Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Powerful jets blowing material out of galaxy

Astronomers using a worldwide network of radio telescopes have found strong evidence that a powerful jet of material propelled to nearly light speed by a galaxy's central black hole is blowing massive amounts of gas out of the galaxy. This process, they said, is limiting the growth of the black hole and the rate of star formation in the galaxy, and thus is a key to understanding how galaxies develop.

September 5, 2013 Read more

Interstellar winds buffeting our solar system have shifted direction

Scientists, including University of New Hampshire astrophysicists involved in NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, have discovered that the particles streaming into the solar system from interstellar space have likely changed direction over the last 40 years.

September 5, 2013 Read more

Coldest brown dwarfs blur lines between stars and planets

Astronomers are constantly on the hunt for ever-colder star-like bodies, and two years ago a new class of such objects was discovered. However, until now no one has known exactly how cool their surfaces really are -- some evidence suggested they could be room temperature. A new study shows that while these brown dwarfs, sometimes called failed stars, are warmer than previously thought with temperatures about 250-350 degrees Fahrenheit.

September 5, 2013 Read more

Terramechanics research aims to keep Mars rovers rolling (w/video)

Simulations predict safest path for rovers to travel.

September 5, 2013 Read more

New computational approaches speed up the exploration of the universe

How many different molecules can be created when you release one of the universe's most reactive substances, hydrogen cyanide, in the lab? And will the process create some particularly interesting molecules?

September 5, 2013 Read more

No evidence of planetary influence on solar activity

In 2012, Astronomy and Astrophysics published a statistical study of the isotopic records of solar activity, in which Abreu et al. claimed that there is evidence of planetary influence on solar activity. A+A is publishing a new analysis of these isotopic data by Cameron and Schuessler. It corrects technical errors in the statistical tests performed by Abreu et al. They find no evidence of any planetary effect on solar activity.

September 5, 2013 Read more

Chinese Moon landing mission to use 'secret weapons'

Multiple 'secret weapons' will be used on China's Chang'e-3 lunar probe, scheduled to launch at the end of this year for a moon landing mission, a key scientist said on Wednesday.

September 5, 2013 Read more

New groundbreaking research may expose new aspects of the universe

No one knows for sure, but it is not unlikely that the universe is constructed in a completely different way than the usual theories and models of today predict. The most widely used model today cannot explain everything in the universe, and therefore there is a need to explore the parts of nature which the model cannot explain. This research field is called new physics, and it turns our understanding of the universe upside down. New research now makes the search for new physics easier.

September 4, 2013 Read more

Bizarre alignment of planetary nebulae

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's New Technology Telescope to explore more than 100 planetary nebulae in the central bulge of our galaxy. They have found that butterfly-shaped members of this cosmic family tend to be mysteriously aligned -- a surprising result given their different histories and varied properties.

September 4, 2013 Read more

Blue light observations Indicate water-rich atmosphere of a super-Earth

A Japanese research team of astronomers and planetary scientists has used Subaru Telescope's two optical cameras, Suprime-Cam and the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS), with a blue transmission filter to observe planetary transits of super-Earth GJ 1214 b.

September 4, 2013 Read more

Massive storm pulls water and ammonia ices from Saturn's depths

Once every 30 years or so, or roughly one Saturnian year, a monster storm rips across the northern hemisphere of the ringed planet. In 2010, the most recent and only the sixth giant storm on Saturn observed by humans began stirring. It quickly grew to superstorm proportions, reaching 15,000 kilometers (more than 9,300 miles) in width and visible to amateur astronomers on Earth as a great white spot dancing across the surface of the planet.

September 3, 2013 Read more

Van Allen probes mark first anniversary with new discoveries and new investigations

One year after their launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 30, 2012, NASA's twin Van Allen Probes have already fundamentally changed how we understand the Van Allen radiation belts above our planet.

September 3, 2013 Read more

Quantum steps towards the Big Bang

A new approach to the unification of general theory of relativity and quantum theory.

September 2, 2013 Read more

Asteroid deflection

Potential asteroid impact on Earth can have disastrous consequences. In order to prevent such collisions, earthbound space objects must be deflected. This can be accomplished using a space probe to impact the asteroid.

September 2, 2013 Read more

From cancer treatment to ion thruster: The newest little idea for nanosat micro rockets

New electrospray thrusters for nanosatellites face some design challenges. To get around the problem, King and his team have developed an elegant strategy: eliminate the expensive and tedious microfabrication required to make the needles by letting Mother Nature take care of the assembly.

August 30, 2013 Read more

Researchers a step closer to finding cosmic ray origins

The origin of cosmic rays in the universe has confounded scientists for decades. But a study by researchers using data from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole reveals new information that may help unravel the longstanding mystery of exactly how and where they are produced.

August 30, 2013 Read more

NASA selects 2013 NASA Innovative Advanced Technology Concepts for continued study

The proposals selected for Phase 2 of the 2013 NIAC Program address a range of visionary concepts including photonic laser thrusters, extreme sample return, and innovative spherical robots designed for planetary exploration.

August 30, 2013 Read more

Chandra catches our galaxy's giant black hole rejecting food

Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have taken a major step in explaining why material around the giant black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is extraordinarily faint in X-rays. This discovery holds important implications for understanding black holes.

August 29, 2013 Read more