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Space & Cosmology

Tiger stripes on enceladus

Icy moon's ocean could support life

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Saturn's icy moon Enceladus harbours a salty ocean under the surface, astronomers have discovered, making it a favourable place for alien life.


Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Moon probe enters lunar orbit

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

A space probe that will provide new information about the Moon ahead of future manned missions has entered lunar orbit, four days after launch.


TexShield

Moon blanket could protect lunar colony

Monday, 22 June 2009

The first astronauts to return to the Moon could be shielded from cosmic and solar radiation with a flexible covering designed by university students.


Kilometre-high waves flow in Saturn's rings

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

Cassini has uncovered towering vertical structures in Saturn's seemingly flat rings that are due to the gravitational effects of a small moon.


Dark gamma-ray burst

Dark gamma-ray bursts hidden by space dust

Monday, 15 June 2009

Gamma-ray bursts, the universe's most brilliant flashes of light, have revealed areas of star formation previously hidden to astronomers.


M87

Black holes are bigger than we thought

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Supermassive black holes are two or three times more massive than astronomers thought, say supercomputer simulations that add a missing ingredient.


Venus-Earth collision

Earth-Mars collision possible, says study

Thursday, 11 June 2009

A force known as orbital chaos may cause our Solar System to go haywire, leading to possible collision between Earth and either Venus or Mars.


NGC 4258

Megamasers to unravel dark energy mystery

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

Accurate measurements of ‘megamasers’ – powerful natural amplifiers of radio waves – will extend the cosmic distance scale and help astronomers understand the nature of dark energy.


Betelgeuse

Shrinking supergiant puzzles astronomers

Wednesday, 10 June 2009

A 15-year, continuous observation of the red supergiant Betelgeuse has found that the star, one of the largest known, is shrinking – but astronomers don’t understand why.


light pollution

One-fifth of us have lost sight of Milky Way

Tuesday, 9 June 2009

Light pollution has caused one-fifth of the world's population – mostly in Europe and the U.S. – to lose their ability to see the Milky Way in the night sky.


Pair instability supernova

First supernovae blew early galaxies apart

Wednesday, 3 June 2009

The universe's first stars blew small galaxies apart when they exploded, effectively quashing all nearby star formation, say Japanese astrophysicists.


Astronaut

Space headache: a new health complaint for astronauts

Wednesday, 3 June 2009

Astronauts who have no history of bad headaches can be prone to disabling attacks while in space, a phenomenon that suggests a new medical condition, say neurologists.


Supernova in M82

Massive supernova is nearest in five years

Thursday, 28 May 2009

European radio astronomers have discovered the hidden explosion of a massive star, in the nearby galaxy M82.


XMM-Newton

ESA takes us closer than ever to a black hole

Thursday, 28 May 2009

Using the XMM-Newton space observatory, astronomers have probed closer than ever to a supermassive black hole lying deep at the core of a distant galaxy.


hypersonic vehicle in Woomera

Hypersonic scramjet passes another test flight

Saturday, 23 May 2009

Next-generation aircraft with the potential to dramatically reduce inter-continental travel times are now one step closer after the successful hypersonic flight trials conducted by Australian and U.S. scientists.