Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Baby black holes zigzagged, ate a lot to become quasars

Far-off, ancient quasars appear to us in their 'baby photos' taken less than a billion years after the Big Bang: monstrous infants in a young universe.

August 11, 2014 Read more

Comets forge organic molecules in their dusty atmospheres (w/video)

An international team of scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has made incredible 3D images of the ghostly atmospheres surrounding comets ISON and Lemmon. These new observations provided important insights into how and where comets forge new chemicals, including intriguing organic compounds.

August 11, 2014 Read more

All-you-can-eat at the end of the Universe

A new model shows how early black holes could have grown to over a billion solar masses.

August 11, 2014 Read more

Violent solar system history uncovered by Australian meteorite

Planetary scientists have shed some light on the bombardment history of our solar system by studying a unique volcanic meteorite recovered in Western Australia. Captured on camera seven years ago falling on the WA side of the Nullarbor Plain, the Bunburra Rockhole Meterorite has unique characteristics that suggest it came from a large asteroid that has never before been identified.

August 8, 2014 Read more

White dwarfs crashing into Neutron Stars explain loneliest supernovae

A research team of astronomers and astrophysicists have found that some of the Universe's loneliest supernovae are likely created by the collisions of white dwarf stars into neutron stars.

August 8, 2014 Read more

Successful rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The Rosetta spacecraft has travelled over 6.4 billion kilometres, swung by planets, examined two asteroids during flybys, and spent more than two and a half years in hibernation during its 10-year journey. On 6 August 2014 at 11:30 CEST, with the Philae lander on board, it arrived at its target comet and entered into orbit.

August 8, 2014 Read more

Still hot inside the Moon: Tidal heating in the deepest part of the lunar mantle

Researchers have found that there is an extremely soft layer deep inside the Moon and that heat is effectively generated in the layer by the gravity of the Earth.

August 8, 2014 Read more

Taking astronomy to the next level

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope gets funding to begin construction.

August 8, 2014 Read more

Step closer to birth of the sun

Researchers are a step closer to understanding the birth of the sun.

August 7, 2014 Read more

Astronomers find stream of gas - 2.6 million light years long

Astronomers have found a bridge of atomic hydrogen gas 2.6 million light years long between galaxies 500 million light years away.

August 7, 2014 Read more

The black hole at the birth of the Universe

What we perceive as the big bang, researchers argue, could be the three-dimensional 'mirage' of a collapsing star in a universe profoundly different than our own.

August 7, 2014 Read more

Hubble finds supernova star system linked to potential 'zombie star'

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has spotted a star system that could have left behind a 'zombie star'' after an unusually weak supernova explosion.

August 6, 2014 Read more

Triangulum galaxy snapped by VST

The VLT Survey Telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured a beautifully detailed image of the galaxy Messier 33. This nearby spiral, the second closest large galaxy to our own galaxy, is packed with bright star clusters, and clouds of gas and dust. The new picture is amongst the most detailed wide-field views of this object ever taken and shows the many glowing gas clouds in the spiral arms with particular clarity.

August 6, 2014 Read more

Planet-like object may have spent its youth as hot as a star

Astronomers have discovered an extremely cool object that could have a particularly diverse history - although it is now as cool as a planet, it may have spent much of its youth as hot as a star.

August 5, 2014 Read more

IBEX and Voyager spacecraft drive advances in outer heliosphere research

Scientists yesterday highlighted an impressive list of achievements in researching the outer heliosphere at the 40th International Committee on Space Research Scientific Assembly in Moscow.

August 4, 2014 Read more

Image captures one of the brightest volcanoes in the solar system

An image from the Gemini Observatory captures what is one of the brightest volcanoes ever seen in our solar system. The image, obtained on Aug. 29, reveals the magnitude of the eruption that was the 'grand finale' in a series of eruptions on the distant moon.

August 4, 2014 Read more

Best evidence yet for coronal heating theory detected by NASA sounding rocket

Scientists have recently gathered some of the strongest evidence to date to explain what makes the sun's outer atmosphere so much hotter than its surface. The new observations of the small-scale extremely hot temperatures are consistent with only one current theory: something called nanoflares - a constant peppering of impulsive bursts of heating, none of which can be individually detected - provide the mysterious extra heat.

August 1, 2014 Read more

Asteroid attacks significantly altered ancient Earth

New research shows that more than four billion years ago, the surface of Earth was heavily reprocessed as a result of giant asteroid impacts. A new model based on existing lunar and terrestrial data sheds light on the role asteroid bombardments played in the geological evolution of the uppermost layers of the Hadean Earth.

July 31, 2014 Read more