Space, Astronomy and Planetary Science News

Viewed from the technological perspective of modern humans, the sun is a seething cauldron of disruptive influences that can wreak havoc on communication systems, air travel, power grids and satellites -- not to mention astronauts in space

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has taken a striking image of a beautiful yet peculiar pair of galaxies

A galaxy with a combination of characteristics never seen before is giving astronomers a tantalising peek at processes they believe played key roles in the growth of galaxies and clusters of galaxies early in the history of the Universe

A once-massive star that's been transformed into a small planet made of diamond: that's what astronomers think they've found in our Milky Way

Two studies appearing in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Nature provide new insights into a cosmic accident that has been streaming X-rays toward Earth since late March

Observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope have shed light on the power source of a rare vast cloud of glowing gas in the early Universe

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted the signature of flat carbon flakes, called graphene, in space. If confirmed, this would be the first-ever cosmic detection of the material -- which is arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom

Analysis of a piece of lunar rock brought back to Earth by the Apollo 16 mission in 1972 has shown that the Moon may be much younger than previously believed

Astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet -- a distant, Jupiter-sized gas giant known as TrES-2b. Their measurements show that TrES-2b reflects less than one percent of the sunlight falling on it

Type Ia supernovae are violent stellar explosions whose brightness is used to determine distances in the universe