The setbacks for Japan's Hayabusa mission continue to mount, as today [Dec. 14] officials of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced that there's been no
contact with their asteroid-chasing craft since December 9th - Sky and Telescope, JAXA
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter quietly and consistently contributes important information to our growing knowledge of the Red Planet. At the American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting last week in San Francisco, ESA scientists announced Mars Express' OMEGA instrument has discovered evidence of past water on Mars' surface
- Astronomy
New results published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society provide for the first time an accurate measurement of the weight of the nearest white dwarf, Sirius B, companion of the brightest star in the sky - ESA
A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the
object's orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular - New Scientist
Astronomers using ESA's XMM-Newton observatory have found very hot gaseous haloes around a multitude of spiral galaxies similar to our Milky Way galaxy - ESA
An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a third short gamma-ray burst, associated with a nearby elliptical galaxy. The low level of star formation in such galaxies and the detection of a second long-lasting flare indicate that this gamma-ray burst is most likely the final scream of a neutron star as it is being devoured by a black hole
- European Southern Observatory
Clues revealed by the recently sharpened view of the Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to map the location of invisible "dark matter" in unprecedented detail in two very young galaxy clusters - Johns Hopkins University
ESA has confirmed the principle of a new space thruster that may ultimately give much more thrust than today’s electric propulsion techniques
- ESA