Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines
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Hubble unveils a deep sea of small and faint early galaxies
A team of scientists led by astronomers at the University of California, Riverside has used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to uncover the long-suspected underlying population of galaxies that produced the bulk of new stars during the universe's early years. The galaxies are the smallest, faintest, and most numerous galaxies ever seen in the remote universe, and were captured by Hubble deep exposures taken in ultraviolet light.
January 7, 2014 Read more
Gemini Planet Imager first light
After nearly a decade of development, construction, and testing, the world's most advanced instrument for directly imaging and analyzing planets around other stars is pointing skyward and collecting light from distant worlds.
January 7, 2014 Read more
Astronomy students discover rare eclipsing double asteroid
Students in a University of Maryland undergraduate astronomy class made a discovery that wowed professional astronomers: a previously unstudied asteroid is actually a pair of asteroids that orbit and eclipse one another. Fewer than 100 binary eclipsing asteroids have been found in the main asteroid belt.
January 7, 2014 Read more
Fermi makes first gamma-ray study of a gravitational lens (w/video)
An international team of astronomers, using NASA's Fermi observatory, has made the first-ever gamma-ray measurements of a gravitational lens, a kind of natural telescope formed when a rare cosmic alignment allows the gravity of a massive object to bend and amplify light from a more distant source.
January 6, 2014 Read more
ALMA spots supernova dust factory
Striking new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope capture, for the first time, the remains of a recent supernova brimming with freshly formed dust. If enough of this dust makes the perilous transition into interstellar space, it could explain how many galaxies acquired their dusty, dusky appearance.
January 6, 2014 Read more
Pulsar in stellar triple system makes unique gravitational laboratory
The discovery of a millisecond pulsar in a triple system with two white dwarfs gives astronomers the most precise tool yet for studying the gravitational three-body problem. In addition, the nature of the stars and their interactions may give an unprecedented clue that points toward a new theory of gravity compatible, unlike general relativity, with quantum theory.
January 6, 2014 Read more
New studies give strong boost to binary-star formation theory
Recent studies with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array add strong, new evidence to the theory that binary stars form when the disk of gas and dust orbiting one young star gravitationally fragments, forming a second young star.
January 2, 2014 Read more
Researchers use Hubble telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world
A team of scientists led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago report they have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star for the first time.
January 2, 2014 Read more
Laser demonstration reveals bright future for space communication
The completion of the 30-day Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration or LLCD mission has revealed that the possibility of expanding broadband capabilities in space using laser communications is as bright as expected.
December 23, 2013 Read more
Van Allen Probes shed light on decades-old mystery
New research using data from NASA's Van Allen Probes mission helps resolve decades of scientific uncertainty over the origin of ultra-relativistic electrons in Earth's near space environment, and is likely to influence our understanding of planetary magnetospheres throughout the universe.
December 20, 2013 Read more
Starless cloud cores reveal why some stars are bigger than others
Massive stars present an intriguing mystery: how do they grow so large when the vast majority of stars in the Milky Way are considerably smaller? To find the answer, astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope to survey the cores of some of the darkest, coldest, and densest clouds in our Galaxy to search for the telltale signs of star formation.
December 20, 2013 Read more
Find a star at Christmas
Scientists developed the 'Loss of the Night app' to quantify the illumination of the night sky caused by artificial light. The app, originally available in only German and English, has now been expanded to support 11 languages in order to get data from as many regions as possible.
December 20, 2013 Read more
New technique measures mass of exoplanets
Method will help scientists determine the mass of exoplanets that are not measurable in any other way.
December 20, 2013 Read more
Space-time - smooth or grainy?
A new paper reviews research on the grain of space-time.
December 19, 2013 Read more
Eight essential facts about NASA's Deep Space Network
Get to know the Deep Space Network (DSN) - NASA's worldwide radio telescope array that communicates with spacecraft throughout the solar system.
December 19, 2013 Read more
Powerful ancient explosions explain new class of supernovae
Astronomers affiliated with the Supernova Legacy Survey have discovered two of the brightest and most distant supernovae ever recorded, 10 billion light-years away and a hundred times more luminous than a normal supernova.
December 18, 2013 Read more
Europe's billion-star surveyor is ready for launch
Europe's billion-star surveyor, Gaia, is due to be launched into space on Thursday 19 December 2013, where it will embark on its mission to create a highly accurate 3D map of our galaxy.
December 18, 2013 Read more
Hitchhiker's guide to Vesta's hidden attractions
Varied geological formations and a unique landscape: new evaluations show the beauty spots of protoplanet Vesta.
December 18, 2013 Read more