Latest science news in Astronomy & Space

Monster Waves on the Sun are Real

1 day ago from Science @ NASA

Data from NASA's STEREO spacecraft have confirmed the stunning reality of monster waves on the sun known as "solar tsunamis."

Cassini captures ghostly dance of Saturn's northern lights

1 day ago from Science Daily

In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness...

NASA Scientists Say Martian Meteorite May Have Brought Life to Earth

2 days ago from PopSci

New analytical data supposedly backs the case for Martian life having once existed Martians may have already landed on Earth, at least in ancient microbial form. The same NASA team that discovered the...

Astronomers invent 'galaxy game'

Astronomers have devised a web-based game that could help work out the basis of galactic collisions.

First view of Earth as Rosetta approaches home

2 days ago from European Space Agency

This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA's Rosetta comet chaser earlier today as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final...

Mars Reconnaissance Orbite Team Plans Uplink of Protective Files

2 days ago from Physorg

(PhysOrg.com) -- The team operating NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter plans to uplink protective files to the spacecraft next week as one step toward resuming the orbiter's research and relay activities.

Aktive Giant HD 12545 (XX Triangulum)

2 days ago from Science Blog

Stars are sometimes also very asymmetrical inside; Pictures of the star HD 12545; (XX Triangulum) made by K. G. Strassmeier (University of Vienna) show the same phenomenon which we observe...

U.S. losing its lead in space, experts warn Congress

3 days ago from Physorg

America's once clear dominance in space is eroding as other nations, including China, Iran and North Korea, step up their activities, a panel of experts told the House subcommittee on...

Five Tips For Particle Physics Ph. D. Wannabes - Part II

3 days ago from Scientific Blogging

This is the second part of a two-part collection of tips for particle physics graduate students. The first part is here.Three: be a fool today if you want to be...

Infrared Image of Circumstellar Disk Illuminates Massive Star Formation Process

3 days ago from Physorg

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from Ibaraki University, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa University, University of Tokyo, Academica Sinica, and National Astronomical Observatory of Japan have used the Subaru...

NASA Assessing New Roles for Ailing QuikScat Satellite

3 days ago from Physorg

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA mission managers are assessing options for future operations of the venerable QuikScat satellite following the age-related failure of a mechanism that spins the scatterometer antenna. This spinning...

Numerous "Tramp" Stars Adrift in Intergalactic Space Could Await Discovery

3 days ago from Scientific American

Take a look up in the night sky. Whether on a mountaintop, largely unfazed by light pollution, or wedged in the heart of a muddied-sky metropolis, thank your lucky stars...

GPS bolsters view that big Cascadia quakes could hit inland

3 days ago from Sciencenews.org

Satellite tracking hones picture of fault dynamics

First Neutrino Events Observed at T2K Near Detector

3 days ago from Physorg

(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists from the Japanese-led multi-national T2K neutrino collaboration announced today that over the weekend they detected the first events generated by their newly built neutrino beam at the...

Ep. 3: Giants in the Depths - The Biggest Black Holes

3 days ago from Live Science

Super-powerful galactic overlords rearrange the contours of space itself in their local neighborhoods. Their blast-waves heat up - and hollow out - hundreds of thousands of light years of interstellar...

Ep. 2: How Black Holes Got Supermassive

3 days ago from Live Science

Which came first: Galaxies? Or the big black holes at their centers? Evidence from the Hubble Space Telescope's Deep Field images is persuasive.

NASA to telecast ISS crew's Soyuz landing

3 days ago from UPI

HOUSTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it will televise the events surrounding the landing of three International Space Station crew members who will return to Earth next month.

NASA honors astronaut Fred Haise Jr.

3 days ago from UPI

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- NASA says it will honor astronaut Fred Haise Jr. by presenting him with the space agency's Ambassador of Exploration Award.

Cassini's big sky: View from the center of our solar system

3 days ago from Science Daily

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is helping to rewrite our understanding of the shape of our solar system as it moves through the local Milky Way galaxy. Previous models pictured our solar...

First black holes may have incubated in giant, starlike cocoons, says CU-Boulder study

3 days ago from

The first large black holes in the universe likely formed and grew deep inside gigantic, starlike cocoons that smothered their powerful x-ray radiation and prevented surrounding gases from being blown...

New dad-in-space: Focusing on shuttle job easy

3 days ago from Newsvine

NASA's new dad in space, shuttle astronaut Randolph Bresnik, said Tuesday he had no problems focusing on his job while awaiting his daughter's birth.

Is Case Finally Closed on 1965 Pennsylvania 'UFO Mystery'?

3 days ago from Space.com

The mystery of an acorn-shaped object that fell from the sky still intrigues the masses.

Play 'Cosmic Slot Machine' and Help Astronomers

3 days ago from Space.com

Website lets users play cosmic slot machine to match up modeled galaxy mergers with real ones.

The 2009 Leonid Meteor Shower

3 days ago from Science @ NASA

The 2009 Leonid meteor shower peaks on Nov. 17th with a sprinkling of meteors over North America and a possible outburst over Asia.

Can Spirit be Freed?

3 days ago from Science @ NASA

On Monday, NASA will begin transmitting commands to its Mars exploration rover Spirit as part of an escape plan to free the venerable robot from its Martian sand trap.

LCROSS Finds Water on the Moon

3 days ago from Science @ NASA

The argument that the Moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water. At a press conference today, researchers revealed data from NASA's LCROSS mission indicating that water...

SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth

3 days ago from Science @ NASA

Imagine cutting retractable doors in the side of a 747 airliner, installing a 17-ton telescope, and flying to the stratosphere to solve one of astronomy's greatest puzzles. That's what NASA...

The universe's past, in close up

4 days ago from LA Times - Science

Three giant telescopes, many times stronger than any today, will allow scientists to study the processes that created today's mature cosmos of planetary systems, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. TUCSON - If there...