Space sailing soon: Researchers produce one-kilometre-long electric sail tether
Using ultrasonic welding, the Electronics Research Laboratory at the University of Helsinki successfully produced a 1 km long ESAIL tether.
Jan 8th, 2013
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Galaxy's gamma-ray flares erupted far from its black hole
In 2011, a months-long blast of energy launched by an enormous black hole almost 11 billion years ago swept past Earth. Using a combination of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the world's largest radio telescope, astronomers have zeroed in on the source of this ancient outburst.
Jan 8th, 2013
Read moreExocomets may be as common as exoplanets
The discovery by astronomers of six likely comets around distant stars suggests that comets - dubbed "exocomets" - are just as common in other stellar systems with planets.
Jan 7th, 2013
Read moreAt least one in six stars has an Earth-sized planet
A new analysis of Kepler data shows that about 17 percent of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury. Since the Milky Way has about 100 billion stars, there are at least 17 billion Earth-sized worlds out there.
Jan 7th, 2013
Read moreMassive outburst in neighbor galaxy surprises astronomers
Serendipitous discovery reveals probable belch by a gorging black hole.
Jan 7th, 2013
Read more15 new planets hint at 'traffic jam' of moons in habitable zone
Volunteers from the Planethunters.org website, part of the Oxford University-led Zooniverse project, have discovered 15 new planet candidates orbiting in the habitable zones of other stars.
Jan 7th, 2013
Read moreCarbon in Vesta's craters
Large impacts of asteroids may have transferred carbonaceous material to the protoplanet and inner solar system.
Jan 7th, 2013
Read moreAstrophysicists find wide binary stars wreak havoc in planetary systems
An international team of astrophysicists has shown that planetary systems with very distant binary stars are particularly susceptible to violent disruptions, more so than if they had stellar companions with tighter orbits around them.
Jan 6th, 2013
Read moreCelestial flybys set to thrill
Astronomers are gearing up for thrills this year when Earth gets buzzed by two rogue asteroids and two comets, including a wanderer last seen by the forerunners of mankind.
Jan 6th, 2013
Read moreResearchers identify water rich meteorite linked to Mars crust
NASA-funded researchers analyzing a small meteorite that may be the first discovered from the Martian surface or crust have found it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins.
Jan 4th, 2013
Read moreBig Bang under the microscope
Scientists have replaced the telescope by the microscope: Using the similarities between the structure of a crystal and the state of the cosmos in the early universe, they have explored a yet unconfirmed phenomenon, the formation of cosmic strings. These so-called "topological defects" are believed to have formed as the universe expanded shortly after the Big Bang.
Jan 4th, 2013
Read moreAstronomers estimate that at least 100 billion planets populate the galaxy
Look up at the night sky and you'll see stars, sure. But you're also seeing planets - billions and billions of them. At least. That's the conclusion of a new study by astronomers at Caltech that provides yet more evidence that planetary systems are the cosmic norm.
Jan 3rd, 2013
Read moreAstrophysicists make stellar discovery about galaxies far, far away
A new study observes 13 smaller satellite galaxies orbiting around the immense Andromeda galaxy in a way similar to how the planets in our solar system orbit around the sun. The galaxies are orbiting on a thin, pancake-like plane at a scale 900 million times larger than our own solar system.
Jan 3rd, 2013
Read moreALMA sheds light on planet-forming gas streams
Tantalizing signs of flows feeding gas-guzzling giant planets.
Jan 2nd, 2013
Read moreGalactic geysers fuelled by star stuff
Enormous outflows of charged particles from the centre of our Galaxy, stretching more than halfway across the sky and moving at supersonic speeds, have been detected and mapped with CSIRO's 64-m Parkes radio telescope.
Jan 2nd, 2013
Read moreRobotic platform that could take space exploration to new heights
An autonomous system for exploring the solar system's smaller members, such as moons and asteroids, could bring us closer to a human mission to Mars.
Jan 2nd, 2013
Read moreA eulogy to Herschel
With its 2160 litres of liquid helium about to run out, the Herschel Space Observatory will, by the end of March, become just another piece of space junk.
Jan 2nd, 2013
Read moreStudy shows space travel is harmful to the brain
As if space travel was not already filled with enough dangers, a new study shows that cosmic radiation - which would bombard astronauts on deep space missions to places like Mars - could accelerate the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Jan 2nd, 2013
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