Space telescope Fermi's motion produces a study in spirograph (w/video)
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits our planet every 95 minutes, building up increasingly deeper views of the universe with every circuit. Now a Fermi scientist has transformed LAT data of a famous pulsar into a mesmerizing movie that visually encapsulates the spacecraft's complex motion.
Posted: Feb 28th, 2013
Read moreX-ray space observatory NuSTAR helps solve riddle of black hole spin
Two X-ray space observatories, NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton, have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our sun.
Posted: Feb 27th, 2013
Read moreWhite dwarf supernovae are discovered in Virgo Cluster galaxy and in sky area 'anonymous' (w/video)
Observation of two bright exploding stars improves the astronomical "tape measure" that scientists use to calculate the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.
Posted: Feb 27th, 2013
Read moreJUICE - mission to the icy moons of Jupiter
ESA chooses instruments for its Jupiter icy moons explorer.
Posted: Feb 27th, 2013
Read moreImpact craters may have been cradles of life
Even comparatively small meteorite impact craters may have played a key role in the origin and evolution of early life on Earth, according to a researcher at The University of Western Australia.
Posted: Feb 26th, 2013
Read moreFuture evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars
Even dying stars could host planets with life - and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarf stars. Researchers found that we could detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf's planet much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star.
Posted: Feb 26th, 2013
Read moreWorld's smallest space telescope to launch on Monday (w/video)
Canada helps push the boundaries of astronomy with the next wave of smaller satellites.
Posted: Feb 22nd, 2013
Read moreJourney to the limits of spacetime (w/video)
Black holes shape the growth and death of the stars around them through their powerful gravitational pull and explosive ejections of energy. In a recent Science paper, researchers predicted the formation of accretion disks and relativistic jets that warp and bend more than previously thought, shaped by the extreme gravity of the black hole and by powerful magnetic forces generated by its spin.
Posted: Feb 21st, 2013
Read moreAsteroids no match for paint gun, says Prof (w/video)
There is research that is off the wall, some off the charts and some off the planet, such as what an aerospace and physics professor is exploring. It's a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint, and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid, so to speak, so much so that NASA is getting involved and wants to know much more.
Posted: Feb 21st, 2013
Read moreDiscovering the birth of an asteroid trail
Unlike comets, asteroids are not characterised by exhibiting a trail, but there are now ten exceptions. Spanish researchers have observed one of these rare asteroids from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (Spain) and have discovered that something happened around the 1st July 2011 causing its trail to appear: maybe internal rupture or collision with another asteroid.
Posted: Feb 21st, 2013
Read moreA cool discovery about out Sun's next-door twin
ESA's Herschel space observatory has detected a cool layer in the atmosphere of Alpha Centauri A, the first time this has been seen in a star beyond our own Sun. The finding is not only important for understanding the Sun's activity, but could also help in the quest to discover proto-planetary systems around other stars.
Posted: Feb 21st, 2013
Read moreMercury may have harbored an ancient magma ocean
Massive lava flows may have given rise to two distinct rock types on Mercury's surface.
Posted: Feb 21st, 2013
Read moreA simple view of gravity does not fully explain the distribution of stars in crowded clusters
Gravity remains the dominant force on large astronomical scales, but when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity.
Posted: Feb 20th, 2013
Read moreKepler mission discovers tiny planet system
Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.
Posted: Feb 20th, 2013
Read moreNASA seeks big ideas for small in-space propulsion systems
NASA's Space Technology Program is calling for proposals to develop miniaturized electrospray propulsion technologies that could revolutionize small satellite propulsion systems.
Posted: Feb 20th, 2013
Read moreSearching for the solar system's chemical recipe
Berkeley Lab's Chemical Dynamics Beamline points to why isotope ratios in interplanetary dust and meteorites differ from Earth's
Posted: Feb 20th, 2013
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