Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

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Europlanet 2020 project launches new era of planetary collaboration in Europe

Europlanet 2020 RI will support 34 institutions in 19 countries across Europe over a period of four years. The project aims to tackle key scientific and technological challenges in modern space science by providing scientists with open access to state-of-the-art research data, models and facilities across the European Research Area.

Sep 15th, 2015

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Rocky planets may be habitable depending on their 'air conditioning system'

The quest for potentially habitable planets is often interpreted as the search for an Earth twin. And yet, some rocky planets outside our Solar System may in fact be more promising candidates for further research. Scientists have run 165 climate simulations for exoplanets that permanently face their sun with the same side. They discovered that two of the three possible climates are potentially habitable.

Sep 14th, 2015

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Oxygen is not definitive evidence of life on habitable exoplanets

Researchers have presented a novel hypothesis that it could be possible for planets to have large quantities of abiotic (non-biologically produced) oxygen. This study is a good example of interdisciplinary studies that combine knowledge from different fields of science to promote astrobiology in the search for life on extrasolar planets.

Sep 10th, 2015

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Celeste: A new model for cataloging the universe

A research collaboration of astrophysicists, statisticians and computer scientists is looking to shake things up with Celeste, a new statistical analysis model designed to enhance one of modern astronomy's most time-tested tools: sky surveys.

Sep 9th, 2015

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Farthest galaxy detected

A team of researchers that has spent years searching for the earliest objects in the universe now reports the detection of what may be the most distant galaxy ever found. They describe evidence for a galaxy called EGS8p7 that is more than 13.2 billion years old.

Sep 3rd, 2015

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Cosmic recycling

Dominating this image is part of the nebula Gum 56, illuminated by the hot bright young stars that were born within it. For millions of years stars have been created out of the gas in this nebula, material which is later returned to the stellar nursery when the aging stars either expel their material into space or eject it as supernova explosions.

Sep 2nd, 2015

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Distant planet's interior chemistry may differ from our own

As astronomers continue finding new rocky planets around distant stars, high-pressure physicists are considering what the interiors of those planets might be like and how their chemistry could differ from that found on Earth. New work demonstrates that different magnesium compounds could be abundant inside other planets as compared to Earth.

Sep 1st, 2015

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How to get rid of a satellite after its retirement

Researchers have developed a new method to eliminate artificial satellites in Highly Elliptical Orbits when they finish their mission. The methodology, which allows for a reduction of both cost and risk, has been tested with the European Space Agency INTEGRAL mission, which will re-enter into the Earth's atmosphere in order to disintegrate in 2029.

Sep 1st, 2015

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Ceres close up

Just arrived in a new orbit: from an altitude of only 1470 kilometres, the Dawn space probe is now gazing at the dwarf planet Ceres.

Aug 27th, 2015

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Discovering dust-obscured active galaxies as they grow

Astronomers performed an extensive search for Dust Obscured Galaxies (DOGs) using data obtained from the Subaru Strategic Program with Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). The research group discovered 48 DOGs, and has measured how common they are. Since DOGs are thought to harbor a rapidly growing black hole in their centers, these results give us clues for understanding the evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes.

Aug 27th, 2015

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