That’s right, NASA will shoot a missle at 5.5K mph into the moon tomorrow morning at 07:30 AM eastern time. A satellite will follow behind, travelling through the mushroom cloud which could plume up to 30 miles high, gathering ice and dust particles in an effort to measure the amount/quality of the moon’s potential water sources. Critics argue that NASA will violate international laws with regard to altering the form of celestial bodies as the missle will produce a new crater on the moon’s surface a third of the size of a football field.

Via NASA & Scientific American

Noone’s quite sure what it was – a comet, possibly – but some large object has plunged into Jupiter, leaving behind a scar-like blemish on its southern region. Apparently, an amateur astronomer first saw the blemish and alerted NASA which confirmed and published the story. The above image was captured just yesterday by one of NASA’s infrared telescopes in Hawaii.

Scientists analyzing soil sample tests sent back by the Phoenix Mars Lander has found that the Martian soil to be much more alkaline than previously expected, “flabergasting” scientists. This means that Martian soil, containing traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements, could support life in it’s past, present and future forms (similar to the soil in your backyard).

The location of the Phoenix touch down is believed to hold large amounts of water-ice below the surface, however scientists haven’t been able to detect organic carbon, which is an essential ingredient for life.

You can also follow the Mars Phoenix on Twitter for up to the minute news as it happens, or at least a few minutes delay as the signal reaches Earth.

Read more Via BBC News

Captured by the Cassini spacecraft, the noises you’re hearing are emissions directly from Saturn, which have been altered so humans can interpret them. Though the general patterns of the emissions remain intact, what we get is beautiful and sweeping ambient noise, which is being added to my iPhone play list right behind Eno, Canavarro and Cage. Via Tomorrowland

Listen now at NASA.gov

A lovely slideshow of the space shuttle Discovery being prepped for staging and liftoff.

Fotoausflug is a German site who collects and creates lovely photo panoramas of German cities and sights. Thankfully, they had the patience to collect over 1400 individual photos to create an interactive JAVA panorama of the surface of Mars over a 5 month period of time during the Marsian winter. The photos have been slightly enhanced, boosting contrast and the sky has been extrapolated to fill the illusion of a Marsian atmosphere (which is why there is no Sun).

See more: Interactive McMurdo Panorama

We’re back in outer space again this post, bringing you The Onion’s absolutely fucking brilliant parody of the Apollo moon landing, featuring extremely high production value and some great voice acting. Hear what the first astronauts on the moon really meant to say, all while dreaming out to a Brian Eno track.

Hit the jump to view the NSFW, not safe for kids, not safe for fuddy-duddies video…

Read more of ”What the Apollo astronauts really wanted to say when they landed on the moon“

In a new paper published on Sunday and delivered at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society a scientist is stating his theory that two NASA space probes (Vikings) may have found alien microbes on Mars 30 years ago but inadvertently killed them. The theory presented is that Voyager was looking for life forms specific to Earth-life, where salt water is the internal liquid of living cells, rather than hydrogen peroxide, a liquid which could more realistically survive the cold and dry climate of Mars. As the Viking probes performed their experiments on the Mars surface any hydrogen peroxide-based life would have been killed by experiments consisting of water poured onto the planet surface and another which heated the soil to see if something would occur, essentially baking and Martian microbes.

Read more: Scientist: NASA found life on Mars — then killed it

In celebration of the news that Hubble is getting it’s much needed upgrade after-all, we’re linking to the European Space Agency’s Hubble information page, which collects thousands of photographs taken from the Hubble Telescope in it’s over 93,000 rotations around the Earth.

See more: ESA’s top 100 photos from Hubble

The first human-spaceflight mission since the disastrous explosion of the shuttle Columbia has begun it’s 3-day countdown to launch. The astronauts prepping for mission STS-121 aboard the space shuttle Discovery are assured the ship is safe to fly it’s 32nd space flight, after year-long testing of the craft. STS-121 will spend 12-days in space, delivering new supplies and a new ESA (European Space Agency) tenant to the International Space Station, performing various in-orbit repairs, and performaning general maintenance and tests. Those interested can watch the launch online via NASA TV, Saturday, July 1st.

[NASA shuttle missions page | NASA TV]

[Update 2. Today's launch was again scrubbed due to weather. The next open-window will occur around 2:38 p.m. EDT, Tuesday, July 4. If the launch takes place on this day, it will be the first space shuttle launch performed on the U.S. Independence Day holiday.]

[Update 1. The Discovery launch has been delayed due to weather concerns around Cape Canaveral. The launch has been rescheduled for July 2nd, at 3:26pm EDT]