Space News Archive - February 21, 2007

It's a mystery even for researchers at the Smithsonian Institution: What happened to the huge crowds at the National Air and Space Museum?

The heart of ESA's infrared space telescope, Herschel, has successfully completed a vital round of tests. The cylindrical cryostat will now be loaded with the spacecraft's instruments before more tests and Herschel’s eventual launch in 2008.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured for the first time enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to identify signatures of molecules in their atmospheres.