Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Can signs of life be detected from Saturn's frigid moon?

Researchers have demonstrated that amino acids within Enceladus' ice plumes can endure impact speeds up to 4.2 km/s, bolstering their detection in spacecraft sampling and supporting Enceladus as a key target in the search for extraterrestrial life.

December 5, 2023 Read more

Unlocking neutron star rotation anomalies: Insights from quantum simulation

A collaboration between quantum physicists and astrophysicists has achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding neutron star glitches. They were able to numerically simulate this enigmatic cosmic phenomenon with ultracold dipolar atoms.

December 5, 2023 Read more

Interpreting the afterglow of a black hole's breakfast

An entirely new way to probe how active black holes behave when they eat has been discovered by an international team of astronomers.

December 5, 2023 Read more

A new possible explanation for the Hubble tension

Study proposes a solution to one of the great mysteries of cosmology.

December 2, 2023 Read more

Ghostlike dusty galaxy reappears in James Webb Space Telescope image

It first appeared as a glowing blob from ground-based telescopes and then vanished completely in images from the Hubble Space Telescope. Now, the ghostly object has reappeared as a faint, yet distinct galaxy in an image from the James Webb Space Telescope.

December 2, 2023 Read more

Scientists discover rare 6-planet system that moves in strange synchrony

Scientists have discovered a rare sight in a nearby star system: Six planets orbiting their central star in a rhythmic beat. The planets move in an orbital waltz that repeats itself so precisely it can be readily set to music.

November 29, 2023 Read more

Solar activity likely to peak next year, new study suggests

Scientists have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year.

November 28, 2023 Read more

Astronomers find 'tilted' planets even in pristine solar systems

Scientists have long puzzled over why all of the planets in Earth's solar system have slightly slanted orbits around the sun. But a new, study suggests this phenomenon may not be so unusual after all. Even in 'pristine' solar systems, planets exhibit a bit of a tilt.

November 28, 2023 Read more

Extreme stars share unique properties that may provide a link to mysterious sources

Scientists have studied a rare species of ultra-dense stars, so called magnetars, to uncover an underlying law that appears to apply universally to a range of objects known as neutron stars.

November 23, 2023 Read more

'Amaterasu' particle: a new cosmic mystery

Scientists have successfully detected an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray with an energy level comparable to the most energetic cosmic ray ever observed. The cosmic ray is set to be named after the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu.

November 23, 2023 Read more

Saturn is eating its D ring - resulting in a complex upper atmosphere

A recent doctoral thesis, Diving Deep into Saturn's Equatorial Ionosphere with Cassini: Insights from the Grand Finale, focuses on the composition of plasma, charged particles, in the upper part of Saturn's atmosphere and how our understanding of it has evolved since the discovery of the ring influx.

November 22, 2023 Read more

Dwarf galaxies use 10-million-year quiet period to churn out stars

Rsearchers found that less evolved dwarf galaxies have higher star formation rates due to a 10-million-year delay in expelling gas and dust, allowing more stars to form and evolve.

November 22, 2023 Read more

'Triple star' discovery could revolutionise understanding of stellar evolution

A ground-breaking new discovery could transform the way astronomers understand some of the biggest and most common stars in the Universe.

November 22, 2023 Read more

Webb reveals new features in heart of Milky Way

The latest image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a portion of the dense center of our galaxy in unprecedented detail, including never-before-seen features astronomers have yet to explain.

November 20, 2023 Read more

Physicists answer question of Supergalactic Plane's absent spiral galaxies

Astrophysicists say they have found an answer to why spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way are largely missing from a part of our Local Universe called the Supergalactic Plane.

November 20, 2023 Read more

'Never witnessed before' - Astronomers baffled by repeat explosions 100 billion times the energy of the Sun

Astronomers are baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant Universe, nicknamed the 'Tasmanian Devil', which has been observed to explode repeatedly and emit more energy than hundreds of billions of stars like our Sun.

November 16, 2023 Read more

The universe is expanding faster than theory predicts - physicists are searching for new ideas that might explain the mismatch

The universe's expansion rate exceeds predictions, causing the Hubble tension mismatch. Analysis indicates that late-universe solutions like evolving dark energy cannot fully resolve the discrepancy. Physicists must search for new early-universe ideas to explain the accelerating expansion.

November 15, 2023 Read more

Second-most distant galaxy discovered using James Webb Space Telescope

Follow-up observations in Pandora's cluster confirmed the second- and fourth-most distant galaxies ever seen, which are larger than other galaxies at such extreme distances.

November 13, 2023 Read more