Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Stars stop forming when big galaxies collide
Astronomers studying new images of a nearby galaxy cluster have found evidence that high-speed collisions between large elliptical galaxies may prevent new stars from forming, according to a paper to...
Messenger extends Mercury vista
Nasa's Messenger probe returns more close-up images of Mercury never before been seen by a spacecraft.
CoRoT discovery challenges the definition of extra-solar planets
(PhysOrg.com) -- The CoRoT satellite has discovered a planet-sized object so exotic that astronomers are unsure whether to call it a planet. The object, named CoRoT-Exo-3b, is approximately the same...
Observatory: A New Flexibility With Thin Solar Cells
Scientists have come up with a method for creating extremely thin solar cells that can be combined in flexible arrays.
Penguins ride air force jet to South Atlantic
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- More than 370 penguins that mysteriously washed up on Brazil's equatorial beaches were flown south on an air force jet and...
Tiny Dust Particles From Sahara Could Help Scientists Study Climate Change
Scientists in Spain have discovered and characterized a new type of atmospheric aerosols named "iberulites," which could be useful for the study of relevant atmospheric reactions from Earth. The researchers...
Scientists Design A Chip To Measure The Wind On Mars
A new chip will be used to measure the wind on Mars. This chip is the key piece of the anemometer on a weather monitoring station run by Spanish scientists...
Meteorites From Inner Solar System Match Up To Earth's Platinum Standard
Some of the world's rarest and most precious metals, including platinum and iridium, could owe their presence in the Earth's crust to iron and stony-iron meteorites, fragments of a large...
Sensors Advance Lunar Landing Project
NASA is developing technologies that will allow lunar landers to automatically identify and navigate to the location of a safe landing site while detecting landing hazards during the final descent...
Sun Is Not A Perfect Sphere, NASA Spacecraft Finds
Scientists using NASA's RHESSI spacecraft have measured the roundness of the sun with unprecedented precision. They find that it is not a perfect sphere. During years of high solar activity...
NASA names astrobiology institute teams
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has picked 10 U.S. teams to study the origins, evolution, distribution and future of life...
Microwaves Can Extract Water from Moon, Mars
Research by material scientists may lead to the ability to extract water from the Moon and Mars by shooting microwave beams into their surface. Scientists at The University of Alabama...
Science minister backs astronauts for UK
Racing science minister, Paul Drayson, tells James Randerson that sending Britons into space would inspire the young
The Long Countdown: One Way Up: U.S. Space Plan Relies on Russia
From 2010 to 2015, the U.S. will have no human space flight capacity of its own, and will rely on Russia to carry its astronauts to space.
Shaping up the sun
The most accurate measurements yet account for magnetic activity that gives the star a more oval appearance.
International Space Station changes orbit awaiting tourist: report
The orbital path of the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully adjusted Saturday to accommodate the landing of the world's sixth space tourist in eight days time, Interfax reported citing...
Mars Lander Finds Evidence Of Water
NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported.
Diary Survives 37-Mile Fall To Earth
Pages from an Israeli astronaut's diary that survived the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia and a 37-mile fall to earth are going on display this weekend for the first...
Epic missions were flops, claims Nasa
Great expeditions of the past hold lessons for the future, says Nasa commissioned study
New Jersey Grants Rights to Build a Wind Farm About 20 Miles Offshore
Regulators in New Jersey awarded the rights on Friday for construction of a $1 billion wind farm in the southern part of the state to Garden State Offshore Energy.
Space Tech Prosthetic Leg Helps To Reach Long-jump World Record
German athlete Wojtek Czyz, running with a space-tech enhanced prosthetic leg, set a new world record at the Paralympics 2008 in Beijing, reaching an amazing 6.50 m and beating the...
Scientists working on space elevator
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Scientists in Japan and the United States say creating a so-called space elevator that can be used to visit space is a...
Brilliantly bright light source is one step closer to reality, says scientist
(PhysOrg.com) -- A brilliantly bright light source that can examine the detail of atoms at a microscopic level is one step closer, thanks to the adoption of a Europe-wide convention,...
Outer Solar System Not as Crowded as Astronomers Thought
(PhysOrg.com) -- When a treasure hunt comes up empty-handed, the hunters are understandably disappointed. But when astronomers don't find what they are looking for, the defeat can provide as much...
CERN unveils computer grid linking 7,000 scientists
GENEVA (Reuters) - CERN, the world's biggest particle physics laboratory and creator of the Worldwide Web, on Friday unveiled a new computer network allowing thousands of scientists around the world...
Spacing, Not Size, Matters In Visual Recognition, Researchers Find
You might think that the farthest distance at which you can hold a book and still read it quickly is determined by the size of the letters. However, neuroscientists have...
Sun Gets Fatter "Waist" During Magnetic Peaks
Periods of high solar activity create features that make the sun appear to have bigger "love handles," according to a new study of the star's true shape.
Scientists learn space lessons from Antarctic bases
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - In the depths of the Antarctic winter, expeditioners at Australia's research bases might as well be on the moon. Or on their way to Mars.