Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Supercharged light pulverises asteroids, study finds

Radiation from dying stars is luminous enough to easily spin up orbiting asteroids to break-up speed.

February 10, 2020 Read more

One small grain of moon dust, one giant leap for lunar studies

Scientists found a new way to analyze the chemistry of the Moon's soil using a single grain of dust. Their technique can help us learn more about conditions on the surface of the Moon and formation of precious resources like water and helium there.

February 8, 2020 Read more

Galaxy formation simulated without dark matter

For the first time, researchers have simulated the formation of galaxies in a universe without dark matter. According to the scientists, their assumptions could solve many mysteries of modern cosmology.

February 7, 2020 Read more

Astronomers discover unusual monster galaxy in the very early universe

An international team of astronomers has found an unusual monster galaxy that existed about 12 billion years ago, when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old. Dubbed XMM-2599, the galaxy formed stars at a high rate and then died. Why it suddenly stopped forming stars is unclear.

February 6, 2020 Read more

Astronomers reveal rare double nucleus in nearby 'Cocoon Galaxy'

The so-called 'Cocoon Galaxy' not only has a unique shape, it has a rare double-nucleus structure, astronomers report in a new paper.

February 6, 2020 Read more

ALMA catches beautiful outcome of stellar fight

Astronomers have spotted a peculiar gas cloud that resulted from a confrontation between two stars. One star grew so large it engulfed the other which, in turn, spiraled towards its partner provoking it into shedding its outer layers.

February 5, 2020 Read more

Artificial Intelligence tool developed to predict the structure of the Universe

The origin of how the Universe created its voids and filaments can now be studied within seconds after researchers developed an artificial intelligence tool called Dark Emulator.

February 5, 2020 Read more

Researchers find way to show how the tiniest particles in our Universe saved us from complete annihilation

Gravitational waves could contain evidence to prove that neutrino particles reshuffled matter and anti-matter, explains a new study.

February 3, 2020 Read more

Exploring strangeness and the primordial Universe

A new paper summarizes the evolution in our understanding of the exotic quark signature of this primordial material which once filled the whole Universe.

January 31, 2020 Read more

Fast rotating white dwarf drags its space-time in a cosmic dance

With the help of a radio pulsar, an international team of scientists were able to detect the swirling of the space-time around its fast-rotating white dwarf-companion star, and thus confirm the theory behind the formation of this unique binary star system.

January 30, 2020 Read more

Large amounts of oxygen detected in ancient star's atmosphere

An international team of astronomers has detected large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere of one of the oldest and most elementally depleted stars known.

January 25, 2020 Read more

New insights about the brightest explosions in the Universe

Astrophysicists have, after ten years, found an explanation to the peculiar emission lines seen in one of the brightest supernovae ever observed - SN 2006gy. At the same time they found an explanation for how the supernova arose.

January 23, 2020 Read more

The core of massive dying galaxies already formed 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang

The most distant dying galaxy discovered so far, more massive than our Milky Way -- with more than a trillion stars -- has revealed that the 'cores' of these systems had formed already 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, about 1 billion years earlier than previous measurements revealed.

January 17, 2020 Read more

Astronomers reveal interstellar thread of one of life's building blocks

Astronomers have now traced the journey of phosphorus from star-forming regions to comets.

January 15, 2020 Read more

Galactic gamma-ray sources reveal birthplaces of high-energy particles

Nine sources of extremely high-energy gamma rays comprise a new catalog compiled by researchers. All produce gamma rays with energies over 56 trillion electron volts (TeV) and three emit gamma rays extending to 100 TeV and beyond, making these the highest-energy sources ever observed in our galaxy.

January 14, 2020 Read more

'Cold Neptune' and two temperate super-Earths found orbiting nearby stars

A 'cold Neptune' and two potentially habitable worlds are part of a cache of five newly discovered exoplanets and eight exoplanet candidates found orbiting nearby red dwarf stars.

January 14, 2020 Read more

TESS dates an ancient collision with our galaxy

A single bright star in the constellation of Indus, visible from the southern hemisphere, has revealed new insights on an ancient collision that our galaxy the Milky Way underwent with another smaller galaxy called Gaia-Enceladus early in its history.

January 14, 2020 Read more

X-rays and gravitational waves will combine to illuminate massive black hole collision

A new study has found that collisions of supermassive black holes may be simultaneously observable in both gravitational waves and X-rays at the beginning of the next decade.

January 14, 2020 Read more