from a comet's halo are challenging common views about the history and evolution of the solar system and showing it may be more mixed-up than previously thought.

[Monday, September 22, 2008] What's a NASA astronaut doing "flying" a submarine around in a lake in British Columbia? Getting ready for human exploration of the moon.

[Tuesday, September 23, 2008] NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission, scheduled to launch in 2009, has survived an extreme temperature test.

[Tuesday, September 23, 2008] Water may have played a role in shaping parts of the Martian landscape a billion years longer than previous studies have shown, according to a research team led by Catherine Weitz, a senior scientist with the Planetary Science Institute.

[Wednesday, September 24, 2008] Evidence that lake deposits once formed inside impact craters on Mars has been presented today at the European Planetary Science Congress in Muenster.

[Thursday, September 25, 2008] NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that billions of years ago directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone.

[Friday, September 26, 2008] Tons of carbon molecules in dust particles and meteorites fall on Earth daily. Meteorites are especially valuable to astronomers because they provide relatively big chunks of carbon molecules that are easily analyzed in the laboratory.

[Friday, September 26, 2008] NASA will hold a media briefing Monday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss the latest developments, findings and upcoming science opportunities of the Phoenix Mars Lander.

[Friday, September 26, 2008] Scientists at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and McGill University in Montreal used geochemical methods to obtain an age of 4.28 billion years for samples of the rock, making it 250 million years more ancient than any previously discovered rocks.

[Monday, September 29, 2008] NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has detected snow falling from Martian clouds. Spacecraft soil experiments also have provided evidence of past interaction between minerals and liquid water, processes that occur on Earth.