Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Dark matter: 'real stuff' or gravity misunderstood?

New research pushes the limits of dark matter observations to the unknown outer regions of galaxies, and in doing so re-evaluates several dark matter models and alternative theories of gravity.

June 22, 2021 Read more

Mystery of galaxy's missing dark matter deepens

Finding a galaxy lacking dark matter is an extraordinary claim that challenges conventional wisdom. It would have the potential to upset theories of galaxy formation and evolution.

June 17, 2021 Read more

Study of young chaotic star system reveals planet formation secrets

New observations of young stellar object Elias 2-27 confirm gravitational instabilities and planet-forming disk mass as key to formation of giant planets.

June 17, 2021 Read more

How a supermassive black hole originates

How do supermassive black holes in the early universe originate? Scientists have come up with an explanation: a massive seed black hole that the collapse of a dark matter halo could produce.

June 16, 2021 Read more

'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse caused by a dusty fart

The red supergiant Betelgeuse - best known for being in Orion's armpit - has recently gone through what astronomers have named the 'Great Dimming', where the otherwise very bright star has become darker and cloudy. International researchers say that it's darkened state is likely the result of a toot of dust and gas that originated in a cool spot in the star's southern hemisphere.

June 16, 2021 Read more

Discovery of the largest rotation in the universe

By mapping the motion of galaxies in huge filaments that connect the cosmic web, astronomers have found that these long tendrils of galaxies spin on the scale of hundreds of millions of light years. A rotation on such enormous scales has never been seen before.

June 14, 2021 Read more

Black holes help with star birth

The cosmic mass monsters clear the way for the formation of new suns in satellite galaxies.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Astronomers spot a 'blinking giant' near the centre of the Galaxy

Astronomers observed the star decreasing in brightness by a factor of 30, so that it nearly disappeared from the sky. While many stars change in brightness because they pulsate or are eclipsed by another star in a binary system, it's exceptionally rare for a star to become fainter over a period of several months and then brighten again.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Astronomers discover earliest gigantic black hole storm

Researchers discovered a titanic galactic wind driven by a supermassive black hole 13.1 billion years ago. This is the earliest-yet-observed example of such a wind to date and is a telltale sign that huge black holes have a profound effect on the growth of galaxies from the very early history of the Universe.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Star's death will play a mean pinball with rhythmic planets

Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Liquid water on exomoons of free-floating planets

The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists have calculated that such systems could harbor sufficient water to make life possible - and sustain it.

June 10, 2021 Read more

A study shows the unexpected effect of black holes beyond their own galaxies

Even though these objects are thousands of millions of times smaller than their host galaxies our current view is that the Universe can be understood only if the evolution of galaxies is regulated by the activity of these black holes, because without them the observed properties of the galaxies cannot be explained.

June 9, 2021 Read more

Scientists discover new exoplanet with an atmosphere ripe for study

An international group of collaborators have discovered a new, temperate sub-Neptune sized exoplanet with a 24-day orbital period orbiting a nearby M dwarf star. The recent discovery offers exciting research opportunities thanks to the planet's substantial atmosphere, small star, and how fast the system is moving away from the Earth.

June 9, 2021 Read more

Discovery of a dying supermassive black hole via a 3000-year-long light echo

A research group has revealed more about the lifespan of supermassive black holes. They accidentally caught a bright phase AGN signal from the Arp 187 galaxy with no signal from the nucleus.

June 8, 2021 Read more

Scientists identify a rare magnetic propeller in a binary star system

Researchers have identified the first eclipsing magnetic propeller in a cataclysmic variable star system.

June 7, 2021 Read more

GMRT measures the atomic hydrogen gas mass in galaxies 9 billion years ago

This is the earliest epoch in the universe for which there is a measurement of the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies. The new result is a crucial confirmation of the group's earlier result, where they had measured the atomic hydrogen content of galaxies 8 billion years ago, and pushes our understanding of galaxies to even earlier in the universe.

June 7, 2021 Read more

Plasma jets reveal magnetic fields far, far away

Radio telescope images enable a new way to study magnetic fields in galaxy clusters millions of light years away.

June 1, 2021 Read more

Dark Energy Survey releases most precise look at universe's evolution

New results from the Dark Energy Survey use the largest ever sample of galaxies over an enormous piece of the sky to produce the most precise measurements of the universe's composition and growth to date.

May 27, 2021 Read more