Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Stars' spins reveal their ages

When you're a kid every birthday is cause for celebration, but as you get older they become a little less exciting. You might not want to admit just how old you are. And you might notice yourself slowing down over the years. You're not alone - the same is true of stars. They slow down as they age, and their ages are well-kept secrets. Astronomers are taking advantage of the first fact to tackle the second and tease out stellar ages.

January 5, 2015 Read more

New instrument reveals recipe for other Earths

How do you make an Earth-like planet? The 'test kitchen' of Earth has given us a detailed recipe, but it wasn't clear whether other planetary systems would follow the same formula. Now, astronomers have found evidence that the recipe for Earth also applies to terrestrial exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

January 5, 2015 Read more

Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars

Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life, by applying a 200 year old idea to the thousands of exo-planets discovered by the Kepler space telescope.

January 4, 2015 Read more

A simulation of the universe with realistic galaxies

An international team of astronomers developed a simulation of the universe in which realistic galaxies are created; their mass, size and age are similar to those of observed galaxies. Their similarity is caused by the simulation of strong galactic winds - gas winds that are blown from galaxies.

December 30, 2014 Read more

Scientists 'map' water vapor in Martian atmosphere

Scientists have created a 'map' of the distribution of water vapour in Mars' atmosphere. Their research includes observations of seasonal variations in atmospheric concentrations using data collected over ten years by the SPICAM spectrometer aboard the Mars Express orbiter.

December 23, 2014 Read more

The Milky Way's new neighbour

The Milky Way, the galaxy we live in, is part of a cluster of more than 50 galaxies that make up the 'Local Group', a collection that includes the famous Andromeda galaxy and many other far smaller objects. Now a Russian-American team have added to the canon, finding a tiny and isolated dwarf galaxy almost 7 million light years away.

December 22, 2014 Read more

Researchers solve mystery of the origin of the 'theta aurora'

One type of aurora is known as a 'theta aurora' because seen from above it looks like the Greek letter theta - an oval with a line crossing through the centre. While the cause of the auroral oval emissions is reasonably well understood, the origin of the theta aurora was unclear until now.

December 18, 2014 Read more

Kepler proves it can still find planets

To paraphrase Mark Twain, the report of the Kepler spacecraft's death was greatly exaggerated. Despite a malfunction that ended its primary mission in May 2013, Kepler is still alive and working. The evidence comes from the discovery of a new super-Earth using data collected during Kepler's 'second life'.

December 18, 2014 Read more

Surprising theorists, stars within middle-aged clusters are of similar age

An examination of middle-aged star clusters reveals an unexpectedly narrow age range among their stars, suggesting that large groups of stars evolve differently than previously understood.

December 17, 2014 Read more

'Perfect storm' quenching star formation around a supermassive black hole

Astronomers have discovered that black holes don't have to be nearly so powerful to shut down star formation. By observing the dust and gas at the center of NGC 1266, a nearby lenticular galaxy with a relatively modest central black hole, the astronomers have detected a 'perfect storm' of turbulence that is squelching star formation in a region that would otherwise be an ideal star factory.

December 17, 2014 Read more

The hot blue stars of Messier 47

This spectacular image of the star cluster Messier 47 was taken using the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. This young open cluster is dominated by a sprinkling of brilliant blue stars but also contains a few contrasting red giant stars.

December 17, 2014 Read more

Life on an aquaplanet

Study finds an exoplanet, tilted on its side, could still be habitable if covered in ocean.

December 17, 2014 Read more

Rover Curiosity finds active, ancient organic chemistry on Mars

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory's drill.

December 16, 2014 Read more

MAVEN mission identifies links in chain leading to atmospheric loss

Early discoveries by NASA's newest Mars orbiter are starting to reveal key features about the loss of the planet's atmosphere to space over time.

December 15, 2014 Read more

Stretched-out solid exoplanets

Astronomers could soon be able to find rocky planets stretched out by the gravity of the stars they orbit, according to a group of researchers.

December 15, 2014 Read more

Nuclear fragments could help uncover the origins of life-supporting planets

New Research describes how recreating isotopes that occur when a star explodes, can help physicists understand where life-supporting elements may be found in space.

December 12, 2014 Read more

Researchers use real data rather than theory to measure the cosmos

For the first time researchers have measured large distances in the Universe using data, rather than calculations related to general relativity.

December 12, 2014 Read more

Swarms of Pluto-size objects kick-up dust around adolescent Sun-like star

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array may have detected the dusty hallmarks of an entire family of Pluto-size objects swarming around an adolescent version of our own Sun.

December 12, 2014 Read more