800 billion degrees Celsius: temperatures as they occur in star collisions measured in the laboratory
An international group of researchers has succeeded for the first time in measuring the so-called black-body radiation.
Aug 9th, 2019
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Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines
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Dark matter may be older than the Big Bang, study suggests
Dark matter, which researchers believe make up about 80% of the universe?s mass, is one of the most elusive mysteries in modern physics. What exactly it is and how it came to be is a mystery, but a new study now suggests that dark matter may have existed before the Big Bang.
Aug 8th, 2019
Read moreAstronomers reveal true colours of evolving galactic beasts
Astronomers have spotted what they suggest is a 'brief transition phase in the development of these galactic giants that could shed light on how quasars and their host galaxies evolve.
Aug 7th, 2019
Read moreScientists resolve the nature of powerful cosmic objects
At the center of certain galaxies are objects of such tremendous brightness they outshine the rest of their galaxy by four orders of magnitude. Our understanding of these active galactic nuclei has progressed by leaps and bounds over the past several decades, though recently debate has centered on the identity of some of these objects.
Aug 6th, 2019
Read moreRepeating outflows of hot wind found close to black hole
An international team of astrophysicists have detected a very hot, dense outflowing wind close to a black hole at least 25,000 light-years from Earth.
Aug 6th, 2019
Read moreDead planets can 'broadcast' for up to a billion years
Astronomers are planning to hunt for cores of exoplanets around white dwarf stars by 'tuning in' to the radio waves that they emit.
Aug 6th, 2019
Read moreAstronomers discover a new type of pulsating star
A team of scientists recently discovered a new class of pulsators that vary in brightness every five minutes.
Aug 1st, 2019
Read moreHubble uncovers a 'heavy metal' exoplanet shaped like a football
How can a planet be 'hotter than hot'? The answer is when heavy metals are detected escaping from the planet's atmosphere, instead of condensing into clouds.
Aug 1st, 2019
Read moreConfirmation of toasty TESS planet leads to surprising find of promising world (w/video)
A piping hot planet discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has pointed the way to additional worlds orbiting the same star, one of which is located in the star's habitable zone. If made of rock, this planet may be around twice Earth's size.
Jul 31st, 2019
Read moreAt the edge of chaos: New method for exoplanet stability analysis
Starting with observational data and scalar time series, this method uses complex network topology to deduce the underlying dynamics of systems in a fast, efficient way without the need for n-body simulations.
Jul 30th, 2019
Read moreAstronomers map vast void in our cosmic neighborhood
Astronomers have published a new study that reveals more of the vast cosmic structure surrounding our Milky Way galaxy.
Jul 23rd, 2019
Read moreThe early days of the Milky Way revealed
New study puts a sequence to the events which gave rise to our Galaxy.
Jul 22nd, 2019
Read moreChemistry of the cosmological dark ages studied in the lab
New measurements imply dramatically higher abundance of helium hydride ions in the early universe.
Jul 18th, 2019
Read more'Moon-forming' circumplanetary disk discovered in distant star system
Astronomers have made the first-ever observations of a circumplanetary disk, the planet-girding belt of dust and gas that astronomers strongly theorize controls the formation of planets and gives rise to an entire system of moons, like those found around Jupiter.
Jul 12th, 2019
Read moreGalaxy clusters caught in a first kiss
For the first time, astronomers have found two giant clusters of galaxies that are just about to collide. This observation can be seen as a missing 'piece of the puzzle' in our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe.
Jul 12th, 2019
Read moreHubble uncovers black hole disk that shouldn't exist
As if black holes weren't mysterious enough, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found an unexpected thin disk of material furiously whirling around a supermassive black hole at the heart of the magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 3147, located 130 million light-years away.
Jul 11th, 2019
Read moreAstronomers expand cosmic 'cheat sheet' in hunt for life
Using nature's color palette from early Earth, astronomers have created a cosmic 'cheat sheet' in order to understand where discovered exoplanets may fall along their own evolutionary spectrum.
Jul 10th, 2019
Read moreExactly how fast is the universe expanding?
The collision of two neutron stars (GW170817) flung out an extraordinary fireball of material and energy that is allowing a team of astrophysicists to calculate a more precise value for the Hubble constant, the speed of the universe's expansion.
Jul 9th, 2019
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