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Do black holes have hair?

A black hole. A simple and clear concept, at least according to the hypothesis by Roy Kerr, who in 1963 proposed a 'clean' black hole model, which is the current theoretical paradigm. From theory to reality things may be quite different. According to a new research, black holes may be much 'dirtier' than what Kerr believed.

Sep 30th, 2013

Google Lunar XPRIZE appoints international space experts to Judging Panel

Google Lunar XPRIZE has announced the line-up for its Judging Panel: eight international experts with experience from iconic space missions including Apollo, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Huygens probe to Titan, the Swift gamma-ray burst mission and the Curiosity Mars rover.

Sep 30th, 2013

Scientists find a martian igneous rock that is surprisingly Earth-like

A team of Caltech-led scientists reports its analysis of a surprisingly Earth-like martian rock, discovered by the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity, that offers new insight into the history of Mars's interior and suggests parts of the Red Planet may be more like our own than we ever knew.

Sep 27th, 2013

China unveils its first and unnamed moon rover

Chinese scientists described the country's first moon rover on Wednesday and invited the global public to come up with a name for it.

Sep 27th, 2013

Several NASA spacecraft track energy through space

Scientists have provided the most comprehensive details yet of the journey energy from the sun takes as it hurtles around Earth's magnetosphere. Understanding the changes energy from the sun undergoes as it travels away and out into space is crucial for scientists to achieve their goal of some day predicting the onset of space weather that creates effects such as the shimmering lights of the aurora or interruptions in radio communications at Earth.

Sep 26th, 2013

Martian chemical complicates hunt for life's clues

The quest for evidence of life on Mars could be more difficult than scientists previously thought. Researchers detail the investigation of a chemical in the Martian soil that interferes with the techniques used by the Curiosity rover to test for traces of life. The chemical causes the evidence to burn away during the tests.

Sep 26th, 2013

Observations reveal critical interplay of interstellar dust, hydrogen

For astrophysicists, the interplay of hydrogen - the most common molecule in the universe - and the vast clouds of dust that fill the voids of interstellar space has been an intractable puzzle of stellar evolution.

Sep 26th, 2013

Mars rover Curiosity finds water in first sample of planet surface

The first scoop of soil analyzed by the analytical suite in the belly of NASA's Curiosity rover reveals that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain several percent water by weight.

Sep 26th, 2013

Space-based lasers key to proposed asteroid defense system

A space-based laser system proposed to NASA by University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers could be a cost-effective way to nudge small asteroids away from a collision course with Earth.

Sep 26th, 2013

Understanding clouds as a necessary ingredient in the search for life: Case study of the exoplanet Kepler-7b

An international team, with participation from the University of Bern, has produced the first map of clouds on an exoplanet using the Kepler Space Telescope. Studying the atmospheres of exoplanets is the path towards ultimately identifying life elsewhere in the Universe. Understanding the role of clouds in exoplanet atmospheres is a necessary ingredient in the cosmic hunt for life.

Sep 26th, 2013

'Jekyll and Hyde' star morphs from radio to X-ray pulsar and back again

Astronomers have uncovered the strange case of a neutron star with the peculiar ability to transform from a radio pulsar into an X-ray pulsar and back again. This star's capricious behavior appears to be fueled by a nearby companion star and may give new insights into the birth of millisecond pulsars.

Sep 25th, 2013

Ultra-fast electrons explain third radiation ring around Earth (w/video)

In the already complicated science of what creates -- and causes constant change in -- two giant doughnuts of radiation surrounding Earth, researchers have added a new piece of information: Some of the electrons reach such enormous energies that they are driven by an entirely different set of physical processes.