Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Unmanned military space plane launched
United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket thunders to life, boosting space plane toward orbit for classified military mission
Spitzer captures infrared rays from 'Sunflower' galaxy
The various spiral arm segments of the Sunflower galaxy, also known as Messier 63, show up vividly in a new image taken in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope....
NASA's Bolden defends Earth science
WASHINGTON, March 4 (UPI) -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden defended NASA's Earth science missions before a U.S. House committee, saying such projects were part of NASA's job.
Space walk cut short after astronaut helmet lights come loose
Second spacewalk for maintenance work halted after astronaut's helmet lights could not be reattached
Northern lights dazzle the world
Geomagnetic storm generates light show after solar wind stream slams into Earth's magnetic field
Oldest objects in solar system indicate a turbulent beginning
Scientists have found that calcium, aluminium-rich inclusions (CAIs), some of the oldest objects in the solar system, formed far away from our sun and then later fell back into the...
Oxygen isotope analysis tells of the wandering life of a dust grain 4.5 billion years ago
Scientists have performed a micro-probe analysis of the core and outer layers of a pea-sized piece of a meteorite some 4.57 billion years old to reconstruct the history of its...
Cosmic Ray Theory Zapped by Discovery
A longstanding question in astronomy is what creates cosmic rays, the super-speedy space particles that can zip right through the Earth.
VIDEO: Highlights from The Sky At Night
The 700th edition of the Sky At Night airs on Sunday, being fronted as ever - with the exception of one programme in 2004 - by Sir Patrick Moore.
Veteran shuttle astronaut John "Mike" Lounge dies at 64
HOUSTON (Reuters) - Former astronaut John "Mike" Lounge, who flew into orbit as part of three space shuttle crews, including the first mission after the 1986 Challenger disaster, died on...
Behold the Sky: Full of Such Mischief, British U.F.O. Files Say
The files contain a treasure trove of observations from British citizens about unexplained phenomena they observed in the sky in recent years, but they do little to confirm that we...
A bid to implode cosmic ray theory
Supernovas alone don’t account for fast-moving hydrogen and helium nuclei, a new study contends
Minimum to the Max: Shifting Solar Plasma Could Account for Sun's Recent Slumber
A few years back, the sun went into a lull, its activity tailing off like a rambunctious child settling down for a nap. The lull was no surprise; it is...
Hello ISS, Obama Here
President Obama talks with the STS-133 & Expedition 26 crews aboard the ISS on March 3, 2011.
55 Space Leaders to Congress: Support Private Spaceflight Now
A debate is cooking over whether NASA should use private spacecraft to get its astronauts to the space station.
Solved - The Mystery Of Missing Sunspots
Sunspots are dark spots on the sun, at least as we see them, caused by magnetic activity in the plasma on the surface of Sol. For 200 years scientists have known...
A Long Exposure Captures Bioluminescence Below, a Swirling, Starry Night Above
Illumination Above and Below Phil Hart This image would be cool enough if it were some kind of artistic fabrication, but the fact that it's a real photograph is nothing short of...
Angela Saini | India is an emerging geek superpower
A scientific revolution sweeping India will soon place it firmly within the major world economiesIn the humid, palm-fringed surrounds of the annual Indian Science Congress in Kerala, the country's top researchers and politicians...
Human Planet
Stunning images from a TV documentary's journey around the world from the icy Arctic to African jungles
A special target: Spotting Planck in the heavens
As part of the Space Situational Awareness program, ESA's Tenerife observatory often searches for near-Earth objects. Recently, however, it caught a glimpse of the Agency's Planck orbiting telescope.
2011 Solar and Lunar Eclipse Skywatching Guide
There will be two total lunar eclipses and four partial solar eclipses in 2011.
Radiation no concern for space crops
Flax seeds can grow in radioactive soil near the contaminated site of the Chernobyl nuclear accident without much change to their proteins, experiments show. This study may point the way...
Solar study sheds light on sunspot doldrums
Unusually low sunspot activity in the past solar cycle may be due to changes in the flow of plasma deep below the sun's surface.
Clouds amplify ecological light pollution
The brightness of the nightly sky glow over major cities has been shown to depend strongly on cloud cover. In natural environments, clouds make the night sky darker by blocking...
Mock Mars Explorers Say Farewell to Virtual Red Planet
The Mars500 mission has finished its exploration of a simulated Red Planet and is about to head back home to Earth, and to reality.
NASA Tracks Meteor Fireballs With New Robot Cameras
Roughly 100 tons of meteoroids slam into Earth every day. NASA has cameras to spot them.
Astronomers simulate real-time telescope as big as the world to study peculiar active galaxy
Using a perfectly orchestrated world-wide network of radio telescopes, astronomers have produced a high-resolution map of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) belonging to an unknown class of gamma-ray sources. The...
The warped ways of cosmic light
Albert Einstein predicted them, modern giant telescopes detected them and Klaus Dolag simulates them on a computer: gravitational lenses. The academic staff member at the Max Planck Institute for...