Hidden giant planet revealed around tiny white dwarf star
The first evidence of a giant planet orbiting a dead white dwarf star has been found in the form of a disc of gas formed
Category : Space & Planetary
HeritageDaily – Space & planetary news and astronomy press releases from Nasa & across the globe
Distant worlds under many suns
Is Earth the only habitable planet in the universe or are there more worlds somewhere out there that are capable of supporting life? And if
ESO telescope reveals what could be the smallest dwarf planet yet in the solar system
Astronomers using ESO's SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that the asteroid Hygiea could be classified as a dwarf planet.
Elon Musk’s Starship may be more moral catastrophe than bold step in space exploration
Elon Musk, founder of private space-faring company SpaceX, recently unveiled his new Starship craft. Amazingly, it is designed to carry up to 100 crew members on interplanetary journeys
Could Venus have been habitable?
Venus may have been a temperate planet hosting liquid water for 2-3 billion years, until a dramatic transformation starting over 700 million years ago resurfaced
Water detected on an exoplanet located in its star’s habitable zone
An international study lead by Université de Montréal astronomer Björn Benneke has detected water vapour on the planet K2-18b. This represents a major discovery in
And then there was light: Looking for the first stars in the universe
Astronomers are closing in on a signal that has been travelling across the Universe for 12 billion years, bringing them nearer to understanding the life
Dead planets can ‘broadcast’ for up to a billion years
Astronomers are planning to hunt for cores of exoplanets around white dwarf stars by ‘tuning in’ to the radio waves that they emit.
Continuing the Apollo legacy
A new study spearheaded by Earth scientists at the University of Cologne's Institute of Geology and Mineralogy has constrained the age of the Moon to
We need to protect the heritage of the Apollo missions
It’s 50 years since the two Apollo 11 astronauts – Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – spent 22 hours collecting samples, deploying experiments and sometimes
‘Moon-forming’ circumplanetary disk discovered in distant star system
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first-ever observations of a circumplanetary disk, the planet-girding belt of dust and gas that
Pair of supermassive black holes discovered on a collision course
Astronomers have spotted a distant pair of titanic black holes headed for a collision.
Black hole brings down curtain on jellyfish galaxy’s star turn
The role of an excited black hole in the death of an exotic ‘jellyfish’ galaxy will be presented today (3 July) by Callum Bellhouse of
‘Bathtub rings’ around Titan’s lakes might be made of alien crystals
The frigid lakeshores of Saturn's moon Titan might be encrusted with strange, unearthly minerals, according to new research being presented here.
NASA scientists find sun’s history buried in moon’s crust
The Sun is why we're here. It's also why Martians or Venusians are not.
Mass anomaly detected under the moon’s largest crater
A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar system -- the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin -- and
Astronomers determine mass of small black hole at center of nearby galaxy
If astronomers want to learn about how supermassive black holes form, they have to start small--really small, astronomically speaking.
The ‘forbidden’ planet has been found in the ‘Neptunian Desert’
An exoplanet smaller than Neptune with its own atmosphere has been discovered in the Neptunian Desert, by an international collaboration of astronomers, with the University
Researchers wonder if ancient supernovae prompted human ancestors to walk upright
Did ancient supernovae induce proto-humans to walk on two legs, eventually resulting in homo sapiens with hands free to build cathedrals, design rockets and snap
Oldest meteorite collection on Earth found in one of the driest places
Earth is bombarded every year by rocky debris, but the rate of incoming meteorites can change over time. Finding enough meteorites scattered on the planet's
A family of comets reopens the debate about the origin of Earth’s water
Where did the Earth’s water come from? Although comets, with their icy nuclei, seem like ideal candidates, analyses have so far shown that their water
Three exocomets discovered around the star Beta Pictoris
Just about a year after the launch of the NASA mission TESS, the first three comets orbiting the nearby star Beta Pictoris outside our solar