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Astronomer maps out Earth's place in the universe among 'Council of Giants'

A new paper maps out bright galaxies within 35-million light-years of the Earth, offering up an expanded picture of what lies beyond our doorstep.

Mar 11th, 2014

Eleventh MESSENGER planetary data system release is the largest yet

The Planetary Data System (PDS), which archives and distributes data from all of NASA's planetary missions, today released its eleventh batch of data collected by the MESSENGER mission. With this release, images and measurements are now available to the public for the fifth full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations.

Mar 10th, 2014

'Death stars' in Orion blast planets before they even form

The Orion Nebula is home to hundreds of young stars and even younger protostars known as proplyds. Many of these nascent systems will go on to develop planets, while others will have their planet-forming dust and gas blasted away by the fierce ultraviolet radiation emitted by massive O-type stars that lurk nearby.

Mar 10th, 2014

Astronomers find faint strings of galaxies inside empty space

Australian astronomers have shown galaxies in the vast empty regions of the Universe are actually aligned into delicate strings.

Mar 10th, 2014

Be an asteroid hunter in NASA's first Asteroid Grand Challenge Contest Series

NASA's Asteroid Data Hunter contest series will offer $35,000 in awards over the next six months to citizen scientists who develop improved algorithms that can be used to identify asteroids.

Mar 10th, 2014

New Van Allen Probes observations helping to improve space weather models

Using data from NASA's Van Allen Probes, researchers have tested and improved a model to help forecast what's happening in the radiation environment of near-Earth space -- a place seething with fast-moving particles and a space weather system that varies in response to incoming energy and particles from the sun.

Mar 9th, 2014

NASA's WISE survey finds thousands of new stars, but no 'Planet X'

After searching hundreds of millions of objects across our sky, NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has turned up no evidence of the hypothesized celestial body in our solar system commonly dubbed 'Planet X'

Mar 7th, 2014

A river of plasma, guarding against the sun

Scientists identify a plasma plume that naturally protects the Earth against solar storms.

Mar 7th, 2014

Lava floods the ancient plains of Mars

Two distinct volcanic eruptions have flooded this area of Daedalia Planum with lava, flowing around an elevated fragment of ancient terrain.

Mar 6th, 2014

ALMA sees icy wreckage in nearby solar system

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have discovered the splattered remains of comets colliding together around a nearby star; the researchers believe they are witnessing the total destruction of one of these icy bodies once every five minutes.

Mar 6th, 2014

A small step toward discovering habitable earths

For the first time, astronomers have used the same imaging technology found in a digital camera to take a picture of a planet far from our solar system with an Earth-based telescope. The accomplishment is a small step toward the technology astronomers will need in order to characterize planets suitable for harboring life.

Mar 6th, 2014

Laser beam from the Moon to Earth

The signal was transmitted by the Lunar Lasercom Space Terminal (LLST) on board the NASA spacecraft Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), which has been orbiting the Moon since October 2013. This is the first time that an optical link has been analysed after a long passage through space.

Mar 6th, 2014

Hubble telescope witnesses asteroid's mysterious disintegration

The Hubble Space Telescope has recorded the never-before-seen break-up of an asteroid into as many as 10 smaller pieces.

Mar 6th, 2014

GOSSS catalogue clears the way for study of massive stars

GOSSS (Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey) substantially improves on prior catalogues. It is a very ambitious project from the point of view of the number of objects and the quality of the data; it will yield a homogeneous sample, with data from both hemispheres which will be constantly updated, so it will be a very solid tool.

Mar 6th, 2014

First Light for MUSE - Powerful 3D spectrograph successfully installed on VLT

A new innovative instrument called MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) has been successfully installed on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile. MUSE has observed distant galaxies, bright stars and other test targets during the first period of very successful observations.

Mar 5th, 2014

Galactic gas stations

MIT team proposes storing extra rocket fuel in space for future missions.

Mar 5th, 2014