Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years

Observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope have revealed alignments over the largest structures ever discovered in the universe. A research team has found that the rotation axes of the central supermassive black holes in a sample of quasars are parallel to each other over distances of billions of light-years. Also found was that the rotation axes of these quasars tend to be aligned with the structures in the cosmic web in which they reside.

November 19, 2014 Read more

Physicists suggest new way to detect dark matter

For years physicists have been looking for the universe's elusive dark matter, but so far no one has seen any trace of it. Maybe we are looking in the wrong place? Now physicists from University of Southern Denmark propose a new technique to detect dark matter.

November 18, 2014 Read more

Gravity may have saved the universe after the Big Bang, say researchers

New research by a team of European physicists could explain why the universe did not collapse immediately after the Big Bang.

November 18, 2014 Read more

Research suggests warmth, flowing water on early Mars were episodic

There is ample evidence that water once flowed on the surface of ancient Mars. But that evidence is difficult to reconcile with the latest generation of climate models that suggest Mars should have been eternally icy. A new study suggest that warming and water flow on Mars were probably episodic and related to ancient volcanic eruptions.

November 17, 2014 Read more

Hiding in plain sight: Elusive dark matter may be detected with GPS satellites

The everyday use of a GPS device might be to find your way around town or even navigate a hiking trail, but for two physicists, the Global Positioning System might be a tool in directly detecting and measuring dark matter, so far an elusive but ubiquitous form of matter responsible for the formation of galaxies.

November 17, 2014 Read more

Mission to discover hundreds of black holes could unlock secrets of the Universe

When two detectors are switched on in the US next year, researchers hope their research will help pick up the faint ripples of black hole collisions millions of years ago, known as gravitational waves.

November 14, 2014 Read more

Galaxy evolution: Caught in the act

One of the mysteries of the Universe is the question of how all the galaxies we see around us came to be. Astronomers have now uncovered new insights into the processes that have shaped galaxies, using the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory telescope.

November 14, 2014 Read more

Pulling together the early solar system

New study finds that a strong magnetic field whipped the early solar system into shape.

November 14, 2014 Read more

The answer is blowing in the intergalactic wind

Astronomers have provided the first direct evidence that an intergalactic 'wind' is stripping galaxies of star-forming gas as they fall into clusters of galaxies. The observations help explain why galaxies found in clusters are known to have relatively little gas and less star formation when compared to non-cluster or 'field' galaxies.

November 13, 2014 Read more

Is there organic matter on Mars?

Chloromethane discovered on the Red Planet possibly comes from the Martian soil - meteorites probably provided its carbon and hydrogen.

November 13, 2014 Read more

Explainer: why Rosetta comet mission is such a big deal (w/video)

The first attempted landing on the surface of a comet is a huge landmark in the history of space exploration that will not only uncover further details about comets but could unlock further clues about the origins of our solar system and the development of life on Earth.

November 12, 2014 Read more

Space: The final frontier in silicon chemistry

First time laboratory detection of silicon and nitrogen-terminated carbon chain molecules could help astronomers get a more complete picture of interstellar chemistry.

November 11, 2014 Read more

First observations of the surfaces of objects from the Oort Cloud

Astronomers are announcing today the discovery of two unusual objects in comet-like orbits that originate in the Oort cloud but with almost no activity, giving scientists a first look at their surfaces. These results are particularly intriguing because the surfaces are different from what astronomers expected.

November 11, 2014 Read more

ALMA finds best evidence yet for galactic merger in distant protocluster

Nestled among a triplet of young galaxies more than 12.5 billion light-years away is a cosmic powerhouse: a galaxy that is producing stars nearly 1,000 times faster than our own Milky Way. This energetic starburst galaxy, known as AzTEC-3, together with its gang of calmer galaxies may represent the best evidence yet that large galaxies grow from the merger of smaller ones in the early Universe, a process known as hierarchical merging.

November 11, 2014 Read more

Baby photos of a scaled-up solar system

Astronomers have discovered two dust belts surrounded by a large dust halo around young star HD 95086. The findings provide a look back at what our solar system may have resembled in its infancy.

November 10, 2014 Read more

Astronomers dissect the aftermath of a supernova

Observations with the ATCA and ALMA radio telescopes have shown signs of something never seen before, located at the center or the remnant of a supernova. It could be a pulsar wind nebula, driven by the spinning neutron star, or pulsar, which astronomers have been searching for since 1987.

November 10, 2014 Read more

Counting stars 2.0

Light pollution is not only a problem for astronomy. Scientists from the interdisciplinary project 'Loss of the Night' study how it affects health, society, and the environment. In order to measure how skyglow is changing, they have developed an app for smartphones, which allows citizen scientists to count the number of visible stars in the night sky.

November 10, 2014 Read more

Mars spacecraft reveal comet flyby effects on Martian atmosphere

Two NASA and one European spacecraft have gathered new information about the basic properties of a wayward comet that buzzed by Mars Oct. 19, directly detecting its effects on the Martian atmosphere.

November 7, 2014 Read more