Research is underway on new equipment that will allow solar power to be gathered in space and transferred back to earth through microwaves or lasers, providing renewable energy for the future and providing power to disaster areas or outlying areas that are difficult to reach by traditional means. Solar power gathered in space could be [...]

New observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory may help explain why some supernova explosions are more powerful than others, supporting the idea that some of the unusually luminous supernovas are caused by the blast wave from their explosion ramming into the material around it. Observations with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have provided the first X-ray [...]

A new method for extracting precise information from tiny “spherules” embedded in layers of rock has allowed researchers to record precise information about asteroids impacting Earth from 3.5 billion to 35 million years ago. West Lafayette, Indiana – Researchers are learning details about asteroid impacts going back to the Earth’s early history by using a [...]

In preparation for Curiosity’s exploration of Mount Sharp on Mars, NASA engineers took a test rover out to the desert for last minute training in the sand dunes. Team members of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission took a test rover to Dumont Dunes in California’s Mojave Desert this week to improve knowledge of the best [...]

To better understand the how star formation and black hole activity are linked, scientists are looking back 8 to 12 billion years, a time when star formation was most vigorous. By comparing infrared readings with X-rays streaming from the active central black holes, the astronomers found that the black holes’ brightness and star formation increased [...]

Launched in 2007, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft began exploring the asteroid Vesta in 2011 and just provided researchers with the first orbital analysis of the giant asteroid. The new data has confirmed Vetsa’s planet-like qualities and has shown Vesta as a layered, planetary building block with an iron core. Pasadena, California – NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has [...]

Using data from the WISE satellite, scientists discovered an ultra-cool brown dwarf, known as BD+01 2920B, that is about 35 times more massive than Jupiter and is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more [...]

Over the last two years researchers have been monitoring the sand movement on Mars with the HiRISE camera. They found that even with a thinner atmosphere and less high-speed wind, movement in sand dune fields occurs at about the same rate as in dune fields on Earth. Pasadena, California — NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has [...]

Tidal heating, which is basically gravitational heating of a planet via tides, suggests that the number of habitable planets could be roughly half of what was previously thought. Tidal heating could shrink the habitable zone around the Milky Way’s most numerous stars, red dwarfs. Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle, [...]

Sitting 40 million light-years away, researchers were able to gain a better understand of 55 Cancri e and its environment. Using observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the team found that its temperature is roughly 2,360 degrees Kelvin and that 55 Cancri e orbits its star much like the moon circles Earth. Scientists on a [...]

Scientists are searching for Earth-like planets by searching near Jupiter-like planets. Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, scientists have identified 63 candidate hot Jupiter systems, but currently have not found any evidence for nearby companion planets. Washington, D.C.— In the search for Earth-like planets, it is helpful to look for clues and patterns that can [...]

A newly published study from the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics details two models supporting the origin of Type Ia supernovae, finding that both the single-degenerate model and the double-degenerate model are correct. Cambridge, Massachusetts – The exploding stars known as Type Ia supernovae serve an important role in measuring the universe, and were used [...]