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Meteorites yield clues to red planet's early atmosphere
Geologists analyzed 40 meteorites that fell to Earth from Mars to understand the history of the Martian atmosphere. They show the atmospheres of Mars and Earth diverged in important ways early in the solar system's 4.6 billion year evolution.
April 17, 2014 Read more
A study in scarlet
This new image from ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile reveals a cloud of hydrogen called Gum 41. In the middle of this little-known nebula, brilliant hot young stars are giving off energetic radiation that causes the surrounding hydrogen to glow with a characteristic red hue.
April 16, 2014 Read more
Astronomers: 'Tilt-a-worlds' could harbor life
A fluctuating tilt in a planet's orbit does not preclude the possibility of life, according to new research. In fact, sometimes it helps.
April 15, 2014 Read more
Telescope apps help amateurs hunt for exoplanets
People around the world are being invited to learn how to hunt for planets, using two new online apps devised by scientists at the University of Texas at Austin and UC Santa Cruz.
April 15, 2014 Read more
Pushy neighbors force stellar twins to diverge
Much like an environment influences people, so too do cosmic communities affect even giant dazzling stars: Peering deep into the Milky Way galaxy's center from a high-flying observatory, astronomers have discovered identical, rare stars whose diverging dusty and gaseous garb are strictly influenced by an intrusive cluster of neighbors.
April 14, 2014 Read more
Cassini images may reveal birth of new Saturn moon
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has documented the formation of a small icy object within the rings of Saturn that may be a new moon, and may also provide clues to the formation of the planet's known moons.
April 14, 2014 Read more
Cosmic slurp
Researchers use supercomputers to understand and predict signs of black holes swallowing stars.
April 14, 2014 Read more
Recipe for star formation
Researchers develop a model to reconstruct spatial structure of molecule clouds.
April 10, 2014 Read more
Hubble extends stellar tape measure 10 times farther into space
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now can precisely measure the distance of stars up to 10,000 light-years away - 10 times farther than previously possible.
April 10, 2014 Read more
Gusev Crater once held a lake after all, says Mars scientist
Evidence for an ancient Lake Gusev on Mars has come and gone several times. That lake is looking pretty good today, thanks to new research.
April 10, 2014 Read more
NASA is seeking proposals for the development of new energy storage technologies
NASA is seeking proposals for the development of new, more capable, energy storage technologies to replace the battery technology that has long powered America's space program.
April 9, 2014 Read more
Chance meeting creates celestial diamond ring
Created when an aging star blew off its outer layers, planetary nebula PN A66 33 is, by chance, aligned with a foreground star, and bears an uncanny resemblance to a diamond engagement ring. This cosmic gem is unusually symmetric, appearing to be almost circular on the sky.
April 9, 2014 Read more
Saturn's hexagon: an amazing phenomenon
An unusual structure with a hexagonal shape surrounding Saturn's north pole was spotted on the planet for the first time thirty years ago. Nothing similar with such a regular geometry had ever been seen on any planet in the Solar System.
April 8, 2014 Read more
Astronomers make the most precise measurement yet of the expanding universe
Astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have used 140,000 distant quasars to measure the expansion rate of the Universe when it was only one-quarter of its present age. This is the best measurement yet of the expansion rate at any epoch in the last 13 billion years.
April 7, 2014 Read more
Tracking the transition of early-universe quark soup to matter-as-we-know-it
New evidence from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider reveals different kinds of phase changes at different collision energies.
April 4, 2014 Read more
Sentinel-1A - start of a new era in Earth observation
Mapping flood events, observing oil slicks in the oceans, detecting ice distribution in the sea and measuring ground movements with millimetric precision - just some of the tasks of Sentinel-1A, the new flagship in European Earth observation.
April 4, 2014 Read more
Phoenix makes strides in orbital robotics and satellite architecture research (w/video)
Successful initial efforts fuel next steps toward developing technologies that would enable assembly of more flexible, scalable and cost-effective space systems on orbit.
April 3, 2014 Read more
Evidence that Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water
NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean of liquid water, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes.
April 3, 2014 Read more