Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

The Cassini orbiter - orbiting the icy world of Saturn for 10 years

This Methuselah among space explorers, designed to explore celestial bodies in the far reaches of the Solar System, has been circling Saturn for 10 years.

July 8, 2014 Read more

Cosmic accounting reveals missing light crisis

Something is amiss in the Universe. There appears to be an enormous deficit of ultraviolet light in the cosmic budget. The vast reaches of empty space between galaxies are bridged by tendrils of hydrogen and helium, which can be used as a precise 'light meter.' In a recent study a team of scientists finds that the light from known populations of galaxies and quasars is not nearly enough to explain observations of intergalactic hydrogen. The difference is a stunning 400 percent.

July 8, 2014 Read more

A hotspot for powerful cosmic rays

An observatory found a 'hotspot' beneath the Big Dipper emitting a disproportionate number of the highest-energy cosmic rays. The discovery moves physics another step toward identifying the mysterious sources of the most energetic particles in the universe.

July 8, 2014 Read more

Small, but plentiful: How the faintest galaxies illuminated the early universe (w/video)

Light from tiny galaxies over 13 billion years ago played a larger role than previously thought in creating the conditions in the universe as we know it today, a new study has found.

July 7, 2014 Read more

Dropship offers safe landings for Mars rovers (w/video)

The dramatic conclusion to ESA's latest StarTiger project: a 'dropship' quadcopter steers itself to lower a rover gently onto a safe patch of the rocky martian surface. StarTiger's Dropter project was tasked with developing and demonstrating a European precision-landing capability for Mars and other targets.

July 7, 2014 Read more

Supermassive black hole blows molecular gas out of a galaxy at 1 million km/h

Findings deepen our understanding of the future of our own galaxy, which will collide with Andromeda in 5 billion years.

July 7, 2014 Read more

Forecasting the development of breakthrough technologies to enable novel space missions

A new report, Technological Breakthroughs for Scientific Progress (TECHBREAK), has been published today by the European Science Foundation.

July 4, 2014 Read more

Vesta's rocky history

The dark material found on the protoplanet Vesta contains the mineral serpentine - and must therefore be of exogenic origin.

July 4, 2014 Read more

A neutron star's unusual dance

Satellite x-ray observations reveal a neutron star with a donut-shaped magnetic field and axial wobble.

July 4, 2014 Read more

Fruit fly immunity fails with fungus after (space)flight

A new study suggests that normal gravity or hypergravity on the space station may help mitigate some of the biological problems in organisms living in space.

July 3, 2014 Read more

Controversial clues of 2 'Goldilocks planets' that might support life are proven false

Mysteries about controversial signals from a star considered a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life now have been solved. The research proves, for the first time, that some of the signals actually are from events inside the star itself, not from the two so-called 'Goldilocks planets', which were suspected to be just-right for life and orbiting the star at a distance where liquid water potentially could exist. No planets there, just star burps.

July 3, 2014 Read more

A young star's age can be gleamed from nothing but sound waves

Determining the age of stars has long been a challenge for astronomers. In experiments researchers show that 'infant' stars can be distinguished from 'adolescent' stars by measuring the acoustic waves they emit.

July 3, 2014 Read more

Sights are set on the Vela pulsar

The first data from H.E.S.S. II show the pulsed gamma-ray signal.

July 3, 2014 Read more

Martian salts must touch ice to make liquid water (w/video)

In chambers that mimic Mars' conditions, researchers have shown how small amounts of liquid water could form on the planet despite its below-freezing temperatures.

July 2, 2014 Read more

NASA launches new carbon-sensing mission to monitor Earth's breathing

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 soon will begin a minimum two-year mission to locate Earth's sources of and storage places for atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas responsible for warming our world and a critical component of the planet's carbon cycle.

July 2, 2014 Read more

A stellar womb shaped and destroyed by its ungrateful offspring

The little-known cloud of cosmic gas and dust called Gum 15 is the birthplace and home of hot young stars. Beautiful and deadly, these stars mould the appearance of their mother nebula and, as they progress into adulthood, will eventually also be the death of her.

July 2, 2014 Read more

Young sun's violent history solves meteorite mystery

Astronomers using the Herschel space observatory to probe the turbulent beginnings of a Sun-like star have found evidence of mighty stellar winds that could solve a puzzling meteorite mystery in our own back yard.

July 1, 2014 Read more

Hubble to proceed with full search for New Horizons targets

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been given the go-ahead to conduct an intensive search for a suitable outer solar system object that the New Horizons spacecraft could visit after the probe streaks though the Pluto system in July 2015.

July 1, 2014 Read more