Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Saturn's Shimmying Rings May Be Imitating Galaxy
Saturn's rings shake like a miniature version of our own Milky Way galaxy.
Video | The making of Robonaut 2
A guided tour of the development and testing of Nasa's Robonaut 2 robot, which will help astronauts with manual work on the international space station
India launches South Pole mission
India is to make its first expedition to the South Pole, in a mission focusing on the impact of climate change.
VIMS scientists help solve mystery of 'alien pod'
Tracy Collier, an employee at Home Technologies in Newport News, Virginia, was walking her employer's Westie around the Center's manmade lake on Thursday when she saw a large, mysterious blob...
Time for a rain dance? Research finds 'cloud seeding' doesn't produce rain
In many areas of the world, including California's Mojave Desert, rain is a precious and rare resource. To encourage rainfall, scientists use "cloud seeding," a weather modification process designed to...
Comet Hartley 2 Could Deliver 'Bonus' Meteor Shower
The icy Comet Hartley 2 may spawn a meteor shower this week, or it may not, but skywatchers are hopeful.
Focusing on aerosols through the macro lens
The devil is in the details, the very small details, when it comes to global climate models, and those details are now easier to see, thanks to climate change researchers...
Voyager explores new territory as new project manager steps on
As NASA's two Voyager spacecraft hurtle towards the edge of our solar system, a new project manager will shepherd the spacecraft into this unexplored territory: Suzanne Dodd, whose first job...
Iran wants better energy deals on border
TEHRAN, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Iran and Iraq are moving closer to finding common ground on the exploitation of oil fields straddling their shared border, an Iranian executive said.
Earth’s first great predator wasn’t
Boulder, CO, USA - The meters-long, carnivorous "shrimp" from hell that once ruled the seas of Earth a half billion years ago may have been a real softy, it turns...
Starwatch: The November night sky
The next two weeks, until moonlight intensifies, may be a good time to seek out a dark night sky, as far away as possible from the blight of light pollution. If successful,...
Mars volcanic deposit tells of warm and wet environment
Planetary scientists have found a volcanic deposit on Mars that would have been a promising wellspring for life. The silica deposit clearly shows the presence of water and heat. It...
Habitable Hotspots on Mars? Volcano Vents May Be Signs
New observations of volcano vents on Mars hint that the vents may have once been habitable hotspots on the Red Planet.
8 Shocking Things We Learned From Stephen Hawking's Book
In his book "The Grand Design," physicist Stephen Hawking argues our universe is one of many and God didn't create it.
Want to Mine the Solar System? Start With the Moon
The first extraterrestrial mining operation in human history will likely start up on the moon, thanks to its ample and relatively accessible stores of water ice. Mining the moon will...
US space shuttle programme faces its final countdown | Discover
Tomorrow, Discovery will take off on one of its final missions. Why, 30 years after the reusable rocket launcher threatened to make travel beyond Earth commonplace, did the project fall from grace?On the...
Study links fresh Mars gullies to carbon dioxide
A growing bounty of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals that the timing of new activity in one type of the enigmatic gullies on Mars implicates carbon-dioxide frost, rather...
Antarctic balloon sees particles with a million times more energy than the LHC
The ANITA experiment is designed to look for neutrinos, but saw 16 ultra-high-energy cosmic rays by mistake.Ryan Nichol, who works upstairs from me at UCL, gets together with NASA every now and...
Black Hole Duality: General Relativity Without Singularities
In one description, an observer falls freely through empty space, in another one, she hits a surface smack on, yet both descriptions are completely equivalent. This example for a duality...
Into the darkness: stargazing in Nova Scotia
Canada's Kejimkujik national park is now a Dark Sky Preserve, with perfect conditions for tracking the constellations – provided you take the weather with youThey call this the place where fairies dance. I...
Stargazing: great places to enjoy the night sky
From astronomy tours in the Atacama desert to a Dark Sky Park in Galloway, constellation-spotters are spoilt for choiceHeavens aboveCosy up in a little cabin for two and stargaze from the bed...
Hellish 'Super-Earths' Likely Prevalent Throughout Our Galaxy
Study suggests that many extrasolar planets will be too hot for life
Virgin Galactic�s SpaceShipTwo Completes 2nd Glide Test
Virgin Galactic's private SpaceShipTwo suborbital spacecraft has completed its second glide test at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.
BYU telescope captures Halloween sights in the stars?
(PhysOrg.com) -- What do you see in these gassy remnants of an exploded star? A bird? A plane? A witch?
Understanding coronal mass ejections
(PhysOrg.com) -- The corona of the sun is the hot (over a million kelvin), gaseous outer region of its atmosphere. The corona is threaded by intense magnetic fields that extend...
Revealing the galaxy’s dark side
Excess of gamma rays at Milky Way’s center may indicate universe’s missing mass
Horror Stories From Space: 10 Ways Life in Orbit Can Be Rough
In honor of Halloween, here are 10 ways space station living can be a horror story.
European Satellite Navigation Competition awards
This year’s ESA Innovation Prize for the European Satellite Navigation Competition has been awarded to an application that uses satellites to detect river pollution. A separate prize supported by ESA...