Where Martian dust comes from
The dust that coats much of the surface of Mars originates largely from a single thousand-kilometer-long geological formation near the Red Planet's equator, scientists have
Category : Space & Planetary
HeritageDaily – Space & planetary news and astronomy press releases from Nasa & across the globe
Young galaxy’s halo offers clues to its growth and evolution
A team of astronomers has discovered a new way to unlock the mysteries of how the first galaxies formed and evolved.
X-ray data may be first evidence of a star devouring a planet
For nearly a century, astronomers have puzzled over the curious variability of young stars residing in the Taurus-Auriga constellation some 450 light years from Earth.
A dozen new moons of Jupiter discovered, including one ‘oddball’
Twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter have been found -11 "normal" outer moons, and one that they're calling an "oddball." This brings Jupiter's total number of
Plasma-spewing quasar shines light on universe’s youth, early galaxy formation
Pasadena, CA--Carnegie's Eduardo Bañados led a team that found a quasar with the brightest radio emission ever observed in the early universe, due to it
‘Cataclysmic’ collision shaped Uranus’ evolution
Uranus was hit by a massive object roughly twice the size of Earth that caused the planet to tilt and could explain its freezing temperatures,
Fragment of impacting asteroid recovered in Botswana
A team of experts from Botswana, South Africa, Finland and the United States of America recovered a fresh meteorite in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Long suspected theory about the moon holds water
A team of Japanese scientists led by Masahiro Kayama of Tohoku University's Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences, has discovered a mineral known as moganite
Astronomers see distant eruption as black hole destroys star
For the first time, astronomers have directly imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the powerful gravity of a
Mars rocks may harbor signs of life from 4 billion years ago
Iron-rich rocks near ancient lake sites on Mars could hold vital clues that show life once existed there, research suggests.
Researchers from the UPC and the IAC discover one of the most massive neutron stars
Using a pioneering method, researchers from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group of the UPC and the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) have found a
Astronomers observe unprecedented detail in pulsar 6,500 light-years from Earth
A team of astronomers has performed one of the highest resolution observations in astronomical history by observing two intense regions of radiation, 20 kilometres apart,
A brief history of the space station
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting crewmembers, which is designed to remain in space (most commonly as an artificial satellite in low
“New views of Jupiter” showcases swirling clouds on giant planet
JunoCam images presented by citizen scientists Gerald Eichstädt and Seán Doran include an animation showing the evolution of swirling features in the giant planet’s atmosphere
Exiled asteroid discovered in outer reaches of solar system
An international team of astronomers has used ESO telescopes to investigate a relic of the primordial Solar System.
What will happen when our sun dies?
Scientists agree the sun will die in approximately 10 billion years, but they weren't sure what would happen next...until now.
To see the first-born stars of the universe
About 200 to 400 million years after the Big Bang created the universe, the first stars began to appear. Ordinarily stars lying at such a
Old data, new tricks: Fresh results from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft 20 years on
Far across the solar system, from where Earth appears merely as a pale blue dot, NASA's Galileo spacecraft spent eight years orbiting Jupiter.
Clear as mud: Desiccation cracks help reveal the shape of water on Mars
As Curiosity rover marches across Mars, the red planet's watery past comes into clearer focus.
Research suggests water appeared while Earth was still growing
Up until about ten years ago, scientists thought they had a pretty good picture of how the moon and Earth came to co-exist. Then more
The moon formed inside a vaporized Earth synestia
A new explanation for the Moon's origin has it forming inside the Earth when our planet was a seething, spinning cloud of vaporized rock, called
Asteroid ‘time capsules’ may help explain how life started on Earth
In popular culture, asteroids play the role of apocalyptic threat, get blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs - and offer an extraterrestrial source for mineral