Space, Astronomy, Astronaut, NASA News from Kepea

SPACE.com - After more than six years roaming the surface of Mars, NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has spotted its first dust devil on the red planet.

SPACE.com - A piece of Chinese space junk expected to zoom by the International Space Station Thursday will pass harmlessly by, NASA officials said after scrambling to determine whether the six people aboard the outpost would have to take shelter in their Russian lifeboats as a precaution.

SPACE.com - NASA is tracking a piece of Chinese space junk that is headed uncomfortably close to the International Space Station and may force the outpost's crew to take shelter in their Russian lifeboats as a precaution.

SPACE.com - Some scientists have thought that the Earth's Ice Age conditions 12,900 years ago were triggered by a meteor or comet. But a recent study suggests that the evidence pointing to the ancient impact is nothing more than fungus and other matter.

AP - The private contractor that handles the bulk of the work servicing NASA's space shuttle fleet is notifying 1,400 employees in Florida, Texas and Alabama that they will be laid off in the fall.

SPACE.com - Astronomy has come a long way in the 401 years since Galileo turned his first primitive telescope to the sky, so it may be no surprise we see a very different solar system than the field's earliest pioneers did.

SPACE.com - More than 1,300 space shuttle workers received layoff notices this week from United Space Alliance – a NASA contractor that is cutting 15 percent of its 8,100-person workforce ahead of the shuttle fleet's retirement next year.

SPACE.com - A giant black hole spouting energy from inside a galaxy is acting like a cosmic magnifying glass, giving astronomers a clear view of an even more distant galaxy behind it.

Reuters - NASA's prime space shuttle contractor, United Space Alliance, sent layoff notices this week to more than 15 percent of its 8,100-member shuttle work force, officials said on Tuesday.

SPACE.com - A large asteroid in space that has a remote chance of slamming into the Earth would be most likely hit in 2182, if it crashed into our planet at all, a new study suggests.