Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Newly discovered exoplanet orbits its star in 8.5 hours

In the time it takes you to complete a single workday, or get a full night's sleep, a small fireball of a planet 700 light-years away has already completed an entire year.

August 19, 2013 Read more

Revealing dark energy's hold on the Universe

A new collaboration aims to learn how dark energy is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.

August 15, 2013 Read more

Pulsars make a GPS for the cosmos

CSIRO scientists have written software that could guide spacecraft to Alpha Centauri, show that the planet Nibiru doesn't exist... and prove that the Earth goes around the Sun.

August 15, 2013 Read more

Spaceflight alters bacterial social networks

In two NASA-funded studies biofilms grown aboard the International Space Station bound space shuttle were compared with those grown on the ground. The study results show for the first time that spaceflight changes the behavior of bacterial communities.

August 15, 2013 Read more

Cosmic turbulences result in star and black hole formation

Just how stars and black holes in the Universe are able to form from rotating matter is one of the big questions of astrophysics. Now, a new publication by HZDR physicists in Physical Review Letters shows how magnetic fields can also cause turbulences within "dead zones," thus making an important contribution to our current understanding of just how compact objects form in the cosmos.

August 15, 2013 Read more

Galaxies had 'mature' shapes 11.5 billion years ago

An international team of astronomers led by BoMee Lee has established that mature-looking galaxies existed much earlier than previously known, about 11.5 billion years ago.

August 14, 2013 Read more

Dwarf galaxy caught ramming into a large spiral

Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed a massive cloud of multimillion-degree gas in a galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. The hot gas cloud is likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much larger galaxy called NGC 1232.

August 14, 2013 Read more

A magnetar at the heart of our Milky Way

Radio astronomers use pulsar with strong magnetic field to investigate supermassive black hole.

August 14, 2013 Read more

Precisely measuring the velocity of a supernova shockwave

A research team has succeeded in precisely measuring the expansion velocity of a shockwave of the supernova remnant W44.

August 13, 2013 Read more

Cosmology in the lab using laser-cooled ions

Scientists used laser-cooled ions in so-called 'ion Coulomb crystals'. They were able to show for the first time how symmetry breaking can be generated in a controlled manner and how the occurrence of defects can then be observed.

August 12, 2013 Read more

Perseid meteors to light up summer skies

The evening of 12 August and morning of 13 August see the annual maximum of the Perseids meteor shower. This year prospects for watching this natural firework display are particularly good.

August 9, 2013 Read more

Poised for discovery: Gemini's much-anticipated infrared instrument goes on-sky

Gemini Observatory's latest instrument, a powerful infrared camera and spectrograph at Gemini South, reveals its potential in a series of striking on-sky commissioning images released today.

August 9, 2013 Read more

Hubble finds source of Magellanic stream

Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy.

August 8, 2013 Read more

Is Europa habitable? Defining scientific goals of a mission to explore Jupiter's moon

Europa, the ice-covered moon of the planet Jupiter, may be able to support life. NASA has commissioned a team of expert scientists to consider the science goals for a landed spacecraft mission to the surface of Europa, and to investigate the composition and geology of its icy shell and the potential for life within its interior ocean.

August 7, 2013 Read more

Quasar observed in 6 separate light reflections

Quasars are active black holes -- primarily from the early universe. Using a special method where you observe light that has been bent by gravity on its way through the universe, a group of physics students from the Niels Bohr Institute have observed a quasar whose light has been deflected and reflected in six separate images. This is the first time a quasar has been observed with so many light reflections.

August 7, 2013 Read more

First hundred thousand years of our Universe

A new analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation data by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has taken the furthest look back through time yet - 100 years to 300,000 years after the Big Bang - and provided tantalizing new hints of clues as to what might have happened.

August 7, 2013 Read more

The odd couple - two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door

ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud - one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: Red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.

August 7, 2013 Read more

The sun's magnetic field is about to flip (w/video)

Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.

August 6, 2013 Read more