Space & Astronomy News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers are baffled after finding an exotic type of star called a pulsar apparently locked in an elongated orbit around a star much like the sun -- an arrangement defying what had been known about such objects.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian space scientists announced on Thursday a new breakthrough in a long pedigree of firsts: the birth of 30 grandchildren of a "space cockroach" who spent 12 days in orbit.

The universe is twice as bright as it appears, astronomers now suggest.

I visited Richard Quinn's lab at NASA Ames Research Center to learn more about his work on Earth and on Mars. Richard Quinn and John Marshall are both scientists in the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute; they are instrument scientists and team members on NASA's soon-to-land Mars Phoenix Lander.

Physicists have come up with a way to explain how information could escape from a black hole, an idea that's been debated since the 1970s.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Astronomers have discovered the most recent supernova in our Milky Way, hoping it will further knowledge about the spectacular stellar explosions and the workings of our galaxy, a research paper said Wednesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Astronomers have discovered the youngest known supernova in the Milky Way galaxy, still just a baby at 140 years old. The scientists, who announced their findings Wednesday, used a radio observatory in New Mexico and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in space to identify when the supernova, or stellar, explosion occurred. They put the star-dying event at sometime around 1868.

MOSCOW - An unmanned Russian cargo ship blasted off Thursday with supplies, equipment and gifts for the international space station, an official said.

An unmanned Russian cargo ship launched into orbit Wednesday crammed with fresh supplies for astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian cargo ship Progress M-64 set off from Kazakhstan overnight on Wednesday for the International Space Station, the centre for control of space flights (Tsoup) told national news agencies.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A baby supernova, just over a century old, has been found in the middle of our own Milky Way galaxy and provides an unprecedented opportunity to watch a star dying, astronomers said on Wednesday.

MOSCOW (AFP) - The Russian and European space agencies have signed a deal to build a six-seat manned spacecraft to travel to the Moon, a Russian space official said Wednesday.

About 140 years ago, our time, a stellar explosion lit up our galaxy with a blinding flash of light, sending out powerful shock waves to boot. Now, astronomers have spotted the youthful remains from the explosion.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican's chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of "extraterrestrial brothers" perhaps more evolved than humans.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US space probe sent to Mars to dig for signs of life is nearing the end of its nine-month voyage and should touch down on the Red Planet on schedule, NASA said Tuesday.

SEOUL, South Korea - A science official says South Korea's first astronaut has left a hospital after recovering from neck and back pain apparently caused by her Russian spacecraft's unexpectedly steep descent to Earth last month.

When space shuttle Discovery touched down in December 2006 after spending 13 days in space traveling 5.3 million miles, it came to rest on four main landing gear and two nose gear tires. Although not much larger than a truck tire, just one of Discovery's main gear tires could carry three times the load of a Boeing 747 tire or the entire starting line-up of a NASCAR race — 40 race cars — all hitting the pavement at 250 miles per hour.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Amateur astronomers Tuesday got Internet access to imagery from the best telescopes on earth and in space with a new service launched by Microsoft.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Nine months ago, NASA's Phoenix probe blasted off for Mars with an unprecedented mission to sample water on another world.

VATICAN CITY - Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God, the Vatican's chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — With just 12 days to go until its Mars arrival, NASA's Phoenix lander is functioning well and on course to be the first mission to land in the frigid, arctic regions of the red planet, NASA officials said today.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence analysts are examining spy satellite images of China's Sichuan province, where a powerful earthquake is believed to have killed 3,000 to 5,000 people, a defense official said on Monday.

Astronomers have found a piece of the universe's puzzle that's been missing for awhile: a type of extremely hot, dense matter that is all but invisible to us.

TOKYO (AFP) - The human race will find life elsewhere in the universe as it pushes ahead with space exploration, astronauts back from the latest US space mission said Monday.

Jon Edwards often manages what appears impossible. He has recovered precious data from computers wrecked in floods and fires and dumped in lakes. Now Edwards may have set a new standard: He found information on a melted disk drive that fell from the sky when space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in 2003.

WASHINGTON - Daniel Suson has a doctorate in astrophysics and has worked on the superconducting super collider and a forthcoming NASA probe. Now he's heading back to school to take on an even trickier task — getting elected to public office.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Seven astronauts climbed inside the space shuttle Discovery on Friday as part of a dress rehearsal for a May 31 mission to deliver a Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station.

The crew of the space shuttle Discovery successfully completed a dress rehearsal today for their upcoming launch. They capped off their practice run at Cape Canaveral with a simulated countdown to liftoff at 11:00 a.m. EDT.

A prototype module for a private space station has passed an orbital milestone after completing its 10,000th trip around the Earth.