Latest science news in Astronomy & Space
Physicists Create A Supernova In A Jar
If you are unaware, a supernova is an exploding star. In certain types of supernovae, the detonation starts with a flame ball buried deep inside a white dwarf and the flame...
A Week's Warning of Asteroid Strike Would Be Simple
An early warning system against dangerous space rock impacts that could give Earth a week's notice or more on a city-destroying strike would cost only $1 million per observatory, researchers...
China, Medicine Prize winner not at Nobel dinner: foundation
China's ambassador to Sweden and this year's laureate of the Nobel Prize in Medicine will not attend the December 10 Nobel Prize ceremony, the head of the Nobel Foundation told...
Study predicts distribution of gravitational wave sources
A pair of neutron stars spiralling toward each other until they merge in a violent explosion should produce detectable gravitational waves. A new study led by an undergraduate at the...
Heat helped hasten life's beginnings
There has been controversy about whether life originated in a hot or cold environment, and about whether enough time has elapsed for life to have evolved to its present complexity...
NASA engineers develop 'blacker than black' nanotubes (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Black is black, right? Not so, according to a team of NASA engineers now developing a blacker-than pitch material that will help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements or...
Arsenic, aliens and a media frenzy
Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell explains the implications of the discovery of bacteria that can use arsenic instead of phosphorus, and argues that Nasa should have acted swiftly to quash speculation about the discovery of...
3 Questions: Sara Seager on the discovery of a ‘new’ form of life
Yesterday, NASA announced the discovery of a bacterium that can grow on a diet of arsenic and thus doesn’t share the biological building blocks traditionally associated with all life forms. The discovery raises...
Newfound bacterium casts life in a new light
A Mono Lake bacterium's ability to subsist on deadly arsenic has scientists wide-eyed and rethinking the basics.After days of rampant speculation that NASA was on the cusp of revealing it...
Space Pictures This Week: Towering Cloud, Moon Geysers
A thundercloud aims high, stars are born near a galactic void, a Saturn moon spews ice, and more in the week's best space pictures.
NASA Hasn't Found Alien Life, But Arsenic Microbe Still 'Phenomenal'
Scientists haven't found ET, but the discovery of a microbe that can thrive on arsenic should greatly broaden the search for life beyond Earth, according to experts.
Alaska Spaceport Hopes to Snag More Rocket Launches
Alaska's Kodiak Launch Complex is hoping to snag more rocket launches in the near future.
Light touch brightens nanotubes (w/ Video)
(PhysOrg.com) -- Rice University researchers have discovered a simple way to make carbon nanotubes shine brighter.
Find could change search for alien life
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher says she has found an Earthly bacteria that breaks the biochemical "rules" all life on the planet was thought to follow.
Mars Meteorite Not Evidence of Extraterrestrials
What some argue is evidence of ancient life in a meteorite from Mars could have a simple chemical explanation, scientists now suggest.
Discovery triples number of stars in universe
Astronomers have discovered that small, dim stars known as red dwarfs are much more prolific than previously thought - so much so that the total number of stars in the...
Pits, flows, other scenes in new set of Mars images
Newly released images from 340 recent observations of Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show details of a wide assortment of...
Texas Tech Researcher to Receive Honorary Fellowship From World's Largest Textile Association
A Texas Tech University fabric researcher will receive an honorary fellowship from the world's largest textile and fiber association.
The initial and final state of SNe Ia from the single degenerate model
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) play an important role as cosmological distance indicators and have been used successfully to determine cosmological parameters, which resulted in the discovery of the...
Proposal for the establishment of a new branch within the discipline of aerothermodynamics
Researchers from the College of Physical Sciences, GUCAS, have proposed to establish a new branch, unsteady aerothermodynamics, within the discipline of aerothermodynamics. The principal objectives...
SOFIA Observatory Completes First Astronomy Mission
The Aircraft's Mission: To Help Search the Heavens for Newborn Stars
Senators Push NASA to Carry Out Revamping
Concerned that the agency is dragging its feet, a Senate panel sought assurances from administration officials on Wednesday that NASA would carry out orders that include scrapping a program to...
Astronauts considered in NASA budget cuts
The White House has called for a 10-month study of the appropriate 'role and size' of the 64-member astronaut corps after the final shuttle mission next year.With NASA's budget under...
Blurry Nebula Image Marks Success for Flying Telescope, NASA Says
Orion Nebula NASA After months of calibration and testing, NASA's flying telescope made its first excursion this morning, and the space agency is looking forward to analyzing the results. But, um, isn't this...
No such thing as free parking: Nationwide study demonstrates high environmental cost
Next time you're searching for a parking space and someone grabs a spot from right in front of you, it might seem like the last space left on Earth, but...
Astronauts drink tea in Moscow before December blast-off
Three Russian and NASA astronauts drank tea Wednesday with the head of the Russian space agency in Moscow as they prepared to blast off later this month to the International...
Earth-Size Planet Has Hot and Steamy Atmosphere?
An Earth-size planet orbiting a dim, red star either has a blanket of ultrahot steam or a noxious, cloudy haze of hydrogen, new data reveal.
Starry Starry Starry Night
A study suggests the universe could have triple the number of stars scientists previously calculated.