Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Spectacular Orion Nebula Photo Brings Star Birth to Life
An image of the Orion Nebula from the European Southern Observatory reveals a vast stellar nursery that helps researchers better understand the phases of star birth and evolution.
NASA to replace injured shuttle astronaut
HOUSTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- NASA says it has chosen a replacement for an injured member of the crew of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery, set to launch next...
What's Stronger Than Steel? Spider Silk
In Preview of 4-Part PBS Series "Making Stuff," David Pogue Looks at How Science Tries to Match What Spiders Produce
Sundiving Comet Storm
2010 ended with an unprecedented flurry of small comets diving into the Sun. Researchers say this could herald a much larger comet still to come.
Thunderstorms Make Antimatter
At any given moment, about 1800 thunderstorms are in progress somewhere around the globe. New observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope show that many of these thunderstorms make antimatter.
Wave-generated 'white hole' boosts hawking radiation theory, physicists find
A team of physicists and engineers has designed a experiment featuring a trough of flowing water to help bolster a 35-year-old theory proposed by eminent physicist Stephen Hawking.
European Mercury spacecraft passes test
PARIS, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency says its Mercury mission spacecraft has been tested in a simulator capable of reproducing the planet's extreme environment.
India plans tidal power station
NEW DELHI, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The Indian state of Gujarat is planning to host Asia's first commercial-scale tidal power station.
Giant Alien Planet's Gravity May Make Star Pulsate
A scorching-hot alien planet may be causing its parent star to inflate and deflate like a balloon.
Partner galaxies wildly different in new WISE image
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer has captured a new view of two companion galaxies -- a somewhat tranquil spiral beauty and its rambunctious partner blazing with smoky star formation.
Surgeons, CCTV and TV football gain from new video technology that banishes shadows and flare
Researchers at the University of Warwick have developed the world's first complete High Dynamic Range (HDR) video system, from video capture to image display, that will help a range of...
Cosmology standard candle not so standard after all
Astronomers have turned up the first direct proof that 'standard candles' used to illuminate the size of the universe, termed Cepheids, shrink in mass, making them not quite as standard...
2010 - Statistical Tie for Warmest Year
The year 2010 finished in a photo finish with 1998 for the warmest year in the 32-year satellite temperature record. 2010 was only 0.013 C cooler than 1998, an amount...
'Toylets' games make a splash in Japan urinals
Japanese toilets are famed for functions such as posterior shower jets and perfume bursts, but entertainment company Sega has gone a step further by installing urine-controlled games in Tokyo urinals.
Astronomers describe hottest planet found
LONDON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- British astronomers say they've discovered the hottest planet ever found, circling a white-hot star 380 light-years away in the constellation Andromeda.
Essay: Recalling a Fallen Star’s Legacy in High-Energy Particle Physics
Remembering Fermilab’s Tevatron particle accelerator, which the Department of Energy announced will be shut down as scheduled in September.
Review of Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science by Ian Sample
Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science by Ian Sample (Basic Books, 2010, $25.95, 320 pages) This review by Fred Bortz was also published in the...
Voyager spacecraft going strong at age 33
BALTIMORE, Ohio, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft, approaching the edge of the solar system, are still operating and sending back data 33 years after their launch,...
Chandra images torrent of star formation
A new Chandra X-ray Observatory image of Messier 82, or M82, shows the result of star formation on overdrive. At a distance of only 12 million light years, M82 provides...
Queensland's soggy soils revealed
The extent to which Queensland's soils became saturated with water as the Australian state was deluged with rain is evident in some novel satellite imagery.
Revelations about Galileo, Bruno, and aliens
The Catholic Church and scientists have a history of clashing, but according to Vatican astronomers, some of the stories of Church persecution are distortions of the truth more gossip...
To better understand the early universe, adaptive optics technique invented
Adaptive optics makes it possible to remove distortions caused by turbulence in the atmosphere when observing the sky. A major innovation in this field has been achieved by a Franco-British...
Young stellar clusters
(PhysOrg.com) -- Most stars are thought to form in clusters rather than in isolation, as the gas and dust in a molecular cloud coalesces under the influence of gravity until...
Students invited by NASA to send experiments to the edge of space
NASA is inviting student teams to design and build experiments the agency will fly into the stratosphere, a near-space environment, more than 100,000 feet above the Earth.
Herschel spacecraft celebrates one year of spectacular science
The World's largest space telescope, ESAs Herschel Space Observatory, is celebrating one year of spectacular science. A meeting at the Royal Astronomical Society in London is showcasing some of the...
AUDIO: Antarctica's new underground physics lab
The world's largest detector of high-energy sub-atomic particles has been installed deep in the ice of Antarctica to shed light on dark matter and neutrinos.
Starwatch: Prospects for 2011
The Moon stands in the E at nightfall today, near the junction in the sky between Taurus, Orion and Gemini and very close to its position during the total lunar eclipse on...
Scientific shifts affect more than the zodiac
Science editor Alan Boyle's Weblog: The world was shocked to learn that astrology no longer reflects astronomical realities, but the zodiac isn't the only thing that's changing in the cosmos.