Outer space

China is on track to launch its first Mars probe around 2020, and plans call for retrieving soil and rock samples from the red planet before 2030, said Zhang Rongqiao, the mission's chief designer, China Daily reports. 

There are many Greeks who are distinguishing themselves abroad in their professional fields. One of them is Athena Coustenis, the Director of Research 1st class with the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Observatory of Paris-Meudon, in France.

40 years ago today a Bulgarian song launched into space on NASA's Voyager 1.

The Golden Record, including "Izleel e Delyo Haidutin" performed by Valya Balkanska, is still traveling through space. Valya was 35 years old when her voice took off for the stars. Today, the singer from the Rhodope Mountains is 75.

Happy 40th anniversary, Voyager 1!

The Soyuz MS-04 deployable three-member crew of the International Space Station landed today in Kazakhstan, the Coroley Flight Management Center, Podoskowie reported.

Mysterious signals detected in a distant galaxy by astronomers working for Stephen Hawking’s project to find alien life have sparked a debate over whether they could be from UFOs.

NASA is planning to make oxygen from the atmosphere on Mars when its next robot arrives on the mysterious red planet in 2020, writes The Independent. 

Scientists will send microbial life - possibly algae or bacteria - on the 2020 Rover mission in a bid to create air fit for human consumption.

A massive asteroid estimated to be 2.7 miles wide is set to make a ‘relatively close encounter’ with Earth on September 1.
Dubbed ‘Florence,’ the huge space rock will pass just 4.4 million miles from our planet – or, about 18 times the distance between Earth and the moon.

Russian cosmonaut of Greek descent Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin Grammatikopoulos will make a six-hour walk outside the ISS space station where he has been since April.

NASA TV will broadcast live the cosmonaut’s trip. The broadcast is schedule to start at 17:00 (Athens time) on Thursday 17 August.

Two planets that orbit around a star like our own sun could support life, according to new research, reported The Independent.

Two potentially habitable “super-Earths” orbit a star just 12 light years away that is our nearest sun-like neighbour, scientists have discovered.

The worlds at the edges of Tau Ceti’s “habitable zone” belong to a solar system of four rocky planets similar in size to Earth.