Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have made the first direct detection of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting a star outside our solar system and have obtained the first information about its chemical composition.

Former heavyweight boxing champion and dog-sled driver Peter Wyllie is adding a new accomplishment to his list of achievements—he has received the highest United States award in mineralogy. Wyllie, now a professor of geology, emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology, is the 2001 recipient of the Mineralogical Society of America's Roebling Medal, which is awarded for "scientific eminence as represented primarily by scientific publication of outstanding original research in mineralogy." The only other Caltech faculty member to receive this medal was Linus Pauling in 1967.

Though the dinosaurs fared poorly in the comet or meteor impact that destroyed two-thirds of all living species 65 million years ago, new evidence shows that various other forms of life rebounded from the catastrophe in a remarkably short period of time.

PASADENA, Ca.— "One hopes that students are being taught to think and not just grind through lots of homework," says Caltech's David Stevenson about the importance of teaching. In recognition of his passion for undergraduate education, Stevenson has been awarded this year's Richard P. Feynman Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

In a study that strengthens the likelihood that solar systems like our own are still being formed, an international team of scientists is reporting today that three young stars in the sun's neighborhood have the raw materials necessary for the formation of Jupiter-sized planets.

According to one version of the "panspermia" theory, life on Earth could originally have arrived here by way of meteorites from Mars, where conditions early in the history of the solar system are thought to have been more favorable for the creation of life from nonliving ingredients.

Researchers using the testbed interferometer at Palomar Observatory have achieved the best-ever distance measurement to a type of star known as a Cepheid variable. The new results improve the "cosmic yardstick" used to infer the size and age of the universe.

Caltech receives a $1 million grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Science Program.

PASADENA—Earth was well on its way to having two Antarcticas long ago, but a tectonic separation between the eastern and western portions of the continent suddenly stopped after 17 million years of spreading, researchers say.

PASADENA—When planetary scientists first saw evidence of a water ocean beneath the frozen surface of Europa, everyone immediately began pondering the likelihood that the Jovian moon could harbor advanced life forms—perhaps even fishlike creatures.

But last summer a group of planetary scientists from the California Institute of Technology and Jet Propulsion Laboratory threw water on the theory—so to speak—when they took a novel approach and concluded that advanced life forms were not likely.