Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Air Force sends mystery X-37B mini-shuttle back to space (w/video)

A top-secret mini-space shuttle has blasted off from Cape Canaveral.

December 11, 2012 Read more

New knowledge about the remarkable properties of black holes

Black holes are surrounded by many mysteries, but now researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, have come up with new groundbreaking theories that can explain several of their properties. The research shows that black holes have properties that resemble the dynamics of both solids and liquids.

December 11, 2012 Read more

CubeSats in orbit after historic Space Station deployment

Typically satellites launch from Earth, requiring dedicated launch vehicles to propel them into the proper orbit. The cost for this launch scenario could be reduced considerably if there was another way to get the satellites into their optimal orbit. The Japan Aerospace and Exploration Agency (JAXA) found a way to cut the costs of this activity by designing a small satellite launcher, installed recently on the International Space Station.

December 11, 2012 Read more

An elusive effect measured during the last Venus transit

The challenge was the observation of effect occurred during the transit of Venus across the Sun on June 6th, dubbed "Rossiter-McLaughlin effect". This is a phenomenon that occurs when a celestial body passes in front of a star, hiding a part of its rotating surface and that produces a temporary distortion in the profiles of the spectral lines of light coming from the eclipsed star.

December 11, 2012 Read more

Hypergiant star amazes for 30 years

A European research team has published the results of a 30-year study of an extraordinary hypergiant star.

December 9, 2012 Read more

SpaceX wins first U.S. military launch contracts

The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center has awarded SpaceX two Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV)-class missions: DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) and STP-2 (Space Test Program 2)

December 7, 2012 Read more

X-ray vision can reveal the moment of birth of violent supernovae

A team of astronomers led by the University of Leicester has uncovered new evidence that suggests that X-ray detectors in space could be the first to witness new supernovae that signal the death of massive stars.

December 7, 2012 Read more

Private firm plans to offer Moon trips for $1.4billion (w/video)

A team of former Nasa executives has launched a private venture to send two people to the Moon for $1.4bn.

December 7, 2012 Read more

Apollo's lunar dust data being restored

Forty years after the last Apollo spacecraft launched, the science from those missions continues to shape our view of the moon. In one of the latest developments, readings from the Apollo 14 and 15 dust detectors have been restored by scientists at NASA

December 7, 2012 Read more

Hubble sees a galaxy hit a bullseye

NGC 922's current unusual form is a result of a cosmic bullseye millions of years ago. A smaller galaxy, catalogued as 2MASXI J0224301-244443, plunged right through the heart of NGC 922 and shot out the other side.

December 6, 2012 Read more

NASA is planning a new robotic Mars mission by 2020

Building on the success of Curiosity's Red Planet landing, NASA has announced plans for a robust multi-year Mars program, including a new robotic science rover set to launch in 2020.

December 6, 2012 Read more

GRAIL reveals a battered lunar history

Twin spacecraft create a highly detailed gravity map of the moon, finding an interior pulverized by early impacts.

December 6, 2012 Read more

When the first stars blinked on

The very first stars may have turned on when the universe was 750 million years old.

December 6, 2012 Read more

Crowd-funded, DIY spacecraft to float into low-Earth orbit

A Cornell-based project called KickSat is set to launch more than 200 tiny satellites, nicknamed "sprites," into low-Earth orbit as part of a routine NASA-administered mission in 2013 to the International Space Station.

December 5, 2012 Read more

Galaxy-wide echoes from the past

VLT observations identify very rare new kind of galaxy.

December 5, 2012 Read more

Cosmic radio waves mimic chirping of 'alien birds'

Twin spacecraft have captured the clearest sounds yet from Earth's radiation belts - and they mimic the chirping of birds.

December 4, 2012 Read more

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation gives a big boost to BigBOSS

$2.1 Million Grant to Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics advances dark energy research at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab.

December 4, 2012 Read more

Herschel and Keck take census of the invisible Universe

By combining the observing powers of ESA's Herschel space observatory and the ground-based Keck telescopes, astronomers have characterised hundreds of previously unseen starburst galaxies, revealing extraordinary high star-formation rates across the history of the Universe.

December 4, 2012 Read more