Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Physicists observe the creation of solar energy for the first time ever

For the first time in the history of solar research, scientists have successfully measured solar energy at the instant of creation inside the sun. In the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, physicists of the Borexino Collaboration are for the first time ever directly observing the neutrinos created during the fusion of two hydrogen nuclei and the resultant production of heavy hydrogen.

August 28, 2014 Read more

EUV calibrations for satellite sensors

Thanks to precision calibration measurements recently performed at NIST, satellites may soon be looking at sunlight with new and improved vision.

August 28, 2014 Read more

Witnessing the early growth of a giant

Astronomers have uncovered for the first time the earliest stages of a massive galaxy forming in the young Universe. The growing galaxy core is blazing with the light of millions of newborn stars that are forming at a ferocious rate.

August 27, 2014 Read more

Looking into the heart of a stellar explosion

Researchers observe gamma-ray lines from a type Ia supernova.

August 27, 2014 Read more

Orion rocks! pebble-size particles may jump-start planet formation

Rocky planets like Earth start out as microscopic bits of dust tinier than a grain of sand, or so theories predict.

August 27, 2014 Read more

Measurement at Big Bang conditions confirms lithium problem

The field of astrophysics has a stubborn problem and it's called lithium. The quantities of lithium predicted to have resulted from the Big Bang are not actually present in stars. But the calculations are correct - a fact which has now been confirmed for the first time in experiments conducted at the underground laboratory in the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy.

August 27, 2014 Read more

Looking for a landing site for the Philae comet lander

Researchers select five areas on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet where Philae could touch down.

August 27, 2014 Read more

What lit up the universe?

New research shows we will soon uncover the origin of the ultraviolet light that bathes the cosmos, helping scientists understand how galaxies were built.

August 27, 2014 Read more

Best view yet of merging galaxies in distant universe

An international team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array - among other telescopes - has obtained the best view yet of a collision between two galaxies when the Universe was only half its current age.

August 26, 2014 Read more

Do we live in a 2-D hologram?

A unique experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory called the Holometer has started collecting data that will answer some mind-bending questions about our universe - including whether we live in a hologram.

August 26, 2014 Read more

Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed

New research by a team of UK and European-based astronomers is helping to solve the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year.

August 22, 2014 Read more

Toothpaste fluorine formed in stars

The fluorine that is found in products such as toothpaste was likely formed billions of years ago in now dead stars of the same type as our sun.

August 21, 2014 Read more

Electric sparks may alter evolution of lunar soil

The moon appears to be a tranquil place, but modeling by scientists suggests that, over the eons, periodic storms of solar energetic particles may have significantly altered the properties of the soil in the moon's coldest craters through the process of sparking - a finding that could change our understanding of the evolution of planetary surfaces in the solar system.

August 21, 2014 Read more

Swirling electrons in the whirlpool galaxy

The whirlpool galaxy M51 in a distance of approximately 30 million light years appears almost face-on and displays a beautiful system of spiral arms. A European team of astronomers observed M51 with the LOFAR Telescope in the frequency range 115-175 MHz and obtained the most sensitive galaxy image at frequencies below 1 GHz so far.

August 20, 2014 Read more

A spectacular landscape of star formation

This image, captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows two dramatic star formation regions in the Milky Way. The first, on the left, is dominated by the star cluster NGC 3603, located 20 000 light-years away, in the Carina-Sagittarius spiral arm of the Milky Way. The second, is a collection of glowing gas clouds known as NGC 3576 that lies about half as far from Earth.

August 20, 2014 Read more

Two dynamos drive Jupiter's magnetic field

Researchers use computer simulations to penetrate deep into the interior of the giant planet.

August 20, 2014 Read more

Life on Mars? Implications of a newly discovered mineral-rich structure

A new ovoid structure discovered in the Nakhla Martian meteorite is made of nanocrystalline iron-rich clay, contains a variety of minerals, and shows evidence of undergoing a past shock event from impact. Results of a broad range of analytical studies to determine the origin of this new structure and how these findings impact the field of astrobiology now have been published.

August 19, 2014 Read more

Determining stellar compositions made easier with new catalog

The largest catalog ever produced for stellar compositions is critical to understanding the properties of stars, how they form, and possible connections with orbiting planets. And it shows that the compositions of nearby stars aren't as uniform as once thought.

August 19, 2014 Read more