Space Exploration News – Latest Headlines

Clearest images emerge of galaxies headed for collision on intergalactic 'highway'

An international group of astronomers has created images with never-before-seen detail of a galaxy cluster with a black hole at its centre, travelling at high speed along an intergalactic 'road of matter'. The findings also support existing theories of the origins and evolution of the universe.

June 28, 2021 Read more

Life could exist in the clouds of Jupiter but not Venus

Jupiter's clouds have water conditions that would allow Earth-like life to exist, but this isn't possible in Venus' clouds.

June 28, 2021 Read more

Giant comet found in outer solar system by Dark Energy Survey

Estimated to be 100–200 kilometers across, the unusual wandering body will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031.

June 28, 2021 Read more

Throwing an 'axion bomb' into a black hole challenges fundamental law of physics

Singularities such as those at the centre of black holes, where density becomes infinite, are often said to be places where physics 'breaks down'. However, this doesn’t mean that 'anything' could happen, and physicists are interested in which laws could break down, and how.

June 25, 2021 Read more

Mind the gap: Scientists use stellar mass to link exoplanets to planet-forming disks

New survey reveals that the presence of gaps in planet-forming disks is more common to higher mass stars and to the development of large, gaseous exoplanets.

June 23, 2021 Read more

Earth-like biospheres on other planets may be rare

A new analysis of known exoplanets has revealed that Earth-like conditions on potentially habitable planets may be much rarer than previously thought. The work focuses on the conditions required for oxygen-based photosynthesis to develop on a planet, which would enable complex biospheres of the type found on Earth.

June 23, 2021 Read more

Nightside radio could help reveal exoplanet details

Scientists found a way to better determine which exoplanets are most likely to produce detectable signals based on magnetosphere activity on exoplanets' previously discounted nightsides.

June 22, 2021 Read more

Dark matter: 'real stuff' or gravity misunderstood?

New research pushes the limits of dark matter observations to the unknown outer regions of galaxies, and in doing so re-evaluates several dark matter models and alternative theories of gravity.

June 22, 2021 Read more

Mystery of galaxy's missing dark matter deepens

Finding a galaxy lacking dark matter is an extraordinary claim that challenges conventional wisdom. It would have the potential to upset theories of galaxy formation and evolution.

June 17, 2021 Read more

Study of young chaotic star system reveals planet formation secrets

New observations of young stellar object Elias 2-27 confirm gravitational instabilities and planet-forming disk mass as key to formation of giant planets.

June 17, 2021 Read more

How a supermassive black hole originates

How do supermassive black holes in the early universe originate? Scientists have come up with an explanation: a massive seed black hole that the collapse of a dark matter halo could produce.

June 16, 2021 Read more

'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse caused by a dusty fart

The red supergiant Betelgeuse - best known for being in Orion's armpit - has recently gone through what astronomers have named the 'Great Dimming', where the otherwise very bright star has become darker and cloudy. International researchers say that it's darkened state is likely the result of a toot of dust and gas that originated in a cool spot in the star's southern hemisphere.

June 16, 2021 Read more

Discovery of the largest rotation in the universe

By mapping the motion of galaxies in huge filaments that connect the cosmic web, astronomers have found that these long tendrils of galaxies spin on the scale of hundreds of millions of light years. A rotation on such enormous scales has never been seen before.

June 14, 2021 Read more

Black holes help with star birth

The cosmic mass monsters clear the way for the formation of new suns in satellite galaxies.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Astronomers spot a 'blinking giant' near the centre of the Galaxy

Astronomers observed the star decreasing in brightness by a factor of 30, so that it nearly disappeared from the sky. While many stars change in brightness because they pulsate or are eclipsed by another star in a binary system, it's exceptionally rare for a star to become fainter over a period of several months and then brighten again.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Astronomers discover earliest gigantic black hole storm

Researchers discovered a titanic galactic wind driven by a supermassive black hole 13.1 billion years ago. This is the earliest-yet-observed example of such a wind to date and is a telltale sign that huge black holes have a profound effect on the growth of galaxies from the very early history of the Universe.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Star's death will play a mean pinball with rhythmic planets

Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies.

June 11, 2021 Read more

Liquid water on exomoons of free-floating planets

The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists have calculated that such systems could harbor sufficient water to make life possible - and sustain it.

June 10, 2021 Read more