Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Impact craters may have been cradles of life

Even comparatively small meteorite impact craters may have played a key role in the origin and evolution of early life on Earth, according to a researcher at The University of Western Australia.

February 26, 2013 Read more

Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars

Even dying stars could host planets with life - and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarf stars. Researchers found that we could detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf's planet much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star.

February 26, 2013 Read more

World's smallest space telescope to launch on Monday (w/video)

Canada helps push the boundaries of astronomy with the next wave of smaller satellites.

February 22, 2013 Read more

Journey to the limits of spacetime (w/video)

Black holes shape the growth and death of the stars around them through their powerful gravitational pull and explosive ejections of energy. In a recent Science paper, researchers predicted the formation of accretion disks and relativistic jets that warp and bend more than previously thought, shaped by the extreme gravity of the black hole and by powerful magnetic forces generated by its spin.

February 21, 2013 Read more

Asteroids no match for paint gun, says Prof (w/video)

There is research that is off the wall, some off the charts and some off the planet, such as what an aerospace and physics professor is exploring. It's a plan to deflect a killer asteroid by using paint, and the science behind it is absolutely rock solid, so to speak, so much so that NASA is getting involved and wants to know much more.

February 21, 2013 Read more

Discovering the birth of an asteroid trail

Unlike comets, asteroids are not characterised by exhibiting a trail, but there are now ten exceptions. Spanish researchers have observed one of these rare asteroids from the Gran Telescopio Canarias (Spain) and have discovered that something happened around the 1st July 2011 causing its trail to appear: maybe internal rupture or collision with another asteroid.

February 21, 2013 Read more

A cool discovery about out Sun's next-door twin

ESA's Herschel space observatory has detected a cool layer in the atmosphere of Alpha Centauri A, the first time this has been seen in a star beyond our own Sun. The finding is not only important for understanding the Sun's activity, but could also help in the quest to discover proto-planetary systems around other stars.

February 21, 2013 Read more

Mercury may have harbored an ancient magma ocean

Massive lava flows may have given rise to two distinct rock types on Mercury's surface.

February 21, 2013 Read more

A simple view of gravity does not fully explain the distribution of stars in crowded clusters

Gravity remains the dominant force on large astronomical scales, but when it comes to stars in young star clusters the dynamics in these crowded environments cannot be simply explained by the pull of gravity.

February 20, 2013 Read more

Kepler mission discovers tiny planet system

Kepler mission scientists have discovered a new planetary system that is home to the smallest planet yet found around a star similar to our sun.

February 20, 2013 Read more

NASA seeks big ideas for small in-space propulsion systems

NASA's Space Technology Program is calling for proposals to develop miniaturized electrospray propulsion technologies that could revolutionize small satellite propulsion systems.

February 20, 2013 Read more

Searching for the solar system's chemical recipe

Berkeley Lab's Chemical Dynamics Beamline points to why isotope ratios in interplanetary dust and meteorites differ from Earth's

February 20, 2013 Read more

Sweeping the dust from a cosmic lobster

New infrared VISTA image of NGC 6357.

February 20, 2013 Read more

Space provides new frontier for new cryocooler coatings

Experts have developed a new coating for space satellite cryocoolers - the specialist devices that regulate their temperature and enable them to function in space.

February 20, 2013 Read more

3-D Observations of the outflow from an active galactic nucleus

Scientists believe that their light source is a very bright gaseous disk surrounding a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. Gas streams called "outflows" move outward from the disk and have a substantial influence on surrounding interstellar/intergalactic regions. However, because quasars at large distances look like mere stars, their internal structures are not easy to investigate.

February 20, 2013 Read more

Chinese Beidou satellite navigation system set to soar

The fledgling Beidou satellite navigation system will soon benefit hundreds of millions of users, and provide a cheaper and in some cases better alternative than the Global Positioning System, industry specialists said.

February 20, 2013 Read more

Moon mining a step closer with new lunar soil simulant

Australian researchers have developed a substance that looks and behaves like soil from the moon's surface and can be mixed with polymers to create 'lunar concrete', a finding that may help advance plans to construct safe landing pads and mines on the moon.

February 19, 2013 Read more

SpaceWorks Releases Nano/Microsatellite Market Assessment 2013

SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. (SEI) today released an update to its nanosatellite and microsatellite market analysis study. The study presents the latest observations, trends, and projections for the nano/microsatellite market.

February 19, 2013 Read more