Paul Davies, director of Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University and a Science & Religion Today contributor, explains:

After the big bang that created the universe 13.7 billion years ago, matter was spread smoothly through space. Aided by the gravitating power of the dark component, ordinary matter was pulled into clumps, which later evolved into galaxies that spawned stars, planets, and, in one case at least, life.
A consensus has emerged that dark matter mostly consists of massive particles coughed out of the big bang. The reason for the appellation “dark” is because, unlike atomic particles, they have no electric charge, so cannot emit or scatter light. Nor do they feel the strong nuclear force that traps protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei. As a result, the dark particles interact so feebly with ordinary matter that they mostly pass right through it.

Behold the Butterfly Nebula—one of a new batch of images from the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope.
The telescope can now look deeper into space than ever before, as NASA explains:

Hubble’s suite of new instruments allows it to study the universe across a wide swath of the light spectrum, from ultraviolet all the way to near-infrared. In addition, scientists released spectroscopic observations that slice across billions of light-years to probe the cosmic-web structure of the universe and map the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life as we know it.

NASA scientists have found glycine in the samples the Stardust spacecraft collected from the dust and gas around the comet Wild 2. As Jamie Elsila of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center explains:

Glycine is an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins, and this is the first time an amino acid has been found in a comet. Our discovery supports the theory that some of life’s ingredients formed in space and were delivered to Earth long ago by meteorite and comet impacts.

The “fun” has begun for NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, says William Borucki, the mission’s science principal investigator. In other words, the spacecraft has started its search for other Earth-like planets. It will look in what are called the “habitable zones” of our galaxy—regions at distances from stars (like our sun) where the temperature allows possible lakes and oceans to exist. Water, it’s believed, is necessary to support primitive life.
For the next three and a half years, Kepler will look for signs of these other habitable planets by staring at more than 100,000 stars. If planets are orbiting a star, its brightness will dull when the planet crosses in front of it and partially blocks the light.
“If Kepler got into a staring contest, it would win,” says James Fanson, the mission’s project manager. “The spacecraft is ready to stare intently at the same stars for several years so that it can precisely measure the slightest changes in their brightness caused by planets.”
You can follow Kepler’s progress with its updates on Twitter. —Heather Wax