Twin NASA spacecraft that achieved orbit around the moon New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have new names, thanks to elementary students in Bozeman, Mont. Their winning entry, "Ebb and Flow," was selected as part of a nationwide school contest that began in October 2011.

NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT, on Thursday Aug. 25, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.

A new NASA mission named GRAIL aims to map the moon's quirky gravity field and thus pave the way for future exploration.

Sulfur dioxide (SO2) may have played a key role in the climate and geochemistry of early Mars, geoscientists suggest. Their hypothesis may resolve longstanding questions about evidence that the climate of the Red Planet was once much warmer than it is today.

By Kenneth Chang The moon is slightly squashed, as if someone had held it at the poles between thumb and forefinger and squeezed, flattening it around its equatorial midsection. That is not surprising.