When he was a kid, Jim Bell loved to look at rockets and astronauts through his 3-D Viewmaster toy. He grew up to become a planetary scientist at Cornell University rather than a toymaker - but he still revels in 3-D space scenes, as the leader of the panoramic camera imaging team for NASA's Mars rover missions. Following up on his previous picture book, "Postcards From Mars," Bell offers more than 60 of his all-time favorite stereo images from the rovers in "Mars 3-D," a weirdly wonderful volume that comes with built-in geek glasses.

American entrepreneur Jim Benson, founder of the aerospace firm SpaceDev that helped build the rocket engine that launched the world's first privately-built manned spaceship into suborbital space, died early Friday of a brain tumor, the company announced today. Benson died in his sleep from a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor, which he was diagnosed with last year, SpaceDev officials said. He was 63. "Jim was a true visionary," said Mark Sirangelo, SpaceDev's CEO and Chairman of the Board. "He saw that space exploration could be more effective if done commercially, and formed SpaceDev to make that dream become a reality." Benson founded the Poway, Calif.-based SpaceDev in 1997 after 30 years working in the computer industry.

Why is Mars two-faced? Scientists say fresh evidence supports the theory that a monster impact punched the red planet, leaving behind perhaps the largest gash on any heavenly body in the solar system. Today, the Martian surface has a split personality. The southern hemisphere of Mars is pockmarked and filled with ancient rugged highlands. By contrast, the northern hemisphere is smoother and covered by low-lying plains. Three papers in Thursday's journal Nature provide the most convincing evidence yet that an outside force was responsible. According to the researchers, an asteroid or comet whacked a young Mars some 4 billion years ago, blasting away much of its northern crust and creating a giant hole over 40 percent of the surface. New calculations reveal the crater known as the Borealis basin measures 5,300 miles across and 6,600 miles long — the size of Asia, Europe and Australia combined. It's believed to be four times bigger than the current titleholder, the South Pole-Aitken basin on Earth's moon.

What do we know about Mars' atmosphere? It's hundreds of times thinner than Earth's atmosphere and is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, and contains traces of oxygen, water, and methane. We also know, from observations that it can support dust storms, dust devils, clouds and gusty winds. With an amazing number of six current live probes exploring Mars (two rovers, a lander, and three orbiters), there are many thousands of images available. Only a few, however show atmospheric phenomena. Presented here are some of the best images of Martian atmosphere (and beyond) in action. (17 photos total)

An asteroid once thought to be on a collision course with Mars passed the Red Planet today without incident. Astronomers first estimated that asteroid 2007 WD5 had as high as a 3.6 percent chance of striking the planet. Newer observations kept lowering the odds for the 164-foot space rock until Jan. 9, when NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) program office effectively ruled out chances of an impact. "Mars sees these kinds of near-miss encounters every ten or twenty years, but the impact rate for asteroids this size is about once in a thousand years," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California.

The possibility of a collision between Mars and an approaching asteroid has been effectively ruled out, according to scientists watching the space rock. Tracking measurements of asteroid 2007 WD5 taken from four observatories have greatly reduced uncertainties about its Jan. 30 close approach to Mars so that the odds of impact have dropped to 1 in 10,000, the Near-Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a posting on its Web site Thursday.

Mars could be in for an asteroid hit. A newly discovered hunk of space rock has a 1 in 75 chance of slamming into the Red Planet on Jan. 30, scientists said Thursday. "These odds are extremely unusual. We frequently work with really long odds when we track ... threatening asteroids," said Steve Chesley, an astronomer with the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The asteroid, known as 2007 WD5, was discovered in late November and is similar in size to an object that hit remote central Siberia in 1908, unleashing energy equivalent to a 15-megaton nuclear bomb and wiping out 60 million trees. Scientists tracking the asteroid, currently halfway between Earth and Mars, initially put the odds of impact at 1 in 350 but increased the chances this week. Scientists expect the odds to diminish again early next month after getting new observations of the asteroid's orbit, Chesley said. "We know that it's going to fly by Mars and most likely going to miss, but there's a possibility of an impact," he said.

If skies are clear in your area on Sunday night, Dec. 23, you'll be able to partake in a rather unusual sight as the full moon appears to glide very closely above the planet Mars. Mars, which made its closest approach to the Earth on Dec. 18, will be only hours from a Christmas Eve opposition with the sun and is now shining prominently with a bright yellow-orange glow. And if you're favorably positioned in certain parts of the Pacific Northwest, western Canada, or Alaska, you'll actually see the moon occult (hide) Mars for a short time as the pair sits low above the east-northeast horizon.

Mars will be closer to Earth this month than any time until the year 2016. The red planet is now the brightest "star" in the evening sky and is already above the horizon as evening twilight fades away. But give it at least two more hours – until about 8 p.m. – for it to climb above the poor atmospheric seeing that's near the horizon. By then, this brilliant yellow-orange world will be at an altitude of around 30 degrees as seen from mid-northern latitudes.

On Dec. 24, Mars reaches opposition. This means that it will appear as a bright orange star in the east soon after sunset. The Planet Watch feature on the daily Seattle Times Weather Page can help you determine its location.

Jupiter loses command of the night sky next month, exiting into the glow of the sunset to eventually emerge ahead of the sun in the morning sky. However, another planet moves into center stage, perhaps not as large and bright as Jupiter, but definitely holding its own set of mysteries. Mars reaches opposition next month, rising as the sun sets on Christmas Eve. Six days earlier, the Red Planet reaches its closest point to Earth's orbit, roughly 54.8 million miles away. These two Martian events, closest approach and opposition, happen roughly every two years as Earth catches up to slower Mars in its longer orbit around the sun. During opposition, Earth is between the sun and the fourth planet, resulting in Mars and the sun being opposite in the sky (opposition). Because Mars' orbit is not perfectly circular — in fact it's relatively oval — some oppositions are better than others. You may recall the Mars Madness that occurred in August 2003, where that opposition brought Earth and Mars closest in recorded history, or 60,000 years.

We're now coming into the home stretch of the last good apparition of Mars until 2016. Now blazing in the late-evening east-northeast sky like an eye-catching yellowish-orange "star," Mars is less than six weeks away from its closest approach to Earth during this apparition. At the beginning of the year, the red planet was 221 million miles (356 million kilometers) from Earth. This week, it will be 63 million miles (102 million kilometers) away and it now shines some 10 times brighter than it did on New Year's Day. Since Jan. 1, Mars has progressed more than halfway around our sky and now is on an easterly course through the background stars of the Zodiac. It currently resides smack in the middle of the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. But on Thursday, Nov. 15, that steady eastward course is going to come to a stop.

Donna Shirley managed the Mars Exploration Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on July 4, 1997 the entire world watched as the Mars Pathfinder and the Sojourner Rover successfully landed on Mars. Two months later the Mars Global Surveyor successfully went into orbit around the red planet. Not only were these events two of the U.S. space program's greatest successes, but they may well provide the world with some of the most important scientific data of the 20th and 21st centuries. According to Shirley, "My proudest moment was having my daughter, my second moment was when the Pathfinder and Sojourner actually worked. When you consider that it was going 17,000 miles an hour and it wasn't supposed to make just another hole in the ground—well, that was a great achievement." Donna Shirley retired in August 1998 as Manager of the Mars Exploration Program after a 32-year career at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 swooped over Mars. It was a moment of high drama. Six other probes had already tried to reach the red planet and failed. Since the days of H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds, 1898), people had been hearing about life on Mars, and they were ready to see the canals and cities. The wait was becoming excruciating. Finally, all was revealed. With flawless precision, Mariner 4 dipped less than 10,000 km above the planet's surface and took 22 pictures. Mars was covered with desert sand and ancient craters. No cities. No canals. No Martians. No one would ever look at the red planet the same way again. Most histories of the mission end right there, with Mariner 4 buzzing Mars—"the first spacecraft to visit the red planet"-- and throwing cold water on a lot of good science fiction. But there's more to the story. After the flyby, something strange happened to Mariner 4, setting the stage for a 40-year mystery...

It's happening again. For the third time in three years, people are writing to us, amazed and confused about a new email in their inboxes announcing, among other things, that Mars will be closer than ever in recorded history in August 2006. What's more, the email says, "Mars will look as large as the full moon to the unaided eye." But, although it contains a grain of truth, this email is a hoax. Mars will NOT be particularly close to Earth in August 2006.