http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Crippled in space, the Kepler spacecraft's planet-hunting days are likely over. But its discoveries may be yet to come. http://phys.org/news289046597.html Space & Earth Wed, 29 May 2013 12:40:02 EST news289046597 (Phys.org)—Comets trailing wispy tails across the night sky are a beautiful byproduct of our solar system's formation, icy leftovers from 4.6 billion years ago when the planets coalesced from rocky rubble. http://phys.org/news276797567.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:12:58 EST news276797567 (Phys.org)—The quest for a twin Earth is heating up. Using NASA's Kepler spacecraft, astronomers are beginning to find Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars. A new analysis of Kepler data shows that about 17 percent of stars have an Earth-sized planet in an orbit closer than Mercury. Since the Milky Way has about 100 billion stars, there are at least 17 billion Earth-sized worlds out there. http://phys.org/news276796465.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:54:40 EST news276796465 (Phys.org)—Testing of the James Webb Space Telescope's Center of Curvature Optical Assembly, or COCOA, recently was completed in the X-ray and Cryogenic Test Facility at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The optical assembly was operated in a vacuum at both room temperature and cryogenic—or deep cold—temperatures to certify its performance before it is used to test the performance of Webb's 21.3 foot primary mirror. COCOA's operation and performance must be verified alone before it can be used to test Webb under conditions that the observatory will experience in space. http://phys.org/news268046441.html Space & Earth Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:20:53 EST news268046441 Much of the exciting action is space is confined to thin boundaries. The Universe is filled with plasma, a charged gas consisting of ions and electrons. Thin sheets with currents separate large plasma regions in space. Scientists at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) have now finally measured the fundamental properties of one of the waves mixing and accelerating plasmas within these sheets. http://phys.org/news263033747.html Physics Wed, 01 Aug 2012 09:56:26 EST news263033747 Astronomers around the world will be using advanced telescopes to watch Venus cross in front of the Sun on June 5 and 6 in the hopes of finding clues in the hunt for other planets where life may exist. http://phys.org/news257671332.html Space & Earth Thu, 31 May 2012 09:20:02 EST news257671332 More than a 150 years ago, before Neptune was ever sighted in the night sky, French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted the planet's existence based on small deviations in the motion of Uranus. In a paper published today in the journal Science online, a group of researchers led by Dr. David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute has inferred another unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system. http://phys.org/news255875557.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 May 2012 14:00:23 EST news255875557 A critical component of the James Webb Space Telescope is its new technology. Much of the technology for the Webb had to be conceived, designed and built specifically to enable it to see farther back in time. As with many NASA technological advances, some of the innovations are being used to benefit humankind in many other industries. http://phys.org/news253988489.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:21:39 EST news253988489 Photosynthesis maintains Earth's habitability for life as we know it, and shapes the way we search for habitable worlds around distant stars. Scientists have discovered a microbe that can use low-energy light to perform photosynthesis. This discovery could alter theories about the types of stars that could support Earth-like worlds. http://phys.org/news251107807.html Biology Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:11:58 EST news251107807 (PhysOrg.com) -- Within the next few years, the number of planets discovered in orbits around distant stars will likely reach several thousand or more. But even as our list of these newly discovered "exoplanets" grows ever-longer, the search for life beyond our solar system will likely focus much more narrowly on the relatively few of these new worlds which exhibit the most Earth-like of conditions. http://phys.org/news241094532.html Space & Earth Mon, 21 Nov 2011 10:42:24 EST news241094532 (PhysOrg.com) -- New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are expanding astronomers' understanding of the ways in which galaxies continuously recycle immense volumes of hydrogen gas and heavy elements. This process allows galaxies to build successive generations of stars stretching over billions of years. http://phys.org/news240774164.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:42:55 EST news240774164 (PhysOrg.com) -- The cleanroom at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. has received a giant structural steel frame that will be used to assemble the mirrors and instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope. http://phys.org/news240773899.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:38:33 EST news240773899 Scientists looking to capture evidence of dark matter -- the invisible substance thought to constitute much of the universe -- may find a helpful tool in the recent work of researchers from Princeton University and New York University. http://phys.org/news235661576.html Physics Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:33:23 EST news235661576 Earth's aurorae, or Northern and Southern Lights, provide a dazzling light show to people living in the polar regions. Shimmering curtains of green and red undulate across the sky like a living thing. New research shows that aurorae on distant "hot Jupiters" could be 100-1000 times brighter than Earthly aurorae. They also would ripple from equator to poles (due to the planet's proximity to any stellar eruptions), treating the entire planet to an otherworldly spectacle. http://phys.org/news230471330.html Space & Earth Thu, 21 Jul 2011 12:49:01 EST news230471330 The largest digital camera ever built for a space mission has been painstakingly mosaicked together from 106 separate electronic detectors. The resulting "billion-pixel array" will serve as the super-sensitive 'eye' of ESA's Galaxy-mapping Gaia mission. http://phys.org/news229169170.html Space & Earth Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:06:27 EST news229169170 (PhysOrg.com) -- At the May 23 press event, held at the 218th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Boston, the Kepler team provided a progress report on the mission. How is Kepler performing while trailing Earth around the sun? http://phys.org/news227779350.html Space & Earth Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:02:48 EST news227779350 (PhysOrg.com) -- For many movie stars, their age is a well-kept secret. In space, the same is true of the actual stars. Like our Sun, most stars look almost the same for most of their lives. So how can we tell if a star is one billion or 10 billion years old? Astronomers may have found a solution - measuring the star's spin. http://phys.org/news225451523.html Space & Earth Tue, 24 May 2011 10:25:40 EST news225451523 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Sydney astronomer, Professor Peter Tuthill, is one of an international team of astronomers who have announced a major step forward in the quest to find planets in orbit around distant stars. The discovery has been published in the international journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. http://phys.org/news218276791.html Space & Earth Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:27:53 EST news218276791 (PhysOrg.com) -- Wormholes are one of the stranger objects that arise in general relativity. Although no experimental evidence for wormholes exists, scientists predict that they would appear to serve as shortcuts between one point of spacetime and another. Scientists usually imagine wormholes connecting regions of empty space, but now a new study suggests that wormholes might exist between distant stars. Instead of being empty tunnels, these wormholes would contain a perfect fluid that flows back and forth between the two stars, possibly giving them a detectable signature. http://phys.org/news217858113.html Space & Earth Fri, 25 Feb 2011 12:09:20 EST news217858113 In an exciting example of international collaboration, a Qatar astronomer teamed with scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and other institutions to discover a new alien world. This "hot Jupiter," now named Qatar-1b, adds to the growing list of alien planets orbiting distant stars. Its discovery demonstrates the power of science to cross political boundaries and increase ties between nations. http://phys.org/news211542410.html Space & Earth Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:47:12 EST news211542410 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report that a new test for measuring the ability of gravity to bend light seen from distant stars around large objects like black holes may offer proof of the existence of extra dimensions in the universe. http://phys.org/news209279692.html Physics Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:15:21 EST news209279692 Astronomers have used a completely new technique to find an exotic extrasolar planet. The same approach might even be sensitive enough to find planets as small as the Earth in orbit around distant stars. http://phys.org/news197901787.html Space & Earth Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:00:03 EST news197901787 Why have we not made contact with aliens after so many years searching the depths of space? The Eerie Silence, a new book by SETI researcher Paul Davies, provides a fresh and thoughtful look at this question. http://phys.org/news190541045.html Space & Earth Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:40:03 EST news190541045 (PhysOrg.com) -- Space dust annoys astronomers just as much as the household variety when it interferes with their observations of distant stars. And yet space dust also poses one of the great mysteries of astronomy. http://phys.org/news153074950.html Space & Earth Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:50:17 EST news153074950