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Countless Sci-Fi fans vividly remember the famous scene in Star Wars in which the Death Star obliterates the planet Alderaan.

How three college grads worked in a basement and lived off of ramen as they built "the best and brightest social media agency on the planet." [twistage 3322f1af891b4] Mike Germano met Chris Petescia in high school, and then Bobby Gaafar in college.

Happy New Year! And don’t feel bad about taking today off. After all, you’ve traveled far.

Comparison of "habitable zone" of Kepler 22 system and our solar system (NASA/Kepler) Today sees the announcement that one of the “candidate” planets listed from NASA’s Kepler mission back in February is now confirmed, and it’s a key one. At 2.4 times the diameter of the Earth the planet Kepler 22-b also orbits its parent star (which is a slightly less massive G-dwarf star than the Sun and 25% less luminous) in 290 Earth-days, which places it within the nominal “ habitable zone “. This system is about 600 light years from us.

What lies beneath such turbulent skies? (NASA/JPL) Gas giant planets are among the most beautiful and awe-inspiring worlds

Nearly one metric ton of hardware will land on Mars in about nine months' time, uncurl its limbs, and start rolling around in the name of science. Designing something like Curiosity isn't easy. Around August 6, 2012, a spacecraft will reach Mars' surface after a nine-month journey from Earth

When Mars orbiters decades ago spotted valleys and other fluvial landforms on the surface of the Red Planet, a tantalizing idea came to the fore. Perhaps, planetary scientists ventured, ancient Mars was blanketed by a thick atmosphere that kept the planet much warmer and wetter than it is now, with flowing water, lakes and maybe even an ocean covering at least part of its surface. And if Mars had water some three billion to four billion years ago, they wondered, why not life?

This month NASA plans to launch its latest and most sophisticated mission ever to the Red Planet: the Mars Science Laboratory. After a dramatic landing in Gale Crater using a skycrane for the final descent, the nuclear-powered rover will drive around one of the richest deposits of clays and sulfates on the planet--the remains of a water-rich era when rivers carved out valley networks. The size of a small car, the rover (named Curiosity) will spend a Martian year exploring the base of the central peak in the crater, thought to be the oldest section

UNITED NATIONS -- Out of a crowded field of dire predictions regarding humanity having reached 7 billion in population came a U.N. report this week that called the moment an opportunity to stress sustainability and improve lives in less-developed nations

Can the planet handle more than 7 billion humans? [More]

To become a world bathed in oceans of water and habitable, Earth first had to take a beating. A popular hypothesis holds that icy comets and asteroids pummeling early Earth delivered the planet's water from the icy outer reaches of the solar system.

Pluto Might Be the Largest Dwarf Planet, After All For years Pluto has appeared to rank behind its fellow dwarf planet Eris in terms of diameter. New data, however, have cut Eris down to size [More]

NEW YORK -- What would the world look like with 7 billion human beings in the mix, vying for resources? Pretty much what it looks like now. That's because the planet is about to pass the 7 billion mark any day now.

I owe this 60-Second Earth gig to Steve Jobs. Without the iPod there's no podcast. But our collective lust for iPod-like gadgets has some outsized impacts on the planet

Using one of the most sensitive neutrino detectors on the planet, an international team including physicists Laura Cadonati and Andrea Pocar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are now measuring the flow of solar neutrinos reaching earth more precisely than ever before. The detector probes matter at the most fundamental level and provides a powerful tool for directly observing the sun's composition.