A neutron star's unusual dance
Satellite x-ray observations reveal a neutron star with a donut-shaped magnetic field and axial wobble.
Posted: Jul 4th, 2014
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Fruit fly immunity fails with fungus after (space)flight
A new study suggests that normal gravity or hypergravity on the space station may help mitigate some of the biological problems in organisms living in space.
Posted: Jul 3rd, 2014
Read moreControversial clues of 2 'Goldilocks planets' that might support life are proven false
Mysteries about controversial signals from a star considered a prime target in the search for extraterrestrial life now have been solved. The research proves, for the first time, that some of the signals actually are from events inside the star itself, not from the two so-called 'Goldilocks planets', which were suspected to be just-right for life and orbiting the star at a distance where liquid water potentially could exist. No planets there, just star burps.
Posted: Jul 3rd, 2014
Read moreA young star's age can be gleamed from nothing but sound waves
Determining the age of stars has long been a challenge for astronomers. In experiments researchers show that 'infant' stars can be distinguished from 'adolescent' stars by measuring the acoustic waves they emit.
Posted: Jul 3rd, 2014
Read moreSights are set on the Vela pulsar
The first data from H.E.S.S. II show the pulsed gamma-ray signal.
Posted: Jul 3rd, 2014
Read moreMartian salts must touch ice to make liquid water (w/video)
In chambers that mimic Mars' conditions, researchers have shown how small amounts of liquid water could form on the planet despite its below-freezing temperatures.
Posted: Jul 2nd, 2014
Read moreNASA launches new carbon-sensing mission to monitor Earth's breathing
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 soon will begin a minimum two-year mission to locate Earth's sources of and storage places for atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas responsible for warming our world and a critical component of the planet's carbon cycle.
Posted: Jul 2nd, 2014
Read moreA stellar womb shaped and destroyed by its ungrateful offspring
The little-known cloud of cosmic gas and dust called Gum 15 is the birthplace and home of hot young stars. Beautiful and deadly, these stars mould the appearance of their mother nebula and, as they progress into adulthood, will eventually also be the death of her.
Posted: Jul 2nd, 2014
Read moreYoung sun's violent history solves meteorite mystery
Astronomers using the Herschel space observatory to probe the turbulent beginnings of a Sun-like star have found evidence of mighty stellar winds that could solve a puzzling meteorite mystery in our own back yard.
Posted: Jul 1st, 2014
Read moreHubble to proceed with full search for New Horizons targets
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has been given the go-ahead to conduct an intensive search for a suitable outer solar system object that the New Horizons spacecraft could visit after the probe streaks though the Pluto system in July 2015.
Posted: Jul 1st, 2014
Read moreRosetta's comet 'sweats' two glasses of water a second
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has found that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is releasing the equivalent of two small glasses of water into space every second, even at a cold 583 million kilometres from the Sun.
Posted: Jun 30th, 2014
Read moreMysterious features on Titan reveal the moon's seasonal changes
Bright spots in a large lake on Titan suggest that Saturn's largest moon supports processes similar to Earth's water cycle.
Posted: Jun 30th, 2014
Read moreChinese scientists prepare for lunar base life support system
China is a step closer to setting up a lunar base after a 105-day manned airtight test, in which the bio-regenerative life support systems of Lunar Palace 1 sustained the lives of three trial volunteers.
Posted: Jun 27th, 2014
Read moreAstronomers closer to proving gravitational waves
Researchers have provided another piece of the puzzle with their precise measurements of a rapidly rotating neutron star: one of the smallest, densest stars in the universe.
Posted: Jun 27th, 2014
Read moreRevisiting the early Universe
In the first fleeting milliseconds after the Big Bang, the Universe consisted of a superdense soup of quarks and gluons that were hundreds of thousands of times hotter than the Sun. Over the next 14 billion years, the Universe stretched and cooled, leaving traces of the original brew trapped inside the protons and neutrons of atoms. Scientists are smashing atoms together at high speeds to liberate and observe these remnants of the early Universe and gain a better understanding of our cosmic beginnings.
Posted: Jun 27th, 2014
Read moreChina aims for rover on Mars by 2020
China plans to land a rover vehicle on Mars in 2020 and bring back soil samples from the planet a decade later, a top scientist with the country's lunar probe mission said yesterday.
Posted: Jun 26th, 2014
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