NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star like our sun, approximately 210 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. (NASA) LOS ANGELES – Astronomers searching for planets outside our solar system have discovered the tiniest one yet – one that's about the size of our moon. But hunters for life in the universe will need to poke elsewhere. The new world orbits too close to its sun-like...

Justin Bieber during a performance in Atlanta in December. (Getty Images) For Justin Bieber, it's "ask and ye shall receive." On Saturday, he tweeted, "I wanna do a concert in space." Who knows if he was joking, but at least somebody took it seriously: NASA. retweeted Justin's comment, and then added, "Maybe we can help you with that. 'All Around the World,' next off it?" (MORE: ) "All Around the World" is the name of a song on Justin's album...

An artist's illustration of the NEOSSat asteroid-hunting satellite in Earth orbit. The Canadian Space Agency mission will search for large asteroids near Earth and track space debris. A rocket carrying seven new satellites, including the first spacecraft designed to hunt huge asteroids and two of the world's smallest space telescopes, launched into space Monday from an Indian spaceport. The Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off at 7:31 a.m. EST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India, on...

The Red Planet This image released Aug. 27, 2003 captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a close-up of Mars when the telescope was 34,648,840 miles away. The picture, assembled from a series of exposures, was taken just 11 hours before the planet made its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. LOS ANGELES — While Mars was likely a more hospitable place in its wetter, warmer past, the Red Planet may still be capable of supporting microbial life today,...

This undated image provided by NASA shows powdered rock in the scoop of the Mars rover Curiosity. The six-wheel rover collected the sample after drilling into a Martian rock. The next step is to transfer a portion to its onboard laboratories for analysis. Curiosity landed in August 2012 to study whether the environment was hospitable for microbes. (AP Photo/NASA) PASADENA, Calif. -- The Mars rover Curiosity has successfully transferred a pinch of rock dust to its onboard laboratories for inspection,...

The unique and innovative satellite, called STRaND-1, is a Cubesat at 12 inches long and 4 inches wide. (SSTL/SSC ) A tiny satellite powered by a Google Nexus One smartphone has become the world's first "phonesat" to orbit Earth, its builders say. The United Kingdom Space Agency's miniature STRaND-1 satellite launched into space on Monday is one of seven spacecraft riding into orbit aboard an Indian rocket. It will test several new space technologies, including its WARP DRiVE — a...

This composite image shows a view from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (left) and from the NACO system on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (right) of the gas and dust around the young star HD 100546. Image released Feb 28, 2013. (ESO/NASA/ESA/Ardila et al. ) Astronomers have captured what may be the first-ever direct photograph of an alien planet in the process of forming around a nearby star. (MORE: Massive Black Hole Surprises Scientists) The picture, which captured a giant alien...

Mt. Etna erupting in late February 2013. (Cmdr. Chris Hadfield/Twitter) Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are getting a rare view of one of the world's most active volcanoes. (MORE: Mt. Etna Roars to Life) Italy's Mount Etna has been spewing ash in a series of eruptions over the last few weeks. The Canadian Space Agency's Commander Chris Hadfield, currently working aboard the I.S.S., tweeted two photos of the volcano from space. You can clearly see Mt. Etna emitting a...

Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen Belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts. (NASA/Van Allen Probes/Goddard Space Flight Center) A pair of NASA probes has discovered a previously unknown ring of radiation blanketing the Earth, upending a long-standing scientific theory about how charged particles coalesce...

A private Earth-to-orbit delivery service made good on its latest shipment to the International Space Station on Sunday, overcoming mechanical difficulty and delivering a ton of supplies with high-flying finesse. To NASA's relief, the SpaceX company's Dragon capsule pulled up to the orbiting lab with all of its systems in perfect order. Station astronauts used a hefty robot arm to snare the unmanned Dragon, and three hours later, it was bolted into place. The Dragon's arrival couldn't have been sweeter...

An image from ESO shows a candidate protoplanet in the disc of gas and dust around the young star HD100546 in this picture released March 2. (Reuters/ESO) CAPE CANAVERAL – Scientists have found what they believe to be a planet-in-the-making that is still gathering material left over from the formation of its parent star. The object appears as a faint blob nested inside a disk of gas and dust that swirls around a very young star known as HD 100546,...

Mars Rover Curiosity takes a self-portrait. (NASA) PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA says the Curiosity rover is returning to normal after a computer problem limited its activities. The space agency said Monday that the car-size rover exited safe mode over the weekend, meaning it suspends its science activities but is still in contact with Earth. Curiosity is now preparing to resume its science experiments - perhaps by next week. Engineers still don't know what caused Curiosity's memory glitch. The rover was...