Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Where to grab space debris (w/video)

Algorithm tested aboard the International Space Station analyzes the rotation of objects in space.

September 10, 2014 Read more

First evidence for water ice clouds found outside solar system

A team of scientists has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System. Water ice clouds exist on our own gas giant planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune - but have not been seen outside of the planets orbiting our Sun until now.

September 9, 2014 Read more

Evidence of 'diving' tectonic plates on Jupiter's moon Europa

Scientists have found evidence of plate tectonics on Jupiter's moon Europa. This indicates the first sign of this type of surface-shifting geological activity on a world other than Earth.

September 8, 2014 Read more

Scientist explores birth of a planet

Astronomers have discovered what they believe is evidence of a planet forming around a star about 335 light years from Earth.

September 8, 2014 Read more

China finishes design on its first cargo spacecraft

China has finished designing its first cargo spacecraft, which will ferry supplies and fuel to the nation's future multi-cabin, manned space station.

September 6, 2014 Read more

DARPA issues RFI for robotic space services for satellites

Space community invited to submit ideas to enable a flight demonstration in the next five years and an innovative public-private partnership to jumpstart a new industry.

September 6, 2014 Read more

Rosetta-Alice spectrograph obtains first far ultraviolet spectra of a cometary surface

NASA's Alice ultraviolet spectrograph aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet orbiter has delivered its first scientific discoveries. Rosetta, in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is the first spacecraft to study a comet up close.

September 5, 2014 Read more

Cosmologists probe beyond the Big Bang

A long tradition of cosmology research has given birth to a vigorous effort by a new generation of cosmologists to understand the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang.

September 4, 2014 Read more

Researcher advances a new model for a cosmological enigma - dark matter

A novel model of dark matter, dubbed 'flavor-mixed multicomponent dark matter'.

September 4, 2014 Read more

Researchers discover new clues to determining the solar cycle

Approximately every 11 years, the sun undergoes a complete personality change from quiet and calm to violently active. The height of the sun's activity, known as solar maximum, is a time of numerous sunspots, punctuated with profound eruptions that send radiation and solar particles out into the far reaches of space.

September 4, 2014 Read more

Newly identified galactic supercluster is home to the Milky Way

Astronomers have determined that our own Milky Way galaxy is part of a newly identified ginormous supercluster of galaxies, which they have dubbed Laniakea, which means 'immense heaven' in Hawaiian.

September 3, 2014 Read more

Cosmic forecast: Dark clouds will give way to sunshine

Lupus 4, a spider-shaped blob of gas and dust, blots out background stars like a dark cloud on a moonless night in this intriguing new image. Although gloomy for now, dense pockets of material within clouds such as Lupus 4 are where new stars form and where they will later burst into radiant life.

September 3, 2014 Read more

Observing the onset of a magnetic substorm

Magnetic substorms, the disruptions in geomagnetic activity that cause brightening of aurora, may sometimes be driven by a different process than generally thought, a new study shows.

September 2, 2014 Read more

$1.5M software grant to process solar astronomy data on larger scale

Researchers in Georgia State University's new Astroinformatics program have been awarded $1.5 million from the National Science Foundation to develop software tools that can process large sets of solar astronomy data and allow scientists to perform analyses on scales and detail levels that have not been possible.

September 2, 2014 Read more

Why sibling stars look alike: Early, fast mixing in star-birth clouds

Early, fast, turbulent mixing of gas within giant molecular clouds means all stars formed from a single cloud bear the same unique chemical 'tag' or 'DNA fingerprint'. Could such chemical tags help astronomers identify our own Sun's long-lost sibling stars?

August 31, 2014 Read more

Mysteries of space dust revealed

The first analysis of space dust collected by a special collector onboard NASA's Stardust mission and sent back to Earth for study in 2006 suggests the tiny specks open a door to studying the origins of the solar system and possibly the origin of life itself.

August 29, 2014 Read more

Astrophysicists report radioactive cobalt in supernova explosion

A group of astrophysicists have detected the formation of radioactive cobalt during a supernova explosion, lending credence to a corresponding theory of supernova explosions.

August 29, 2014 Read more

Uncloaking the King of the Milky Way: The largest star in our home galaxy's largest stellar nursery

Astronomers have identified the most massive star in our home galaxy's largest stellar nursery, the star-forming region W49. The star, named W49nr1, has a mass between 100 and 180 times the mass of the Sun.

August 28, 2014 Read more