We've heard of vehicles and wills colliding, but there are other things way out there that come into contact with each other - galaxies, for instance. The phenomenon in NGC 3256 is one good example of that. If you want to see a photograph of it, turn to the full article after the jump.

Before, scientists have held the belief that we'll need to send a lander to dig on the surface of other celestial bodies to figure out what their subsurfaces are composed of. Recently though, they figured out a way for explorers to retrieve this information without even having to land. Details after the "read more" link below.

Humans are making large developments toward the realization of their outer space dreams. There is one thing that stands in the way, however: cosmic rays. Created from many elements including hydrogen and uranium, there's a possibility that cosmic rays may pose a great health risk to astronauts. More in the full article.

The Venus Express exploration mission of European Space Agency continues to provide all of us with eerie findings on the Earth-like activities the second planet from the sun still possesses, four and a half billion years after it was ravaged by greenhouse effect.

According to the latest findings, lightning still flashes in Venus' atmosphere as remnants of its ocean continue to be whirled around the planet and are sometimes thrown out in space. More on this after the jump!

Data gleaned from satellite Metop revealed that the ozone hole over Antarctica was twice as big as Europe at its worst. This observation was made in late September. Scientists who analyzed data from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) on board Metop said that some unusual meteorological conditions this year caused the extensive thinning of the ozone layer.

Europe's Metop is one of three identical weather and climate observer spacecrafts that will be flying in a polar orbit over the next few years to gather data. This is a joint project between Eumetsat and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Metop's newest observation - though significant and alarming - pales in comparison to last year's recorded size of the Arctic ozone hole. Last year's hole was said to have been twice the size of North America. Even with the Montreal Protocol which places an international ban on substances responsible for ozone depletion, scientists still find ozone thinning over different regions such as the South Atlantic, South America, and Australia. Because of these recent findings, almost 200 governments have agreed to speed up the timetable on phasing out chemicals that have negative effects on the ozone layer.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has plans to launch Automated Transfer Vehicles or ATVs to the International Space Station. These vehicles will bring supplies to the station such as food, water and fuel as well as equipment and additional experiments.

The first one of these ATVs is named Jules Verne. The other day, the ATV finally began the journey to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana after a thorough final testing at the European Space and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Jules Verne is expected to launch around early 2008. Aside from the above-mentioned supplies, Jules Verne will also be carrying an MP3 player for the space station crew loaded by songs from the winner of a recent ESA contest.

The ATV is not just a normal transport vehicle, too. It's also capable of boosting the space station's orbit through its engines. When it leaves the International Space Station six months after, it will be carrying a cargo of waste and will finally burn up in the atmosphere.

It's not that all those probes and rovers have been looking in the wrong place. The polar ice caps aren't part of the search range for signs of Martian water ('cause, doi, they're ice caps). But recent estimates by scientists from a joint-NASA Italian Space Agency experiment show that there's even more water than previously thought.

There's more ice down south than previously thought. Enough to cover Mars with a layer of water approximately 11 meters/36 feet deep. Hope you guys brought some swim bladders.

Says Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Jeffrey Plaut, "The south polar layered deposits of Mars cover an area bigger than Texas. The amount of water they contain has been estimated before, but never with the level of confidence this radar makes possible." These calculations were conducted with readings off the European Space Agency's Mars Express' radar system, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS).

This discovery is part of the research into the geological (and potential biological) history of the Red Planet, however. Along with those aquifers and the occasional breakout of Martian acne water, researchers try to discover if Mars had ever supported life in the past - and how all that water ultimately retreated underground and to the poles.

On February 25, yet another landmark Mars mission operation was achieved. The ESA">European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta probe finally completed what was deemed to be a "key maneuver" in its 10-year mission to land on a distant comet. This "swing-by" is the second of four gravity-assisted moves before finally settling on its target in 2014.

And this momentuous event has got some really cool pictures to show for. Using the Rosetta's Optical Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS), they were able to capture spectacular images of Mars in the so-called "pre-close-approach phase."

Back to the sling shot mission (cos the images are just here for your viewing pleasure, anyway), in order to successfully reach the distant comet, Rosetta must gain the perfect speed and reach the perfect trajectory, "accelerated and assisted by the four swing-bys which use the gravitational pull of planets as a boost."

2007 and 2009 will see the other two sling shot trips around Earth before Rosetta can finally reach its destination.

Images courtesy of ESA News.

  

Before Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott braved the harsh environment of the South Pole, it pretty much equated to one of those areas on old maps where the only description is, "Here Be Dragons."

A recent article from NASA reveals that the situation on the sun is much the same today. According to solar physicist Arik Posner of NASA headquarters, "The sun's south pole is uncharted territory." It can barely be seen from Earth, and most of NASA's sun-studying aircraft have a poor view of it. Except for Ulysses, that is, and today the spacecraft is making a rare South Pole flyby.

"On February 7th, the spacecraft reaches a maximum heliographic latitude of 80oS—almost directly above the South Pole," says Posner who is the Ulysses Program Scientist for NASA. The spacecraft, a joint mission of NASA and the European Space Agency, has flown briefly over the sun's poles only twice before--in 1994-95 and 2000-01.

Ulysses's south pole flyby will attempt to bring solar physicists closer to solving the following mysteries:

• The sun's north magnetic north pole sticks out the south end of the sun. Magnetically, the sun is upside down. The Earth actually has the same situation. On the sun, the flipping happens every 11 years on the sun in synch with the sunspot cycle. On Earth, it happens every 300,000 years or so, but scientists have no idea yet what the flipping is in synch with. They that studying the sun's polar magnetic field will lead to a better understanding of the Earth's own magnetic field.
  

• There are holes over the sun's poles--"coronal holes." These are places where the sun's magnetic field opens up and allows solar wind to escape. "Flying over the sun's poles, you get slapped in the face by a hot, million mph stream of protons and electrons," says Posner. Ulysses is experiencing and studying this polar wind right now.
  

• There is evidence from earlier flybys that the north pole and the south pole of the sun have different temperatures. "We're not sure why this should be," says Posner, "and we're anxious to learn if it is still the case." Ulysses will also be flying over the sun's north pole in early 2008 for a direct comparison of the sun's two poles.

NASA's Science Mission Directorate dedicates its efforts during the Ulysses' South Pole flyby to Ronald Amundsen, Robert F. Scott and Richard E. Byrd - brave explorers who dared to defy nature and the elements and learn more about the South Pole. Much like Scott, whose entire team - including him - never made it home again after reaching the South Pole, Ulysses will never come home either. It will remain in space when its internal power sources fail.

This just goes to show that no matter how high and mighty we view astronauts, at the end of the day, they are human too. This image was taken from NASA and yup, it is the inside of the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, Thomas Reiter (who'll be heading home soon), is going about with his work. Seems like a pretty ordinary picture, right?

So what do you do for fun while you're in space? You could listen to your favorite music tracks. This photo is getting popular over at Digg because of a fifth generation iPod sighting. The Apple creation is neatly attached to a Belkin external battery pack on the equipment rack in front of Thomas Reiter. (Reminds me of a scene in the movie Apollo 13 wherein Lovell and his crew brought a transistor radio on board, times have really changed).

Heck if I get sent to space, I would bring my mp3 player too. And a couple of other gaming thingamajigs of course.