Vote Now! Best Space Stories of the Week - Aug. 11, 2013

Pink Alien Planet, Curiosity Rover Celebrates One Year on Mars & More

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger

Last week schoolgirls built a homemade, drivable Mars rover, the smallest exoplanet around a sun-like star was photographed and NASA's Curiosity Rover celebrated one year on Mars. See the top stories of the last week here.

FIRST STOP: NASA's Curiosity Rover Celebrates One Year on Mars

NASA's Curiosity Rover Celebrates One Year on Mars

NASA/JPL/MSSS/Marco Di Lorenzo/Ken Kremer

A look back at Curiosity’s first year on the Red Planet, and what may lie ahead. [Full Story]

NEXT: Promising Perseid Meteor Shower Will Peak Soon

Promising Perseid Meteor Shower Will Peak Soon

Jeff Berkes

The most famous of all the annual meteor displays reaches its peak on the night of Aug. 11-12. It's a good year to watch for these swift streaks of light after an almost first quarter moon sets in the west before midnight. [Full Story]

NEXT: Pink Alien Planet Is Smallest Photographed Around Sun-Like Star

Pink Alien Planet Is Smallest Photographed Around Sun-Like Star

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger

Astronomers have snapped a photo of a pink alien world that's the smallest yet exoplanet found around a star like our sun. The alien planet GJ 504b is a colder and bluer world than astronomers had anticipated and it likely has a dark magenta hue, infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii revealed. [Full Story]

NEXT: Schoolgirls Build Homemade Mars Rover You Can Drive

Schoolgirls Build Homemade Mars Rover You Can Drive

Beatty Robotics

Two girls in North Carolina have proven that age is no obstacle to building a Mars rover. From their garage at home, Camille Beatty, 13, and her sister Genevieve, 11, built a functioning robot modeled after NASA's now-deceased Spirit rover. [Full Story]

NEXT: What Is the 'Hyperloop'? Billionaire Elon Musk to Reveal Futuristic Transportation Idea Monday

What Is the 'Hyperloop'? Billionaire Elon Musk to Reveal Futuristic Transportation Idea Monday

SpaceX

The fevered speculation about billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's mysterious "Hyperloop" transport system is about to come to an end. [Full Story]

NEXT: 3D Printer Bound for Space Station Passes Key Test

3D Printer Bound for Space Station Passes Key Test

Made in Space

A 3D printer has notched an important milestone on the way toward its planned launch to the International Space Station next year. [Full Story]

NEXT: Space Station Science: Could Humanity Really Build 'Elysium'?

Space Station Science: Could Humanity Really Build 'Elysium'?

Columbia TriStar Marketing Group

The science behind the space station Elysium in the new movie of the same name set for release Friday (Aug. 9) is the most true-to-life that one former NASA employee has ever seen. [Full Story]

NEXT: One-Way Mars Trip: Aspiring Martian Colonists Land In Washington

One-Way Mars Trip: Aspiring Martian Colonists Land In Washington

Mars One/Bryan Versteeg

A group of volunteers hoping to become the first human Martians congregated in one spot for the first time Saturday (Aug. 3) to discuss their hopes to join the Mars One mission, a project to send colonists on a one-way trip to the Red Planet. [Full Story]

NEXT: Barbie On Mars: Why Iconic Doll Launched on Cosmic New Career

Barbie On Mars: Why Iconic Doll Launched on Cosmic New Career

Mattel

Mars, meet Barbie. A new deep space flying doll from Mattel called the "Mars Explorer Barbie" was released today (Aug. 5), just in time for the one-year anniversary of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity's stint on the surface of the Red Planet. [Full Story]

NEXT: Our 10 Favorite Sci-Fi Space Stations of All Time

Our 10 Favorite Sci-Fi Space Stations of All Time

NASA.

The staff at SPACE.com counts down their favorite space stations in science fiction history. [Full Story]

NEXT: Sun Will Flip Its Magnetic Field Soon

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Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.