Astronomers have confirmed the existence of a new class of planet – a waterworld with a thick, steamy atmosphere.

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Distant ‘waterworld’ is confirmed

Russia’s failed Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, is likely to fall back to Earth this Sunday, to be torn apart high in the atmosphere.

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Russian space probe heading down

What went up is going to come down — and soon. A failed Russian Mars probe stranded above the Earth since November will plunge to its doom this weekend, likely on Sunday. Experts expect the 11 tons of fuel on board to explode high in the atmosphere as friction eats through the craft’s aluminum tanks. Read full article > >

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Incoming space junk: Failed Russian Mars probe expected to crash this weekend

Lecture series in New York bars and clubs blend the spirit of a seminar room with the atmosphere of speed dating.

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Secret Science Club, Nerd Nite and Other Barroom Education

Concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to yet another high in 2010, according to the UN’s weather agency.

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No let up in greenhouse gas rise

If space engineers cannot save it, the probe, which is loaded with toxic fuel, could re-enter the atmosphere within days or weeks.

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Russia Fights to Save Mars Probe After Launch Mishap

BERLIN — Scientists were trying to establish how and where a defunct German research satellite returned to the Earth Sunday, after warning that some parts might survive re-entry and crash at up to 280 mph (450 kph). There was no immediate solid evidence to determine above which continent or country the ROSAT scientific research satellite entered the atmosphere, said Andreas Schuetz, spokesman for the German Aerospace Center. Read full article > >

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Scientists try to determine fate of German satellite that returned to Earth

NIZHNY TAGIL, Russia — In far-off Moscow, the authorities are fond of suggesting that only a spoiled elite in the capital carp about eroding freedoms, controlled elections and a gloom they compare to the later days of the Soviet Union. “There are people who think that the atmosphere in the country is suffocating,” Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Prime Minister Vladi­mir Putin, told television interviewers last week, “while others want three percentage points off their taxes to get their farm going.” Read full article > >

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Russian political life far from Putin and Kremlin

Trees, natural carbon sponges, help keep heat-trapping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. But insect and human threats are taking a heavy toll on them.

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Temperature Rising: With Deaths of Forests, a Loss of Crucial Climate Protectors

Scientists say that there has been a mysterious decline in the growth of methane in the atmosphere in the last decades of the 20th Century.

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New theories over methane puzzle

Q: Why was this week so crazy? A: Surely it began with the Tim Pawlenty campaign. The raw excitement he injected into the atmosphere was like a volcano! Q: What? Read full article > >

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Sarah Palin’s movie run, Urban Outfitters, and the Boring Lava field: a Q&A

Scientists simulate the atmosphere of an exoplanet 20 light-years away, suggesting it could host liquid water, clouds and rainfall – and possibly life.

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Murky exoplanet ‘could host life’

Two students have recorded video of the Earth from high in the atmosphere using homemade equipment.

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‘Shoebox-Cam’ shows earth from on high

As a UK travel agent brings holiday-makers back to to the UK, an ex-pat Brit living in Monastir describes the atmosphere.

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Expat: ‘We’re not a target in Tunisia’

The European project to develop a space plane to take fare-paying passengers above the atmosphere is still very much alive, says EADS Astrium.

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Space tourism jet work continues