NASA

Paintballs may deflect an incoming asteroidWith 20 years’ notice, paint pellets could cause an asteroid to veer off course.

MIT alums recount their Martian experiencesSeveral AeroAstro alumni return to campus to describe landing the Curiosity rover on Mars.

Department snapshot: Aeronautics and AstronauticsAeroAstro takes off in new directions — prompting a 50 percent spike in new undergraduate enrollments.

NASA-JPL director Charles Elachi talks about latest Mars missionCuriosity is the most ambitious planetary rover mission ever, but it’s just one of the many exploratory projects JPL is undertaking.

Lincoln Laboratory-discovered asteroid needs a new nameNASA, in partnership with the lab and others, opens naming content to students.

River networks on Titan point to a puzzling geologic historyFindings suggest the surface of Saturn’s largest moon may have undergone a recent transformation.

Said and Done for June/July 2012Digest of MIT humanities, arts and social sciences

Explained: Near-miss asteroidsWhat to do in the event of an asteroid streaking toward Earth? Activate the asteroid ‘fire drill.’

Newfound exoplanet may turn to dustA planet’s dust cloud may explain strange patterns of light from its star.

First light from a super-Earth spottedDetection reveals a searing planet.

A close-up view of MercuryResearchers find the planet may have had a dynamic past.

X-ray monitoring mission comes to an endThe RXTE satellite retires after 16 years.

Mysterious electron acceleration explainedComputer simulation identifies source of aurora-causing high-speed electrons in space

What drove the lunar dynamo?Research supports theory that the moon’s molten core was likely sustained by an alternative power source.

Robots go head to head, 250 miles above EarthThird annual Zero Robotics competition pits robots against each other on the International Space Station.

Two new Earth-sized exoplanets discoveredSome 950 light-years away, team finds smallest exoplanets yet detected.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory researchers receive NASA awardHonored for their role in the Near Earth Object Observation Program

Battered asteroid may have warm coreNew analysis of Lutetia finds evidence for molten interior.

3 Questions: Greg Chamitoff on the final frontierAlum-astronaut relives some of the highlights of his space shuttle career.

MIT’s TESS project awarded $1 million NASA grant

To the moonMIT-led GRAIL mission to map the lunar gravitational field.

To an asteroid, and backMIT students to build imaging instrument to fly aboard mission to an asteroid.

Helping space shuttles achieve liftoffMIT has contributed 27 alumni-astronauts, plenty of earthbound expertise.

3 Questions: Richard Binzel on near-Earth asteroids'2011 MD,' found by a Lincoln Lab team, will pass close to the planet on Monday.

Greetings from spaceAstronaut alumni wish MIT a happy 150th from 200 miles above.

Doc Draper in spaceA letter written by Charles Stark Draper in 1961 hitches a ride on Space Shuttle Endeavour.