Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

What the rise of oxygen on early Earth tells us about life on other planets

Deeper understanding of Earth's atmosphere could help us identify signs of life beyond our solar system.

January 31, 2022 Read more

Exotic cocktail in the atmosphere of extreme exoplanet

Using high-resolution spectroscopy, researchers have succeeded in mapping the atmosphere of an exoplanet located 322 light years from Earth. The knowledge gained about the hot gas surrounding the Jupiter-like planet is important for the understanding of Earth-like planets.

January 28, 2022 Read more

Scientists explain mysterious finger-like features in solar flares

Astronomers have presented a new explanation for the mysterious downward-moving dark voids seen in some solar flares.

January 27, 2022 Read more

New anti-reflective structures will improve the performance of telescopes studying radiation from the Big Bang

An international team has developed an alumina short-wavelength absorber patterned with moth eye-like structures. These new anti-reflective structures will improve the performance of telescopes studying radiation from the Big Bang.

January 27, 2022 Read more

Mysterious object unlike anything astronomers have seen before

A team mapping radio waves in the Universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour, and it's unlike anything astronomers have seen before.

January 26, 2022 Read more

Cosmic chemistry in the lab

Scientists have recreated some of the harsh environment of interstellar space in the lab and analysed the reaction of astrochemical molecules to these conditions.

January 26, 2022 Read more

Studying the Big Bang with artificial intelligence

Can machine learning be used to uncover the secrets of the quark-gluon plasma? Yes - but only with sophisticated new methods.

January 25, 2022 Read more

Extraordinary black hole found in neighboring galaxy

The discovery, one of the only confirmed intermediate-mass black holes, lives in an equally rare object known as a low-mass, stripped nucleus.

January 24, 2022 Read more

Hope for present-day Martian groundwater dries up

Liquid water previously detected under Mars' ice-covered south pole is probably just a dusty mirage, according to a new study of the red planet.

January 24, 2022 Read more

Scientists make first detection of exotic 'X' particles in quark-gluon plasma

The findings could redefine the kinds of particles that were abundant in the early universe.

January 24, 2022 Read more

Astronomers confirm a highly eccentric black hole merger for the first time

For the first time, scientists believe they have detected a merger of two black holes with eccentric orbits. This can help explain how some of the black hole mergers detected are much heavier than previously thought possible.

January 21, 2022 Read more

New type of supernova discovered

A first-of-its-kind exploding star - thought to have existed only in theory - was recently discovered.

January 20, 2022 Read more

Enhancing simulations of curved space with qubits

One of the mind-bending ideas that physicists and mathematicians have come up with is that space itself - not just objects in space - can be curved. When space curves (as happens dramatically near a black hole), sizes and directions defy normal intuition. Understanding curved spaces is important to expanding our knowledge of the universe, but it is fiendishly difficult to study curved spaces in a lab setting.

January 20, 2022 Read more

Hubble finds a black hole igniting star formation In a dwarf galaxy

A black hole at the heart of the dwarf galaxy Henize 2-10 is creating stars rather than gobbling them up. The black hole is apparently contributing to the firestorm of new star formation taking place in the galaxy.

January 19, 2022 Read more

Scientists uncover evidence for an internal ocean in small Saturn moon

Scientist set out to prove that the tiny, innermost moon of Saturn was a frozen inert satellite and instead discovered compelling evidence that Mimas has a liquid internal ocean.

January 19, 2022 Read more

SETI Institute teams up to help students design science program for sky-monitoring telescope based on the moon

The lunar-based camera L-CAM1 will capture images for research in astrophysics, planetary science and planetary defense.

January 18, 2022 Read more

Researchers uncover model for extremely luminous and fast rising supernova

COW and GEP are new types of exploding stars. Researchers have succeeded in explaining the features of a new type of supernova which appears ten to a hundred times brighter at its peak, and with a much faster rise toward the peak compared to an ordinary supernova.

January 18, 2022 Read more

From dust to planet: How gas giants form

Gas giant planets, such as Jupiter, can form rapidly by incorporating nearby icy bodies made from drifting pebbles born in the outer parts of young planetary systems - all in a period of about 200,000 years. This finding has implications for understanding how habitable planets are created; not just in our solar system, but in others too.

January 17, 2022 Read more