Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Water common - yet scarce - in exoplanets

The most extensive survey of atmospheric chemical compositions of exoplanets to date has revealed trends that challenge current theories of planet formation and has implications for the search for water in the solar system and beyond.

December 11, 2019 Read more

How did supermassive black holes grow so fast?

Black holes in the early universe pose a bit of a problem. Based on observations from telescopes on Earth and in space, we know that some black holes grew to be a billion times the mass of the sun just one billion years after the Big Bang. Current models of black hole growth, however, can't explain this speed of growth.

December 10, 2019 Read more

Astrophysicists discovered a neutron star with an unusual magnetic field structure

Scientists discovered a unique neutron star, the magnetic field of which is apparent only when the star is seen under a certain angle relative to the observer.

December 9, 2019 Read more

How planets may form after dust sticks together

Scientists may have figured out how dust particles can stick together to form planets, according to a study that may also help to improve industrial processes.

December 9, 2019 Read more

Astronomers find further evidence for a population of dark matter deficient dwarf galaxies

Astronomers have found a special population of dwarf galaxies that could mainly consist baryons within radii of up to tens of thousands of light-years. This contrasts with the normal expectation that such regions should instead be dominated by dark matter.

December 9, 2019 Read more

How to build a 3D map of the universe - and why

Because we don't know what's pushing the universe outward ever more quickly, 'dark energy' is scientists' shorthand for the mysterious process. To understand the history of our universe, researchers are collaborating with scientists around the globe to build elaborate 3D maps of space and time.

December 7, 2019 Read more

Signs of life: New field guide aids astronomers' search

Astronomers have come up with a way to discern life on exoplanets loitering in other cosmic neighborhoods: a spectral field guide.

December 6, 2019 Read more

Parker Solar Probe: 'We're missing something fundamental about the sun'

Our closest-ever look inside the sun's corona has unveiled an unexpectedly chaotic world that includes rogue plasma waves, flipping magnetic fields and distant solar winds under the thrall of the sun's rotation.

December 6, 2019 Read more

Could hibernating astronauts make it easier to reach other planets?

New research suggests that hibernation is a likely option to make deep space exploration a reality.

December 5, 2019 Read more

Astronomers propose a novel method of finding atmospheres on rocky worlds

A team of astronomers proposes a new method of using Webb to determine whether a rocky exoplanet has an atmosphere. The technique, which involves measuring the planet's temperature as it passes behind its star and then comes back into view, is significantly faster than more traditional methods of atmospheric detection like transmission spectroscopy.

December 2, 2019 Read more

A new theory for how black holes and neutron stars shine bright

Astrophysicists suggest radiation that lights the densest objects in our universe is powered by the interplay of turbulence and reconnection of super-strong magnetic fields.

November 27, 2019 Read more

Scientists inch closer than ever to signal from cosmic dawn

Researchers using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope have taken a new and significant step toward detecting a signal from the period in cosmic history when the first stars lit up the universe.

November 26, 2019 Read more

Giant magnetic ropes in the outskirts of a spiral galaxy

Astronomers have investigated polarized radio emission from the galaxy NGC 4631 at the VLA radio telescope. They detected for the first time a regular magnetic field over scales of several thousands of light years in the halo of NGC 4631.

November 26, 2019 Read more

Planets around a black hole? Calculations show possibility of bizarre worlds

Theoreticians in two different fields defied the common knowledge that planets orbit stars like the Sun. They proposed the possibility of thousands of planets around a supermassive black hole.

November 25, 2019 Read more

The simultaneous merging of giant galaxies

Research team discovers three supermassive black holes at the core of one galaxy.

November 21, 2019 Read more

Extremely energetic particles coupled with the violent death of a star for the first time

Scientists have determined the emission of extremely energetic light particles during the death of a very heavy star for the first time.

November 21, 2019 Read more

Sugar delivered to Earth from space

First evidence of bio-essential sugars in meteorites.

November 21, 2019 Read more

Astronomers discover highest-energy light from a gamma-ray burst

The researchers observed a gamma-ray burst with an afterglow that featured the highest energy photons - a trillion times more energetic than visible light - ever detected in a burst.

November 20, 2019 Read more