Audio: Sedna Loses Its Moon
Remember Sedna? It's that icy object uncovered last year in the outer reaches of the Solar System. When it was…
Really Big Telescopes are Coming
If you think current telescopes are powerful, just you wait. A new class of observatories are in the works that…
Old Star Reignites its Flame
"Sakurai's Object" is a white dwarf star that surprised astronomers when if flared brightly in 1996. They originally thought it…
Cosmic Particle Accelerator at the Centre of the Milky Way
A vast looping structure 20 light-years across has been discovered near the heart of the Milky Way. The loop was…
Is This the First Photo of an Exoplanet?
Astronomers have discovered more than 150 planets orbiting distant stars, but only indirectly. Now an international team of researchers think…
Europe Planning a Mars Rover Mission
Scientists from the European Space Agency have strongly recommended that that the next scientific mission to Mars should be a…
Gamma Ray Bursts Could Have Led to Extinctions
Gamma ray busts are the most powerful known explosions in the Universe, so if one went off in our galactic…
Dark Matter at the Heart of Galaxy Groups
When you look at a galaxy, you can only see a fraction of its total mass. The rest is made…
Discovery Reaches the Launch Pad
In preparation for its return to flight, the space shuttle Discovery made the long slow journey atop its Crawler Transporter…
Early Galaxy Growth Spurt Spotted
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has detected distant galaxies going through a period of tremendous star formation, at the same time…