Latest and Breaking Space Science News

Surface of Mars an unlikely place for life after 600 million year drought, say scientists
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Imperial College London) Mars may have been arid for more than 600 million years, making it too hostile for any life to survive on the planet's surface, according to researchers who have been carrying out the painstaking task of analyzing individual particles of Martian soil.

Batchelor Foundation challenge grant to support helicopter purchase
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science announced that it has received a challenge grant for $700,000 from the Miami-based Batchelor Foundation to support its exploration research efforts. The funds will be applied toward the acquisition of a helicopter outfitted with a suite of scientific equipment that will serve as the basis for a one-of-a-kind platform for environmental observations at the School.

Scientists chart high-precision map of Milky Way's magnetic fields
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Naval Research Laboratory) Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory are part of an international team that has pooled their radio observations into a database, producing the highest precision map to date of the magnetic field within our own Milky Way galaxy.

Classic portrait of a barred spiral galaxy
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(ESA/Hubble Information Centre) The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073, which is found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster). Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a similar barred spiral, and the study of galaxies such as NGC 1073 helps astronomers learn more about our celestial home.

University of Miami student Bignami among 5 Guy Harvey Scholarship recipients
3 February 2012, 5:00 am
(University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science) University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science graduate student Sean Bignami received a Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation scholarship for his studies of how the changing chemistry of marine waters as a result of ocean acidification might affect the early development of large marine fish.

'First light' taken by NASA's newest CERES instrument
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) The doors are open on NASA's Suomi NPP satellite and the newest version of the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) instrument is scanning Earth for the first time, helping to assure continued availability of measurements of the energy leaving the Earth-atmosphere system.

NASA satellites see wind shear battering Tropical Depression Iggy
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) NASA satellites have watched as wind shear has torn Cyclone Iggy apart over the last day. NASA infrared satellite imagery showed that Iggy's strongest thunderstorms have been pushed away from the storm's center and visible imagery shows the storm is being stretched out. Iggy is weakening and heading for a landfall between Geraldton and Perth.

New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby cool star
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Carnegie Institution) An international team of scientists led by Carnegie's Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed.

Hubble zooms in on a magnified galaxy
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Thanks to the presence of a natural "zoom lens" in space, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope got a uniquely close-up look at the brightest "magnified" galaxy yet discovered.

The discovery of deceleration
2 February 2012, 5:00 am
(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) Stellar astrophysics helps to explain the behavior of fast rotating neutron stars in binary systems.