Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Galactic bubbles are more complex than imagined

Astronomers have revealed new evidence about the properties of the giant bubbles of high-energy gas that extend far above and below the Milky Way galaxy's center.

May 9, 2023 Read more

Webb looks for Fomalhaut's asteroid belt and finds much more

Astronomers imaged the warm dust around a nearby young star, Fomalhaut, in order to study the first asteroid belt ever seen outside of our solar system in infrared light. But to their surprise, the dusty structures are much more complex than the asteroid and Kuiper dust belts of our solar system.

May 8, 2023 Read more

Precision mass measurements of nuclei reveal neutron star properties

Scientists measured the masses of several key nuclei with high-precision by employing a state-of-the-art storage-ring mass spectrometry technique. Using the new mass data, they investigated X-ray bursts on the surface of a neutron star, thus deepening the understanding of neutron star properties.

May 5, 2023 Read more

In a first, astronomers spot a star swallowing a planet

Scientists have observed hints of stars just before, and shortly after, the act of consuming entire planets, but they have never caught one in the act until now.

May 4, 2023 Read more

Can ET detect us?

What would the Earth look like to an alien civilization located light years away?

May 3, 2023 Read more

On the trail of a mysterious force in space

An initial study of dark energy with eROSITA indicates that it is uniformly distributed in space and time.

May 3, 2023 Read more

Doubling the number of sources of repeating fast radio bursts

A team of astronomers has discovered 25 new sources of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs), these explosions in the sky that come from far beyond the Milky Way. This discovery brings the total number of confirmed FRB sources to 50.

April 29, 2023 Read more

Astronomers image for the first time a black hole expelling a powerful jet

An international team of scientists has used new millimeter-wavelength observations to produce an image that shows, for the first time, both the ring-like accretion structure around a black hole, where matter falls into the black hole, and the black hole's associated powerful relativistic jet.

April 26, 2023 Read more

Astronomers solve the 60-year mystery of quasars - the most powerful objects in the Universe

Scientists have unlocked one of the biggest mysteries of quasars - the brightest, most powerful objects in the Universe - by discovering that they are ignited by galaxies colliding.

April 26, 2023 Read more

Scientists discover rare element in exoplanet's atmosphere

The rare metal terbium has been found in an exoplanet's atmosphere for the first time. The researchers have also developed a new method for analyzing exoplanets, making it possible to study them in more detail.

April 26, 2023 Read more

Astrophysicists reveal the nature of dark matter through the study of crinkles in spacetime

A team of astrophysicists has provided the most direct evidence yet that Dark Matter does not constitute ultramassive particles as is commonly thought but instead comprises particles so light that they travel through space like waves.

April 25, 2023 Read more

Supermassive black hole tears apart a giant star in a display brighter, more energetic and longer lasting than any observed before

'Scary Barbie' is the affectionate nickname astronomers are calling one of the most energetic and luminous transients ever observed: a supermassive black hole tearing apart a massive star.

April 25, 2023 Read more

How to land on a planet safely

Simulations capture the interaction between a rocket plume and the surface and find ways to make planetary descents and ascents safer.

April 25, 2023 Read more

New stellar danger to planets identified by NASA's Chandra program

An exploded star can pose more risks to nearby planets than previously thought, according to a new study from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other X-ray telescopes.

April 21, 2023 Read more

The largest cosmic blast ever, pinpointed

Astronomers pinpointed the location of the brightest cosmic explosion ever recorded was pinpointed at 2.4 billion light years from Earth.

April 13, 2023 Read more

Quantum 'magic' could help explain the origin of spacetime

Physicists relate the quantum property of 'magic' to the chaotic nature of black holes for the first time.

April 13, 2023 Read more

New findings that map the universe's cosmic growth support Einstein's theory of gravity

Research by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration has culminated in a significant breakthrough in understanding the evolution of the universe.

April 11, 2023 Read more

Scientists map gusty winds in a far-off neutron star system

Astronomers have mapped the 'disk winds' associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a sun-like star. The findings may offer clues to how supermassive black holes shape entire galaxies.

April 10, 2023 Read more