Nasa has chosen three options it will consider as its next target for future scientific space exploration: Venus, the moon or an asteroid.
The three areas of focus are finalists in a competition designed to help the space agency determine where it should spend its time and money to get the most scientific value out of research about our solar system.
It is part of Nasa's New Frontiers Program, which already has two missions under way. The first is the New Horizons mission, a spacecraft that is currently on its way to Pluto and has already sent back images from a quick fly-by of Jupiter. The second is called Juno, a large-scale survey of Jupiter planned for launch in 2011.
This competition will determine the focus of New Frontiers' third mission.
For more on this story, see NASA's next frontier: Venus, the moon, or an asteroid on CNET News.
