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Space & Cosmology

killer electrons solar storm

Solar storms' vanishing 'killer electrons' found

Thursday, 2 February 2012

High-energy electrons that should be wreaking havoc on our telecommunications systems during geomagnetic storms have been disappearing, and scientists have finally figured out where they go.


Bus-sized asteroid shaves by Earth

Monday, 30 January 2012

An asteroid about the size of a bus shaved by Earth on Friday in what spacewatchers described as a "near-miss", though experts were not concerned about the possibility of an impact.


26 planets kepler

Kepler confirms 26 new planets

Friday, 27 January 2012

NASA's Kepler space telescope mission has confirmed 26 new planets outside our Solar System, all of them orbiting too close to their host stars to sustain life.


moon rock dynamo

Early Moon's metal heart was long-lived

Friday, 27 January 2012

A powerful magnetic field shielded the early Moon, and was generated by a molten metal core that churned for much longer than previously thought, according to a new study.


magnetic seed

Lasers shine light on galactic magnetic fields

Thursday, 26 January 2012

The mystery of how galaxies, including our Milky Way, have become magnetised has been solved by experiments using high-power lasers.


biggest solar storm

Biggest solar storm since 2005 pummels Earth

Tuesday, 24 January 2012

A potent solar flare has unleashed the biggest radiation storm since 2005 and could disrupt some satellite communications in the polar regions.


levitating fruit flies

Levitating flies mimic weightlessness of space

Monday, 23 January 2012

The weightlessness of space has been reproduced in insects using high-powered magnets.


comet death

Comet death caught on camera

Friday, 20 January 2012

A comet has caught doing something never seen before: die a scorching death as it flew too close to the Sun.


source of supernova

Hubble solves mystery of supernova source

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

A longstanding mystery has been solved regarding a type of star called a progenitor, which caused a supernova in a nearby galaxy.


titan's atmosphere earthlike

Climate cycle reveals Titan as Earth-like

Monday, 16 January 2012

Saturn's moon Titan is more Earth-like than thought, with two distinct layers in the lower atmosphere that affect the moon's wind patterns, dune spacing and cloud formation.


Phobos-Grunt crash

Phobos-Grunt crashes into Pacific Ocean

Monday, 16 January 2012

In a spectacular end to a failed mission, pieces of a Russian spacecraft Phobos-Grunt appear to have crashed into the Pacific Ocean in the early hours of this morning.


tiny solar system

Kepler discovers tiny solar system

Friday, 13 January 2012

The three smallest planets ever found orbiting a star beyond our Sun have been detected by astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission.


Milky Way is a treasure trove of habitable planets

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Every star in our galaxy is orbited by, on average, one or more planets: that's the mind-boggling conclusion of a new study by an international team of astronomers.


biggest star jet

Biggest star jet found in neighbouring galaxy

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

A star shooting matter in a jet stretching over 400 trillion km has been found in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy to Earth.


dark matter map

Biggest map of dark matter in universe created

Tuesday, 10 January 2012

The largest map of dark matter ever observed in the universe has been created by astronomers using data from potent telescopes that scanned 10 million galaxies.