Photos illustrate Mars rover's precise landing

PASADENA, Calif. | The robotic explorer Curiosity's daring plunge through the pink skies of Mars was more than perfect. It landed with spectacular style, said a NASA scientist, describing the first images of its mechanical gymnastics.

Photos illustrate Mars rover's precise landing

Brian Schratz hugs a colleague as he celebrates a successful landing Sunday inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Photos illustrate Mars rover's precise landing

This photo provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the gravel on the surface of Mars' Gale Crater where the Curiosity rover landed late Sunday. On the horizon is the rim of the crater. Part of the spring that released the lens' dust cover can be seen at the bottom right, near the …

Photos illustrate Mars rover's precise landing

This late Sunday photo made available by NASA shows the Curiosity rover, bottom, and its parachute descending to the surface from the vantage point of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Technology is changing the once simple cookbook

With a box full of carrots and a hankering for something vaguely exotic, Mary-Claire van Leunen turned to her computer for a recipe.

Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly to write memoir

Together and apart, the lives of Gabrielle Giffords and husband-astronaut Mark Kelly have been extraordinary.

GUEST EDITORIALS: Schock making a worthwhile suggestion

"Ab-solutely Schocking! Rep. Aaron Schock focuses on the important issue of the day: his abs," screamed a headline Monday on the political website The Daily Caller.

For battered Japan, a new threat: nuclear meltdown

IWAKI, Japan | An explosion at a nuclear power plant on Japan's devastated coast destroyed a building Saturday and made leaking radiation, or even outright meltdown, the central threat menacing a nation just beginning to grasp the scale of a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami.

GUEST EDITORIALS: Tough sell for grand mass transit plan

Central Indiana has waited far too long for a regional mass transit system worthy of a major metropolitan area. If the breakthrough is going to happen any time soon, Indy Connect had better step it up.

Genetically altered salmon? It doesn't stop there

WASHINGTON | We've always played with our food — even before we knew about genes or how to change them.

Senator Durbin says Illinois needs to latch onto coal projects

TAYLORVILLE, Ill. | U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin says two power-plant projects that would rely on clean-coal technology are opportunities Illinois can't afford to let get away.