"The coming technological innovations will open a new chapter in the search for life beyond Earth. After taking a galactic census, courtesy of Kepler, we could find ourselves staring at a galaxy full of “pale blue dots”—and closing the book on humanity’s long age of cosmic solitude."
Read Text: NASA: Evidence of life beyond Earth
(View Features: The discovery of Alien World)

"Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars -- or if the planet can sustain life in the future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030's, and today's landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal."
Read More: NASA Lands Car-Size Rover Beside Martian Mountain
( View Video: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror)

Science with a 30-Meter Telescope

Near the outskirts of Pasadena, California, a team of scientists, engineers, and project specialists is busily planning and designing what eventually will become the most advanced and powerful optical telescope on Earth. When completed in 2018, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be the world’s most advanced and capable ground-based optical, near-infrared, and mid-infrared observatory. TMT will allow exploration of galaxies at large-scale in the young universe, including the era in which most of the stars and heavy elements were formed and the galaxies in today’s universe were assembled. ...Telescope (TMT)

Astrobiology

Astrobiology plays a key role in all space science endeavors to study topics such as prebiotic chemistry in interstellar space, the formation of habitable planets, and extraterrestrial environments where prebiotic chemistry or life may have occurred. NASA’s Astrobiology Program addresses three fundamental questions: How does life begin and evolve, does life exist elsewhere in the universe, and what is the future of life on Earth and beyond? In striving to answer these questions and improve understanding of biological, planetary, and cosmic phenomena and relationships among them, experts in astronomy and astrophysics, heliophysics, cosmochemistry, and all other relevant disciplines are participating in astrobiology research and helping to advance the enterprise of space exploration.. ... Astrobiology

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