August 28, 2007 CHARM Telecon

NASA is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars, and perhaps lead to more sustainable ways of living on Earth as well.

Recently, A NASA scientist analyzed the age of the Yarrabubba meteor crater in Australia and found it to be 2.229 billion years old, making it now the oldest crater currently known.

Members of the public have an opportunity to vote for their favorite name for NASA's next Mars rover. More than 28,000 essays were submitted after the contest began on Aug. 28 last year.

Engineers did not have exoplanet science in mind when they designed the Spitzer Space Telescope in the 1990s, but thanks solid engineering, Spitzer’s observational powers were used far beyond original expectations.

An emerging idea, bolstered by three decades of science, is that there are "Goldilocks stars" — not too hot, not too cool, and above all, not too violent to host life-friendly planets.

One of NASA's four Great Observatories, Spitzer launched on Aug. 25, 2003, and has studied the cosmos in infrared light. Its breathtaking images have revealed the beauty of the infrared universe.