Space, Astronomy and Planetary Science News

In April, a European team of astronomers announced the discovery of two possibly habitable Earth-like planets.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft's Plasma Science instrument, developed at MIT in the 1970s, has turned up surprising revelations about the boundary zone that marks the edge of the sun's influence in space.

A dwarf star with a surprisingly magnetic personality and a huge hot spot covering half its surface area is showing astronomers that life as a cool dwarf is not necessarily as simple and quiet as they once assumed.

Right in time for the festive season, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has discovered a huge cloud of high-temperature gas resting in a spectacular nearby star-forming region, shaped somewhat like the silhouette of Santa Claus.

Astronomers at the University of Michigan have found what are believed to be some of the youngest solar systems yet detected.

Researchers using supercomputer simulations have exposed a very violent and critical relationship between interstellar gas and dark matter when galaxies are born -- one that has been largely ignored by the current model of how the universe evolved.

Scientists analysing data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft have confirmed the presence of heavy negative ions in the upper regions of Titan's atmosphere. These particles may act as organic building blocks for even more complicated molecules and their di

scientists from NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) and the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the University of California, Davis (UCD) has found that terrestrial planets such as the Earth and Mars may have remained molten in their early histories for tens

The next time you take a moonlit stroll, or admire a full, bright-white moon looming in the night sky, you might count yourself lucky.

Astronomers have discovered white dwarf stars with pure carbon atmospheres. The discovery could offer a unique view into the hearts of dying stars.