Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Researchers detect water around a hot Jupiter

Researchers have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The team applied a sophisticated Doppler technique to the infrared to directly detect the planet and demonstrate the presence of water in its atmosphere.

March 19, 2014 Read more

Fierce 2012 magnetic storm barely missed Earth (w/video)

On July 23, 2012, a huge magnetic storm propelled by two nearly simultaneous coronal mass ejections on the sun plowed through Earth's orbit. Luckily, Earth was on the other side of the sun at the time. Had the outburst hit Earth, however, it would have rivaled the largest magnetic storm to strike Earth in recorded history, possibly wreaking havoc with the electrical grid, satellites and GPS.

March 19, 2014 Read more

Astronomers illuminate cause of sun's 'perfect storm'

Scientists uncover the origin and cause of an extreme space weather event that occurred on July 22, 2012 at the sun and generated the fastest solar wind speed ever recorded directly by a solar wind instrument.

March 18, 2014 Read more

New view of supernova death throes

A powerful, new three-dimensional model provides fresh insight into the turbulent death throes of supernovas, whose final explosions outshine entire galaxies and populate the universe with elements that make life on Earth possible.

March 18, 2014 Read more

Antarctic telescope may have provided the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation and the origins of the universe

Uniquely cold and dry conditions of the atmosphere over Antarctica's polar plateau made the observations possible.

March 18, 2014 Read more

NASA releases first interactive mosaic of lunar north pole

Scientists, using cameras aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have created the largest high resolution mosaic of our moon's north polar region. The six-and-a-half feet (two-meters)-per-pixel images cover an area equal to more than one-quarter of the United States.

March 18, 2014 Read more

Astronomers complete cosmic dust census

An international team of astronomers has completed a benchmark study of more than 300 galaxies, producing the largest census of dust in the local Universe, the Herschel Reference Survey.

March 18, 2014 Read more

Mercury's contraction much greater than thought

New global imaging and topographic data from MESSENGER show that the innermost planet has contracted far more than previous estimates. The results are based on a global study of more than 5,900 geological landforms, such as curving cliff-like scarps and wrinkle ridges, that have resulted from the planet's contraction as Mercury cooled. The findings are key to understanding the planet's thermal, tectonic, and volcanic history, and the structure of its unusually large metallic core.

March 17, 2014 Read more

An experiment recreates the crust of the moon Europa

Water, salts and gases dissolved in the huge ocean that scientists believe could exist below Europa's icy crust can rise to the surface generating the enigmatic geological formations associated to red-tinged materials that can be seen on this Jupiter's satellite.

March 14, 2014 Read more

Reducing debris threat from satellite batteries

A new study by ESA's Clean Space initiative - tasked with reducing the space industry's environmental impacts on both Earth and space - aims to evaluate battery behaviour after a satellite shuts down, assessing the risk of breakup and ensuring full 'passivation'.

March 13, 2014 Read more

The dusty heart of an active galaxy

Astronomers observe a dense disk and a bright funnel at the centre of the Circinus galaxy.

March 13, 2014 Read more

VLT spots largest yellow hypergiant star

ESO's Very Large Telescope has revealed the largest yellow star - and one of the 10 largest stars found so far. This hypergiant has been found to measure more than 1,300 times the diameter of the Sun, and to be part of a double star system, with the second component so close that it is in contact with the main star. Observations spanning over 60 years also indicate that this remarkable object is changing very rapidly.

March 12, 2014 Read more

'Space Odyssey': China's aspiration in future space exploration

In near future, in outer space, Chinese scientists and their international colleagues, perhaps in the company of robots, will seek knowledge in labs on China's future space station.

March 11, 2014 Read more

Some galaxies in the early universe grew up quickly

Most of the galaxies that have been observed from the early days of the universe were young and actively forming stars. Now, an international team of astronomers have discovered galaxies that were already mature and massive in the early days. Fifteen mature galaxies were found at a record-breaking average distance of 12 billion light years, when the universe was just 1.6 billion years old. Their existence at such an early time raises new questions about what forced them to grow up so quickly.

March 11, 2014 Read more

X-ray laser FLASH spies deep into giant gas planets

Using DESY's X-ray laser FLASH, researchers took a sneak peek deep into the lower atmospheric layers of giant gas planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. The observations reveal how liquid hydrogen becomes a plasma, providing information on the material's thermal conductivity and its internal energy exchange - important ingredients for planetary models.

March 11, 2014 Read more

The glory of Venus

A rainbow-like light phenomenon observed on Venus cloud tops helps to identify the components of the planet's acidic cloud cover.

March 11, 2014 Read more

Astronomer maps out Earth's place in the universe among 'Council of Giants'

A new paper maps out bright galaxies within 35-million light-years of the Earth, offering up an expanded picture of what lies beyond our doorstep.

March 11, 2014 Read more

Eleventh MESSENGER planetary data system release is the largest yet

The Planetary Data System (PDS), which archives and distributes data from all of NASA's planetary missions, today released its eleventh batch of data collected by the MESSENGER mission. With this release, images and measurements are now available to the public for the fifth full Mercury solar day of MESSENGER orbital operations.

March 10, 2014 Read more