Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Finding hints of gravitational waves in the stars

Scientists have shown how gravitational waves might be 'seen' by looking at the stars. The new model proposes that a star that oscillates at the same frequency as a gravitational wave will absorb energy from that wave and brighten, an overlooked prediction of Einstein's 1916 theory of general relativity. The study contradicts previous assumptions about the behavior of gravitational waves.

September 22, 2014 Read more

Shrink-wrapping spacesuits

The BioSuit is a skintight spacesuit that offers improved mobility and reduced mass compared to modern gas-pressurized spacesuits.

September 19, 2014 Read more

Monster galaxies gain weight by eating smaller neighbors

Research to be published this Friday shows that massive galaxies in the universe have stopped making their own stars and are instead 'snacking' on nearby galaxies. Astronomers looked at more than 22,000 galaxies and found that while smaller galaxies are very efficient at creating stars from gas, the most massive galaxies are much less efficient at star formation, producing hardly any new stars themselves, and instead grow by eating other galaxies.

September 19, 2014 Read more

Particle detector finds hints of dark matter in space

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer detects positrons in cosmic ray flux that hint at dark matter's origin.

September 19, 2014 Read more

Miranda: An icy moon deformed by tidal heating

Miranda, a small, icy moon of Uranus, is one of the most visually striking and enigmatic bodies in the solar system. Despite its relatively small size, Miranda appears to have experienced an episode of intense resurfacing that resulted in the formation of at least three remarkable and unique surface features - polygonal-shaped regions called coronae.

September 18, 2014 Read more

New observations explain why Milky Way-like galaxies are so common in the Universe

For decades scientists have believed that galaxy mergers usually result in the formation of elliptical galaxies. Now, for the the first time, researchers have found direct evidence that merging galaxies can instead form disc galaxies, and that this outcome is in fact quite common.

September 18, 2014 Read more

Hubble helps find smallest known galaxy with a supermassive black hole

Astronomers have found an unlikely object in an improbable place: a monster black hole lurking inside one of the tiniest galaxies known.

September 17, 2014 Read more

Reinterpreting dark matter

New research explores cold dark matter in depth and proposes new answers about the formation of galaxies and the structure of the universe. These predictions are being contrasted with fresh data provided by the Hubble space telescope.

September 17, 2014 Read more

'J' marks the spot for Rosetta's lander

Rosetta's lander Philae will target Site J, an intriguing region on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko that offers unique scientific potential, with hints of activity nearby, and minimum risk to the lander compared to the other candidate sites.

September 15, 2014 Read more

Martian meteorite yields more evidence of the possibility of life on Mars

A tiny fragment of Martian meteorite 1.3 billion years old is helping to make the case for the possibility of life on Mars, say scientists.

September 15, 2014 Read more

Unravelling the mysteries of the Venusian atmosphere (w/video)

Underscoring the vast differences between Earth and its neighbor Venus, new research shows a glimpse of giant holes in the electrically charged layer of the Venusian atmosphere, called the ionosphere. The observations point to a more complicated magnetic environment than previously thought - which in turn helps us better understand this neighboring, rocky planet.

September 12, 2014 Read more

Astronomers unveil secrets of giant elliptical galaxies

New findings of how giant elliptical galaxies move have been discovered by an international team of astronomers using the newly installed Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) facility.

September 12, 2014 Read more

NASA research gives guideline for future alien life search

Astronomers searching the atmospheres of alien worlds for gases that might be produced by life can't rely on the detection of just one type, such as oxygen, ozone, or methane, because in some cases these gases can be produced non-biologically, according to extensive simulations by researchers in the NASA Astrobiology Institute's Virtual Planetary Laboratory.

September 12, 2014 Read more

'Hot Jupiters' provoke their own host suns to wobble

Blame the 'hot Jupiters'. These large, gaseous exoplanets can make their suns wobble after they wend their way through their own solar systems to snuggle up against their suns.

September 11, 2014 Read more

Lurking bright blue star caught

Astronomers have found evidence of a hot binary companion star to a yellow supergiant star, which had become a bright supernova. Its existence had been predicted by the team. This finding provides the last link in a chain of observations that have so far supported the team's theoretical picture for this supernova.

September 11, 2014 Read more

China's space station to be established around 2022

The deputy chief of China's Manned Space Agency has announced an ambitious space program timetable building up to the country establishing its first space station around 2022.

September 11, 2014 Read more

A map of Rosetta's comet

The surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko can be divided into several morphologically different regions.

September 10, 2014 Read more

Scientists take key step toward solving a major astrophysical mystery

Magnetic reconnection can trigger geomagnetic storms that disrupt cell phone service, damage satellites and black out power grids. But how reconnection, in which the magnetic field lines in plasma snap apart and violently reconnect, transforms magnetic energy into explosive particle energy remains a major unsolved problem in plasma astrophysics.

September 10, 2014 Read more