Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Lives and deaths of sibling stars

In this new image from La Silla Observatory in Chile young stars huddle together against clouds of glowing gas and lanes of dust. The star cluster, NGC 3293, would have been just a cloud of gas and dust itself about ten million years ago, but as stars began to form it became the bright group of stars we see here. Clusters like this are laboratories that allow astronomers to learn about how stars evolve.

July 23, 2014 Read more

Fermi finds a 'Transformer' pulsar (w/video)

In late June 2013, an exceptional binary containing a rapidly spinning neutron star underwent a dramatic change in behavior never before observed. The pulsar's radio beacon vanished, while at the same time the system brightened fivefold in gamma rays, the most powerful form of light, according to measurements by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

July 23, 2014 Read more

Hubble traces the halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have probed the extreme outskirts of the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. The galaxy's halo of stars has been found to extend much further from the galaxy's centre than expected and the stars within this halo seem to be surprisingly rich in heavy elements. This is the most remote portion of an elliptical galaxy ever to have been explored.

July 22, 2014 Read more

Transiting exoplanet with longest known year

Astronomers have discovered a transiting exoplanet with the longest known year. Kepler-421b circles its star once every 704 days. In comparison, Mars orbits our Sun once every 780 days. Most of the 1,800-plus exoplanets discovered to date are much closer to their stars and have much shorter orbital periods.

July 21, 2014 Read more

It's go time for LUX-Zeplin dark matter experiment

From the physics labs at Yale University to the bottom of a played-out gold mine in South Dakota, a new generation of dark matter experiments is ready to commence. The US Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation recently gave the go-ahead to Large Underground Xenon-Zeplin, a key experiment in the hunt for dark matter, the invisible substance that may make up much of the universe.

July 18, 2014 Read more

Work commences on experimental spaceplane (XS-1) designs (w/video)

DARPA created its Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program to create a new paradigm for more routine, responsive and affordable space operations. In an important step toward that goal, DARPA has awarded prime contracts for Phase 1 of XS-1 to three companies.

July 18, 2014 Read more

Crowd-source snaps of falling space debris

Australian researchers who are designing robotic rovers capable of searching for fallen space debris are asking people to share images or videos that they may have captured during last Thursday evening 's skyfall.

July 18, 2014 Read more

Lunar pits could shelter astronauts, reveal details of how 'man in the moon' formed

While the moon's surface is battered by millions of craters, it also has over 200 holes - steep-walled pits that in some cases might lead to caves that future astronauts could explore and use for shelter, according to new observations from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

July 18, 2014 Read more

Peering into giant planets from in and out of this world

Scientists for the first time have experimentally re-created the conditions that exist deep inside giant planets, such as Jupiter, Uranus and many of the planets recently discovered outside our solar system.

July 17, 2014 Read more

Geologist says Curiosity's images show Earth-like soils on Mars (w/video)

Soil deep in a crater dating to some 3.7 billion years ago contains evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter, says a geologist, based on images and data captured by the rover Curiosity.

July 17, 2014 Read more

Is the universe a bubble? Let's check (w/video)

Researchers are working to bring the multiverse hypothesis, which to some sounds like a fanciful tale, firmly into the realm of testable science.

July 17, 2014 Read more

ATV's fiery break-up to be seen from the inside

As ESA's remaining supply ferry to the International Space Station burns up in the atmosphere, its final moments as its hull disintegrates will be recorded from the inside by a unique infrared camera.

July 17, 2014 Read more

The twofold comet

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, destination of ESA's Rosetta mission, seems to consist of two parts.

July 17, 2014 Read more

Heat-sensing camera yields sharpest map of Mars' surface properties

A heat-sensing camera has provided data to create the most detailed global map yet made of Martian surface properties.

July 16, 2014 Read more

Asteroid Vesta to reshape theories of planet formation

Researchers have a better understanding of the asteroid Vesta and its internal structure, thanks to numerical simulations and data from the space mission Dawn. Their findings questions contemporary models of rocky planet formation, including that of Earth.

July 16, 2014 Read more

Comet ISON's final hours

Before comet ISON raced past the Sun, it stopped producing dust and gas, as data from the SUMER spectrograph on SOHO show.

July 16, 2014 Read more

ESA's spaceplane set for flight

All eyes are on ESA's spaceplane to showcase reentry technologies after its unconventional launch on a Vega rocket this November.

July 16, 2014 Read more

Van Allen Probes show how to accelerate electrons

One of the great, unanswered questions for space weather scientists is just what creates two gigantic donuts of radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen radiation belts. Recent data from the Van Allen Probes - two nearly identical spacecraft that launched in 2012 - address this question.

July 15, 2014 Read more