Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

RSS Subscribe to our Space Exploration News feed

Cosmic jets of young stars formed by magnetic fields

Astrophysical jets are counted among our Universe's most spectacular phenomena: From the centers of black holes, quasars, or protostars, these rays of matter sometimes protrude several light years into space. Now, for the first time ever, an international team of researchers has successfully tested a new model that explains how magnetic fields form these emissions in young stars.

Oct 16th, 2014

Read more

Construction secrets of a galactic metropolis

Astronomers have used the APEX telescope to probe a huge galaxy cluster that is forming in the early Universe and revealed that much of the star formation taking place is not only hidden by dust, but also occurring in unexpected places. This is the first time that a full census of the star formation in such an object has been possible.

Oct 15th, 2014

Read more

MAVEN spacecraft's first look at Mars holds surprises

NASA's MAVEN spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars and produced unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet.

Oct 15th, 2014

Read more

Rediscovering Venus to find faraway earths

As the search for Earth-like planets wages on, a team of researchers may have found a way to speed up the process. The team is developing a new laser-based technology known as the green astro-comb to obtain information about the mass of a distant planet. Using this information, astronomers will be able to determine whether distant exoplanets are rocky worlds like Earth or less dense gas giants like Jupiter.

Oct 14th, 2014

Read more

Inside the Milky Way

Is matter falling into the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way or being ejected from it? No one knows for sure, but an astrophysicist is searching for an answer.

Oct 14th, 2014

Read more

Zeroing in on a source of gamma rays

Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of radioactive waves known in the universe. However, how they're made and where they come from have been a bit of a mystery. But now a team of researchers has made a discovery that may shed some light on the subject.

Oct 9th, 2014

Read more

Hungry black hole eats faster than thought possible

Astronomers have discovered a black hole that is consuming gas from a nearby star 10 times faster than previously thought possible. The black hole - known as P13 - lies on the outskirts of the galaxy NGC7793 about 12 million light years from Earth and is ingesting a weight equivalent to 100 billion billion hot dogs every minute.

Oct 9th, 2014

Read more