The Curiosity Rover tried out a new feature yesterday when it successfully tested out an automatic navigation system that let it decide for itself how to safely drive on Mars. Curiosity doesn't seem old enough to drive, but I guess it's ruled by Martian law at this point.

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It's the one-year anniversary of the Curiosity Rover landing on the surface of Mars. That's one Earth year, by the way. Watch the JPL present a special program to celebrate, and ask questions via Twitter with the hashtag #AskNASA. There's programming all day, and you can watch it live right here!

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I've seen this story popping up a few places, and it's been getting on my nerves. What you see in that picture is not some kind of Martian rat or lizard. It is a rock. It's not even a rock that looks that much like a rat or a lizard. Our brains are wired for us to recognize familiar shapes and see faces. That's all this is.

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A very large asteroid will pass very close to the Earth on Friday, but it's nothing to worry about. It's only close in astronomical terms, and poses no threat to our planet. So what's all the fuss about? The asteroid, dubbed 1998 QE2, will be a prime target for radar telescopes to study. Those of us with non-radar telescopes might be lucky enough to catch a dim glimpse.

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The Internet's been blowing up over the news that the Voyager 1 spacecraft was the first man-made object to leave our solar system, except that it's not true. NASA and the JPL have announced that, though they're aware of the paper that everyone's talking about, they're not buying it. The official Voyager team says that although it's on the outer edges, Voyager 1 hasn't yet broken out into interstellar space. So calm down. It hasn't happened yet -- but it will eventually.

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The Mars Curiosity Rover has had some computer problems over the last few weeks that have seen it in and out of safe mode and switched from A-side to B-side computers and back. At last report, the rover was back in safe mode after another software glitch. The latest round of computer problems didn't last long though, and the rover's Twitter account announced it is back in action with it's systems up and running.

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This newly released panoramic image of Mount Sharp located in Mars' Gale Crater can provide valuable information to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for further aspects of the Curiosity Rover Mission, but it also kind of looks like Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine from Star Wars, so let's just focus on that.

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Today NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced the findings collected by the Mars Curiosity Rover after it analyzed a sample it drilled from a Martian rock, and the news is some of the most exciting yet to come out of the Curiosity mission. The data shows that Mars once had conditions capable of supporting microbial life.

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This afternoon NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be hosting a live teleconference to update everyone on how the Mars Curiosity rover is doing. It seems like things are going well. Earlier today the team behind the rover confirmed that Curiosity collected the first ever sample from the interior of a Martian rock. The teleconference will start at 3pm ET, and we have the live feed right here for your convenience.

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The real Curiosity rover may be millions of miles away on the surface of Mars, but that won't stop NASA from sending in a look-alike to march in today's Inauguration Parade to ring in President Barack Obama's second term. Curiosity just tweeted this picture of its twin getting ready to join the festivities.

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We're not going to lie -- sometimes, it occurs to us that we only ever wanted to be scientists because of all the neat toys they get to play with. That probably has something to do with why we didn't end up becoming scientists. Well, that and our inability to perform any but the most basic mathematical operations. We do still want to play with researcher's toys, though -- especially things like this gizmo at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that simulates the hot, high-pressure conditions found in undersea hydrothermal vents in an effort to find out if those vents could have acted as incubators for the amino acids that many think were the first crude steps toward life on Earth.

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A new image taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows us that a little lighting goes a long way. The new picture of Saturn was taken in the planet's shadow, using the Sun as a back light for the solar system's third largest body. If NASA images were a Playboy magazine, this would be the centerfold. Turn-ons: Rings, moons, and hydrogen. Turn-offs: Short orbital periods, Pluto.

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In 2010, which is about three millennia ago on the Internet, NASA's Cassini Probe found perhaps the most important and relevant scientific discovery in the history of humanity: The heat signature of one of Saturn's moons, Mimas, looked just like Pac-Man. Today, we can all pay attention to what is clearly the most important things that will be said today, which is that another moon of Saturn, Tethys, has a similar heat signature. There's no word yet on whether this moon is a Ms. Pac-Man moon or not, but obviously we'll stay with this one all night if we have to.

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NASA was teasing some big news about black holes yesterday, and this afternoon, we know what that is. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) space telescope has found millions of black holes dotting the universe, as well as more than 1,000 of the brightest galaxies ever observed, which have gone unobserved until now because they are shrouded with dust that has hidden them from view. This despite the galaxies in question being as much as 100 trillion times brighter than our Sun.

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Despite being called the "Red Planet," new video from NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows that from the surface of Mars, the Sun takes on a blue color, ironically because of all the red dust in the atmosphere. "...[T]he red wavelengths are filtered out of the direct path of light from the sun, leaving light towards the bluish end of the color spectrum." And that gives a very serene way to say good-night. (via io9)

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