Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Galaxies that feed on other galaxies

An international team of astronomers finds signs that the outer halo of the Milky Way contains stellar remains of massive dwarf galaxies that were devoured by our own.

January 31, 2018 Read more

Emission from the centre of a galaxy has a serpentine shape

An international group of scientists has discovered a peculiar spiral jet with many twists.

January 31, 2018 Read more

Glory from gloom

A dark cloud of cosmic dust snakes across this spectacular wide field image, illuminated by the brilliant light of new stars. This dense cloud is a star-forming region called Lupus 3, where dazzlingly hot stars are born from collapsing masses of gas and dust.

January 31, 2018 Read more

Stellar embryos in nearby dwarf galaxy contain surprisingly complex organic molecules

New observations in the Large Magellanic Cloud have uncovered the surprisingly clear chemical 'fingerprints' of the complex organic molecules methanol, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate.

January 30, 2018 Read more

Stellar magnetism: What's behind the most brilliant lights in the sky?

Space physicists have just released unprecedented detail on a bizarre phenomenon that powers the northern lights, solar flares and coronal mass ejections (the biggest explosions in our solar system).

January 30, 2018 Read more

Newborns or survivors? The unexpected matter found in hostile Black Hole winds

New theory predicts origins of molecules in destructive cosmic outflows.

January 30, 2018 Read more

Applying machine learning to the universe's mysteries

Scientists teach machines to analyze simulations of exotic subatomic 'soup'.

January 30, 2018 Read more

Astrochemists reveal the magnetic secrets of methanol

Scientists have solved an important puzzle in astrochemistry: how to measure magnetic fields in space using methanol, the simplest form of alcohol. Their results give astronomers a new way of investigating how massive stars are born.

January 29, 2018 Read more

Surface explosion sets off final journey of dying star

Scientists discover supernova's ignition mechanism.

January 29, 2018 Read more

Chasing dark matter with the oldest stars in the Milky Way

How an international team of researchers is constraining the speed of invisible and undetectable dark matter.

January 24, 2018 Read more

Astronomers produce first detailed images of surface of giant star

An international team of astronomers has produced the first detailed images of the surface of a giant star outside our solar system, revealing a nearly circular, dust-free atmosphere with complex areas of moving material, known as convection cells or granules.

January 23, 2018 Read more

New technique for finding life on Mars

Researchers demonstrate for the first time the potential of existing technology to directly detect and characterize life on Mars and other planets.

January 18, 2018 Read more

Hubble weighs in on mass of 3 million billion suns

In 2014, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope found that this enormous galaxy cluster contains the mass of a staggering three million billion suns -- so it's little wonder that it has earned the nickname of El Gordo ('the Fat One' in Spanish).

January 17, 2018 Read more

Odd behavior of star reveals lonely black hole hiding in giant star cluster

Astronomers have discovered a star in the cluster NGC 3201 that is behaving very strangely. It appears to be orbiting an invisible black hole with about four times the mass of the Sun -- the first such inactive stellar-mass black hole found in a globular cluster and the first found by directly detecting its gravitational pull.

January 17, 2018 Read more

The universe up close

MUSE instrument allows deepest spectroscopic observations ever.

January 15, 2018 Read more

Swarm of hydrogen clouds flying away from center of our galaxy

A team of astronomers has discovered what appears to be a grand exodus of more than 100 hydrogen clouds streaming away from the center of the Milky Way and heading into intergalactic space.

January 11, 2018 Read more

Black hole breakthrough: New insight into mysterious jets

Supercomputer power enables advanced simulations of relativistic jets' behavior.

January 10, 2018 Read more

Alien megastructure not the cause of dimming of the 'most mysterious star in the universe'

The mystery of Tabby's Star is so compelling that more than 1,700 people donated over $100,000 through a Kickstarter campaign in support of dedicated ground-based telescope time to observe and gather more data on the star through a network of telescopes around the world.

January 3, 2018 Read more