Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Research finds numerous unknown jets from young stars and planetary nebulae

Preliminary research findings from the University of Kent have identified hundreds of so far unknown jets from young stars, as well as numerous new planetary nebulae in the Galactic Plane.

July 31, 2014 Read more

Last mission for the ATV European space freighter

So far, four European space freighters have carried supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). At 01:47 CEST on 30 July 2014, Georges Lemaitre - the fifth and last European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - lifted off from the spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana.

July 30, 2014 Read more

Young binary star system may form planets with weird and wild orbits

While surveying a series of binary stars, astronomers uncovered a striking pair of wildly misaligned planet-forming disks in the young binary star system HK Tau.

July 30, 2014 Read more

Revolutionary microshutter technology hurdles significant challenges

NASA technologists have hurdled a number of significant technological challenges in their quest to improve an already revolutionary observing technology originally created for the James Webb Space Telescope.

July 30, 2014 Read more

Less to the Milky Way than previously thought

The Milky Way is less massive than astronomers previously thought, according to new research. For the first time, scientists have been able to precisely measure the mass of the galaxy that contains our Solar system.

July 30, 2014 Read more

Mysterious molecules in space

A group of scientists has offered a tantalizing new possibility: these mysterious molecules may be silicon-capped hydrocarbons like SiC3H, SiC4H and SiC5H, and they present data and theoretical arguments to back that hypothesis.

July 29, 2014 Read more

Long-lived Mars Opportunity rover sets off-world driving record

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, now holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 25 miles (40 kilometers) of driving. The previous record was held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover.

July 28, 2014 Read more

Researchers discover cool-burning flames in space that could lead to better engines here on earth

A team of international researchers has discovered a new type of cool burning flames that could lead to cleaner, more efficient engines for cars. The discovery was made during a series of experiments on the International Space Station.

July 28, 2014 Read more

Next-generation Thirty Meter Telescope begins construction in Hawaii

Following the approval of a sublease on July 25 by the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) announces the beginning of the construction phase on Hawaii Island.

July 28, 2014 Read more

Glow in space is evidence of a hot bubble in our galaxy

A recent study shows that the emission is dominated by the local hot bubble of gas - 1 million degrees - with, at most, 40 percent of emission originating within the solar system. The findings should put to rest the disagreement about the origin of the X-ray emission and confirm the existence of the local hot bubble.

July 28, 2014 Read more

Comet with a collar

OSIRIS images of Rosetta's comet resolve structures at 100 metres pixel scale.

July 24, 2014 Read more

New mass map of a distant galaxy cluster is the most precise yet

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the mass within a galaxy cluster more precisely than ever before. Created using observations from Hubble's Frontier Fields observing programme, the map shows the amount and distribution of mass within MCS J0416.1-2403, a massive galaxy cluster found to be 160 trillion times the mass of the Sun.

July 24, 2014 Read more

Hubble finds three surprisingly dry exoplanets

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun - and have come up nearly dry.

July 24, 2014 Read more

Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space

In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other manmade object. But, in the nearly two years since that historic announcement, and despite subsequent observations backing it up, uncertainty about whether Voyager 1 really crossed the threshold continues.

July 23, 2014 Read more

Satellite galaxies put astronomers in a spin

An international team of researchers has studied 380 galaxies and shown that their small satellite galaxies almost always move in rotating discs. However, such satellite galaxy discs are not predicted by current models of the formation of structures in the Universe. This discovery could cause modelers serious headaches in the years ahead.

July 23, 2014 Read more

A new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: targeting alien polluters

Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replenished by life. But those gases come from simple life forms like microbes. What about advanced civilizations? Would they leave any detectable signs? They might, if they spew industrial pollution into the atmosphere.

July 23, 2014 Read more

Researchers model Titan's atmosphere

New work compares the chemical composition of Titan's atmosphere with parameters predicted by a mathematical model.

July 23, 2014 Read more

Astronomers pioneer a 'Google street view' of galaxies

A new home-grown instrument based on bundles of optical fibres is giving Australian astronomers the first 'Google street view' of the cosmos - incredibly detailed views of huge numbers of galaxies.

July 23, 2014 Read more