Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi says the country will unveil its first space observatory early next month when it marks the victory in 1979 of the Islamic Revolution. “During Ten-Day Dawn [festivities], a space observatory, named after [the sixth Shiite imam] Imam Sadeq (PBUH), will be inaugurated as the first [Iranian] space monitoring station,” the minister said on Monday. “Inauguration... 

The Dutch nonprofit company Mars One is planning to establish a human settlement in the Red Planet by 2023, International Business Times has reported. The company released its basic astronaut requirements for the plan to call not only scientists or pilots but anyone who is at least 18 years old. Recruiting is scheduled to begin later this year during a televised global selection process based on some... 

A US billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, Elon Musk, has made plans to build a settlement for 80,000 people on Mars when technology makes it possible for man to live there – as long as the inhabitants are vegetarians. Musk is a considered one of America’s most respected private space entrepreneurs and was in charge of creating SpaceX, a space transport company that produced the Falcon 9 rocket... 

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower of 2013 is to reach its peak at the night sky of the early morning on Thursday, January 3, only for few hours. According to NASA scientists, skywatchers can expect to see the display of 60 to 200 meteors an hour streak across the dark sky after the moon sets. “Those who brave the cold might see up to 40 meteors per hour, although moonlight will make faint... 

A former high ranking member of the British Defense Ministry has publicly predicted that humans will make alien contact in the year 2024, the same year that a revolutionary high powered telescope is projected to be completed. The Examiner reported that: “Former British Defense Ministry UFO project leader Nick Pope has boldly predicted that aliens will reveal themselves to humans no later than 2024,... 

Russia’s halting attempts to build a next generation spacecraft have received a boost after a leading constructor announced that it has completed the design of a new prototype. But seasoned space watchers await specifics before popping their corks. ­“We have finished the design of the new spaceship. We took into consideration that the new craft has to be able to travel not only to the International... 

The bright spot at the center of this large elliptical galaxy is one of the biggest black holes in the universe, which scientists recently found is even bigger than previously thought. This galaxy is in the center of the galaxy cluster PKS 0745-19, which is located about 1.3 billion light years from Earth It turns out that the largest black holes may be even bigger than scientists previously thought.... 

Iran launched its first domestically-produced satellite, Omid (Hope), via Safir (Ambassador) carrier (shown) into orbit in 2009. Head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli says the country plans to launch two indigenous satellites into orbit by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2013). “The launching of the two satellites, Fajr and Shrif Sat, by the end of the current... 

Doomsday paranoia triggers private asteroid hunt The Mayan doomsday may have passed without incident, but it’s too early to relax. Astronomers have found a large asteroid heading this way. However one private firm thinks it knows how to save us. ­Scientists from the University of Hawaii said that the 140 meter asteroid’s will just miss Earth as the orbital trajectory of the 2011 AG5 space... 

Artist’s impression: five planets orbit the star Tau Ceti, which is just 11.9 light-years from Earth. Astronomers have discovered that the closest Sun-like star, Tau Ceti, is orbited by five planets, one of which is in the “habitable range”. If its existence is confirmed, the planet could be the closest potentially life-harboring world to our own. Tau Ceti, twelve light years away, belongs... 

The image shows the final flight path for NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) mission spacecraft, which impacted the Moon on Dec. 17, 2012. NASA’s twin Grail probes have smashed themselves into a lunar mountain, ending their year-long mission of mapping lunar gravity and providing data on its composition. The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, known as Grail,... 

Iran launched its first domestically-produced satellite, Omid (Hope), via Safir (Ambassador) carrier (shown) into orbit in 2009. Head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli says the country plans to send a living organism into space on board the Pishgam (Pioneer) satellite carrier in the near future. “Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) is fully prepared to send the Pishgam satellite carrier bearing... 

Stuart Atkinson combines 55 photos taken with the rover’s MAHLI camera, which sits outstretched on the end of the arm of NASA’s Curiosity rover, October 31, 2012. NASA’s Curiosity rover has analyzed Martian soil for the first time and has found some organic chemicals essential to support life. On Monday, NASA announced the finding of the robot’s onboard chemical laboratory, which had sampled... 

Heliopause is the theoretical boundary where the Sun’s solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium Voyager 1 has reached a new part of space that connects the magnetic fields of the solar system to intergalactic space. NASA announced that it had found a new layer of space on Monday, located 11 billion miles from Earth. NASA said recordings from the space probe indicate that it has entered... 

North Korea says it will launch its second rocket this month to make up for a failed April attempt. North Korea is set to launch its second long-range rocket carrying a satellite by mid-December in a bid to make up for a failed attempt in April, official sources report. North Korea’s Korean Committee for Space Technology announced on Saturday that the country would launch its Unha-3 rocket between...