A NASA spacecraft has detected for the very first time matter from outside of our solar system. Researchers announced on Tuesday that this material has come from elsewhere in the galaxy.

The "interstellar material" was spotted by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a spacecraft studying the edge of the solar system from its orbit 200,000 miles above earth.

David McComas, IBEX principal investigator and assistant vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute in San Diego, said:

"This alien interstellar material is really the stuff that stars and planets and people are made of — it's really important to be measuring it."

A team of international scientists presented the new IBEX findings, which included the first detection of alien particles of hydrogen, oxygen, and neon, as well as the confirmation of previously detected helium.

NASA launched the IBEX mission in October 2008 in order to map the boundary between the solar system and interstellar space. The $169 million spacecraft was originally built for a two-year mission.

Over the weekend, Indo-Asian News Service reported that a Russian scientist had published what he says is evidence of life on the planet Venus, Earth's closest neighbor in the direction of the Sun.

Leonid Ksanfomaliti, an astronomer based at the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences, analyzed photographs taken by a Russian landing probe during a 1982 mission to explore the planet, which is covered by heavy acid clouds.

Although Venus is roughly the same size as the Earth, their similarities end there. With a surface temperature of 894 degrees, an atmospheric pressure 92 times greater than Earth's, no water, tons of volcanos, and a thick atmosphere dominated by carbon dioxide, Venus has never been a serious target of research into the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Ksanfomaliti says that the Russian photographs depict objects resembling a "disk", a "black flap" and a "scorpion." In his article, which was published in the magazine Solar System Research, Ksanfomaliti adds:

“What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus? Let’s boldly suggest that the objects’ morphological features would allow us to say that they are living.”

There is currently a faction of the web speculating that a giant, cloaked spaceship is orbiting the planet Mercury after a camera onboard NASA's STEREO spacecraft caught a wave of electronically charged material shooting out from the sun and hitting Mercury.

Theorists have looked at the images which were captured from the "coronal mass ejection" (CME) last week as suggestive of alien life in our own galaxy. Specifically, in the image, the solar flare that washes over Mercury appears to hit another object of comparable size.

Of course there is a more scientific explanation for the images. Russ Howard, a solar physicist at the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and grounds systems engineer Nathan Rich say that the mysterious object is actually Mercury itself. What we are seeing in the footage is the equivalent of Mercury's wake, "where the planet was on the previous day" as it travels through the solar system on its natural gravitational path. The two scientists explained:

Today, the Earth will have a close encounter with an astroid the size of a city block. But don't worry, it's only "close" in relation to the size of the universe; it will still be about 201,700 miles away from the planet we call home.

NASA insists that the astroid will miss the Earth. The space agency has been tracking the astroid, along with thousands of other "Near-Earth Objects", since it was first spotted six years ago. It's path is well-known.

Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California said:

"We're extremely confident, 100 percent confident, that this is not a threat. But it is an opportunity."

The 2005 YU55 astroid is a C-type astroid, which means it is rich in carbon-based molecules. It is hypothesized that billions of years ago when the solar system was new and full of debris, astroids similar to it likely crashed into the young Earth routinely, carrying with them organic, carbon-based materials, which makes life possible. Scientists would like to probe the astroid's chemical makeup, even if its only remotely.

Astronomers claim to have spotted an exotic planet that appears to be made of diamond circling around a tiny star. The newly discovered planet is far denser than any known so far and is made of largely carbon. Scientists have calculated that the carbon must be crystalline, which would mean that a large part of the planet is diamond.

Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne said:

"The evolutionary history and amazing density of the planet all suggest it is comprised of carbon -- i.e. a massive diamond orbiting a neutron star every two hours in an orbit so tight it would fit inside our own Sun."

The plane is 4,000 light years away from the Earth, and is likely the remnants of a formerly massive star that lost its outer layers to the pulsar star it orbits. Pulsar stars are small, dead neutron stars less than 12.4 miles in diameter that spin hundreds of times per second and emit beams of radiation.

Dark features on the side of Martian mountains might be evidence of salty liquid water that flows in warmer months. (NASA)

The University of Arizona operates a high-powered camera which has detected what may be water flowing seasonally on Mars. The finding was published Friday in Science journal, and is the first of its kind.

The discovery follows detections over the past 15 years of water on Mars in the form of ice and evidence of past water flows in ancient gullies. The presence of ice, and especially flowing water, could mean Mars is, or was at some time, favorable to life.

The latest images were captured from y o2007 through 2011 in the southern hemisphere, and show dark, fingerlike markings that streak the sides of steep slopes. Researchers say that the markings could be evidence of salty water that appears in late spring, disappears during winter and reappears when the weather warms. Additional research is needed to prove the water theory, said the paper's lead author, Alfred McEwen. He added:

"We have this circumstantial evidence for water flowing on Mars. We have no direct detection of water."

The camera is aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the planet since 2006.

NASA observed an unusual solar flare on Tuesday which could cause some disruptions to satellite communications and power on earth over the course of the next day or so. According to the National Weather Service, he solar flare unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level that hasn't been seen since 2006 and is likely to lead to moderate geomagnetic storm activity today.

Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the NWS's Space Weather Prediction Center, described the M-2 solar flare:

"This one was rather dramatic. We saw the initial flare occurring and it wasn't that big but then the eruption associated with it -- we got energy particle radiation flowing in and we got a big coronal mass injection. You can see all the materials blasting up from the sun so it is quite fantastic to look at."

The flare peaked at 1:41am ET in the U.S. (0541 GMT).

NASA's solar dynamics observatory provided high-definition pictures and video of the solar flare, and described it as "visually spectacular." However, NASA noted that since the eruption was not pointed directly at Earth, the effects were expected to remain "fairly small."

Scientists say that they have discovered a planet 20 light years way that would be the first outside of our solar system to be deemed habitable. The exoplanet Gliese 581d has conditions which could support Earth-like life, including potentially watery oceans and rainfall.

If the inhabitants of Earth were ever actually able to reach this distant plant, however, they would find a much different world than what they know. The sky is likely to be a murky red, instead of Earth's brilliant blue, and gravity is twice what is on Earth, which would double the weight of anyone standing on the planet's surface. The planet's carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere would also not be breathable by humans.

Scientists themselves were surprised by the discovery as Gliese 581d had previously been ruled out as a habitable planet candidate. New computer models capable of simulating extraterrestrial climates has shown that assumption to be wrong, and confirmed that Gliese 581d could support life.

Researchers believe that this finding could lead the way to additional discoveries of places that could support life outside of our solar system.

Dr Robin Wordsworth, a member of the French team from the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris, said:

If your power unexpectedly goes out today, blame it on the Sun. A powerful solar flare exploded over the sun on Monday, and today we might all be feeling its effects.

The particles that were released from the eruption on the sun four days ago has begun hitting Earth's atmosphere. National Geographic reports that its biggest effects are expected to be felt over the next 24 hours.

The flares are the biggest seen in four years, and have already begun affecting life on Earth. It's already being blamed for disrupting radio communication China, and it may trigger blackouts around the world.

Physicist Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, said that the sun's "explosive reconnections" release huge amounts of energy as heat, measuring about 35 million degrees Fahrenheit. He said that it will not hit us "dead-on", but strong activity is expected in the form of auroras.

Auroras are the southern and northern lights that occur when atoms above Earth gain energy from solar charged particles and then release it as light.

This coming Tuesday, the sun and moon with both appear at their darkest as the winter solstice and lunar eclipse occur at the same time for the first time in 456 years. Those in North America will be particularly well positioned to see the lunar eclipse, according to NASA.

A lunar eclipse is a bi-annual event which occurs when the earth blocks the sun's rays from hitting the moon. But, this is the first time in 35 months that a total lunar eclipse has been seen and is said to be the "best lunar show" until 2014.

The eclipse will begin at 1:33 am and last until 5:01 am EST, however the actual eclipse portion will last just 72 minutes, between 2:41 am and 3:53 am. During this time the full moon may appear a bright red or blood orange color.

The winter solstice, the "darkest day of the year", also occurs on Tuesday. The Earth's axial tilt moves the planet farthest from the sun, and the day is shorter.