This week we hatched conspiracy theories in "Apollo 18", looked into commercial space travel and caught a black hole swallowing another. Vote for your top space story of the week:
Two giant black holes inside a spiral galaxy may reveal telltale clues on how the galaxy formed, a new study finds. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12790-monster-black-hole-cannibal-galaxy-collisions.html">Full Story</a>]
The discovery of a star with an extremely primitive composition may help astronomers understand what conditions were like in the early universe and how they affected star formation. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12788-impossible-star-defies-theory.html">Full Story</a>]
Developing the capability to launch human missions to asteroids would aid humanity's ability to foil a potentially devastating asteroid strike and help spur our march to Mars, a new report finds. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12782-asteroid-missions-astronauts-humanity-survival.html">Full Story</a>]
Ten space agencies met this week to help draw up plans for a coordinated effort to get humanity to Mars. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12795-mars-missions-roadmap-human-space-exploration.html">Full Story</a>]
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has found another spot where warm water may have flowed or percolated on the Red Planet long ago, researchers announced Thursday (Sept. 1). [<a href="http://www.space.com/12812-mars-opportunity-rover-crater-water-hotspot.html">Full Story</a>]
A new independent report evaluates whether NASA has strong enough programs in place to meet the threat of space junk in orbit around Earth. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12801-space-junk-threat-orbital-debris-report.html">Full Story</a>]
he crash of Russia's Progress 44 supply spacecraft highlights the need for private American vessels that can take astronauts to space, experts say. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12805-russian-rocket-crash-private-spaceflight-nasa.html">Full Story</a>]
In an exclusive SPACE.com interview, Spaceport America's newly appointed executive director Christine Anderson discusses clearly the challenges of pushing the nascent New Mexico spaceport into reality. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12810-spaceport-america-construction-commercial-space-travel.html">Full Story</a>]
Apologies to anyone whose bubble will burst, but "Apollo 18," the film that opened Friday (Sept. 2), is fictional.[<a href="http://www.space.com/12813-apollo18-film-fiction-nasa-conspiracy-theory.html">Full Story</a>]
Blue Origin, the private entrepreneurial space group backed by Amazon.com mogul Jeff Bezos, has reported a failure in its suborbital rocket development plans. [<a href="http://www.space.com/12824-blue-origin-private-spaceship-rocket-failure.html">Full Story</a>]
