Exoplanet detectors

The first batch of charge-coupled devices, or CCDs, to be flown on ESA's PLATO space observatory was accepted by ESA last month. This is an important milestone on the road to creating a groundbreaking spacecraft that will ...

Giant pattern discovered in the clouds of planet Venus

A Japanese research group has identified a giant streak structure among the clouds covering planet Venus based on observation from the spacecraft Akatsuki. The team also revealed the origins of this structure using large-scale ...

The 'camera that saved Hubble' turns 25

Twenty-five years ago this week, NASA held its collective breath as seven astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour caught up with the Hubble Space Telescope 353 miles (568 kilometers) above Earth. Their mission: to fix a devastating ...

BepiColombo monitoring camera test image

An unusual view of part of the BepiColombo spacecraft stack, taken by one of the monitoring cameras (or 'selfie-cams') fixed to the Mercury Transfer Module, MTM. The camera is looking up towards the solar array drive (top ...

Size matters in the detection of exoplanet atmospheres

A group analysis of 30 exoplanets orbiting distant stars suggests that size, not mass, is a key factor in whether a planet's atmosphere can be detected. The largest population-study of exoplanets to date successfully detected ...

Image: Shedding star AG Carinae

This luminous star, AG Carinae, is losing mass at a phenomenal rate. Its powerful winds reach up to seven million km/hour, and exert enormous pressure on the clouds of material already expelled by the star.

Image: Nebula with spiral arms

The two spiral arms winding towards the bright centre might deceive you into thinking you are looking at a galaxy a bit like our Milky Way. But the object starring in this image is of a different nature: PK 329-02.2 is a ...

Image: Hubble views the whirling disk of NGC 4526

This neat little galaxy is known as NGC 4526. Its dark lanes of dust and bright diffuse glow make the galaxy appear to hang like a halo in the emptiness of space in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Image: Hubble shoots Bright Quasar 3C 273

(Phys.org) —This image from Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) is likely the best of ancient and brilliant quasar 3C 273, which resides in a giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). ...

NASA Hubble sees sparring antennae galaxies

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped the best ever image of the Antennae Galaxies. Hubble has released images of these stunning galaxies twice before, once using observations from its Wide Field and Planetary Camera ...

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