Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate - or is it?

Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. Now, a team of scientists has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept.

October 21, 2016 Read more

Study finds unexplainable activity in distant stars

Space energy anomalies more than 50 million light years from our galaxy are creating conditions that should be destroying stars, but instead are regenerating them, according to astronomers.

October 20, 2016 Read more

Curious tilt of the Sun traced to undiscovered planet

Planet Nine the undiscovered planet at the edge of the solar system that was predicted by the work of Caltech's Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown in January 2016 appears to be responsible for the unusual tilt of the Sun, according to a new study.

October 20, 2016 Read more

A universe of two trillion galaxies

An international team of astronomers has found that the universe contains at least two trillion galaxies, twenty times more than previously thought.

October 13, 2016 Read more

Cosmological mystery solved by largest ever map of voids and superclusters

A team of astrophysicists have created the largest ever map of voids and superclusters in the Universe, which helps solve a long-standing cosmological mystery.

October 12, 2016 Read more

Chaos in cosmos: Stars with three planet-forming discs of gas

Astronomers have discovered a system consisting of two stars with three rotating planet-forming accretion discs around them. It is a binary star where each star has its own planet-forming disc and in addition, there is one large shared disc.

October 11, 2016 Read more

Mars-bound astronauts face chronic dementia risk from galactic cosmic ray exposure

Study raises questions about long-term brain health after extended spaceflights.

October 10, 2016 Read more

Hubble detects giant 'cannonballs' shooting from star

Great balls of fire! NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected superhot blobs of gas, each twice as massive as the planet Mars, being ejected near a dying star.

October 7, 2016 Read more

Detonating white dwarfs as supernovae

A new mathematical model created by astrophysicists describes how dead stars called white dwarfs could detonate, producing a type of explosion that is instrumental to measuring the extreme distances in our universe.

October 5, 2016 Read more

Research resolves a debate over 'killer electrons' in space

New findings answer a fundamental question about our space environment and will help scientists develop methods to protect valuable telecommunication and navigation satellites.

October 4, 2016 Read more

Are planets setting the sun's pace?

Researchers suggest a link between the solar cycle and the tidal effects of Venus, the Earth and Jupiter.

October 4, 2016 Read more

Our galaxy's most-mysterious star is even stranger than astronomers thought

A star known by the unassuming name of KIC 8462852 (Tabby's star) in the constellation Cygnus has been raising eyebrows both in and outside of the scientific community for the past year. The researchers analyzed further Kepler observations of the puzzling star and showed that in addition to its rapid unexplained brightness changes, the star also faded slowly and steadily during the four years it was watched by Kepler.

October 3, 2016 Read more

Spiral arms: not just in galaxies

Astronomers have found a distinct structure involving spiral arms in the reservoir of gas and dust disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. While spiral features have been observed on the surfaces of protoplanetary disks, these new ALMA observations are the first to reveal that such spirals occur at the disk midplane, the region where planet formation takes place.

September 30, 2016 Read more

Discovery of an extragalactic hot molecular core

Astronomers have discovered a 'hot molecular core', a cocoon of molecules surrounding a newborn massive star, for the first time outside our Galaxy. The discovery, which marks the first important step for observational studies of extragalactic hot molecular cores and challenges the hidden chemical diversity of our universe.

September 29, 2016 Read more

Researchers use cosmic 'dust-buster' to test theoretical calculations

Researchers have developed a new experimental Meteoric Ablation Simulator (MASI) that can help answer questions about cosmic dust and how it impacts Earth and everything on it.

September 27, 2016 Read more

How to merge two black holes in a simple way

Two theoretical physicists have demonstrated that what occurs on the space-time boundary of the two merging objects can be explained using simple equations, at least when a giant black hole collides with a tiny black hole.

September 26, 2016 Read more

Feeding a Mars mission: the challenges of growing plants in space

Plants will play a critical role in the survival of human beings on long-duration space missions, such as a mission to Mars. However, as a new study shows, many challenges need to be addressed if astronauts are to successfully grow enough food on board spacecraft and on other planets.

September 21, 2016 Read more

Galactic fireworks illuminate monster hydrogen blob

Astronomers have discovered the power source illuminating a so-called Lyman-alpha Blob - a rare, brightly glowing, and enormous concentration of gas in the distant universe.

September 21, 2016 Read more