Space (Pre 2005)
19 November 2004
Mars-like Soils Can Harbor Life
Researchers have found microbial life beneath the arid surface of a desert where it rains only once a decade...
27 October 2004
Infinite Entropy Mooted As Universal Panacea
The concept of a universe of infinite entropy overcomes the "problem" of the molecules of the universe fluctuating from a high-entropy state into one of low entropy...
18 October 2004
New Slant On Solar Sail
A new magnetic plasma propulsion method for spacecraft could dramatically speed up journeys to other planets in the solar system...
29 September 2004
Neutrino Detectors Watching For Supernovas
Neutrino emanations from the explosive death throes of large stars will alert astronomers to the blasts before they can see the flashes of light...
24 September 2004
Puzzle Over Low Galaxy Count
Astronomers looking at the fartherest reaches of the universe are puzzled over the lack of star-forming galaxies...
17 September 2004
Stirling Engine Gets Noisy Makeover
A Stirling engine variant that uses powerful sound waves to generate electricity is more than twice as efficient as current thermoelectric generators...
10 September 2004
Prof Sparks Grav Wave Betting Plunge
English bookmakers are crazy to be offering odds of 100-1 on whether gravitational waves will be discovered before 2010, says a UK scientist...
3 September 2004
Rethink ET Message Detection Says Prof
Extraterrestrial civilizations may be trying to communicate by physical means rather than radio signals...
2 August 2004
High Quality Meteor Spectrum Caught By Chance
ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured information from a meteor which challenges theories on the efficiency of meteor-induced atmospheric chemistry at the time when life began on our planet...
25 June 2004
Photos Of Planets Outside Our Solar System On The Way
A new Earth-based camera that uses adaptive optics will be turned on regions beyond our solar system to capture the first images of extrasolar planets...
21 June 2004
Massive "Blazar" Black Hole Sheds Light On Big Bang
A super-massive black hole more than 10 billion times the mass of our sun is giving scientists a view of the universe in its infancy...
7 June 2004
Ancient Meteorite Turned Earth Inside Out
A massive meteorite collision two billion years ago caused part of the Earth's crust to flip inside out...
28 April 2004
Solar-Powered Robot Bird Set For Exploration Duties
Researchers are developing the world's first flapping-wing, solar-powered unmanned aircraft to explore regions on Earth and possibly beyond...
9 April 2004
Asteroid Catastrophy Calculator Automates Armageddon Advice
Worried about an asteroid collision ruining your day? Try a new online calculator that will model the impact and tell you what to expect in your neck of the woods...
22 March 2004
Scramjet Set For Weekend Test
NASA may come one step closer to cheaper and more reliable access to space if the X-43A vehicle has its first successful test flight next weekend...
12 February 2004
Comets May Spread Life From Earth Around Galaxy
While comets hitting the Earth could cause mass extinctions, they could also disperse micro-organisms from Earth to the most distant parts of the Galaxy...
5 February 2004
Dark Ages May Have Been, Err, Dark
Crop failures and summer frosts around 1,500 years ago may have been caused by a comet colliding with Earth...
19 January 2004
Planets Like Earth May Be Common
Scientists suggest that planets with enough water for advanced life to evolve may be commonplace...
1 January 2004
Busy Month Ahead For Space Buffs
Although Beagle is incommunicado, January is still shaping up as a busy month for extraterrestrial activities with landers on Mars and a rendezvous with a comet...
10 November 2003
New Method To Map Dark Matter
Researchers say that the motion of dark matter clumps can be modeled in a way similar to the Brownian motion of air-borne dust or pollen...
6 November 2003
Enigma Of Extraterrestrial Amino Acids
Why extraterrestrial amino acids prefer the same "left-handed" structure as Earth's amino acids could answer the most fundamental question of science: Where and how did life begin?
3 November 2003
Sun's Iron Core May Be Cause Of Solar Flares
The solar storms that have hit Earth may be caused by the sun's iron-rich interior, says a researcher who theorizes that the sun's core is made of iron rather than hydrogen...
4 September 2003
Mysterious Ice Domes Hint At Life On Europa
A new study of Jupiter's moon Europa may help explain the giant ice domes on its surface and the possibility of discovering past or present life forms...
31 July 2003
New Species Of Organism Excites Astrobiologists
They thrive without oxygen, growing in salty, alkaline conditions, and may offer insights into what kinds of life might survive on Mars...
17 July 2003
Asteroid Threat Overstated
A new study says that asteroids with a diameter greater than 200 metres will hit the earth's surface approximately once every 160,000 years - way down on previous estimates of impacts every 2,500 years...
9 June 2003
Thermal Imaging Reveals A Changing Mars
High-resolution infrared data and detailed geological analysis show Mars has experienced dramatic environmental change...
2 June 2003
Solar System In A Hole
The first detailed map of space within about 1,000 light years of Earth places the solar system in the middle of a large hole...
24 March 2003
Solar Trend Could Change Climate
According to NASA, the amount of solar radiation the sun emits has increased by nearly .05 percent per decade since the late 1970s...
2 December 2002
Planets Formed In Hundreds - Not Millions - Of Years
New research suggests that planets can form in dramatically short periods, as little as a few hundred years...
14 November 2002
Puzzle Over 'Little' Big Bang
Scientists have recreated a temperature not seen since the first microsecond of the birth of the universe and found that the event did not unfold quite the way they expected...
7 November 2002
Microwave Beam To Boost Satellite Into Orbit
Plans are being made to push a spacecraft into orbit with energy beamed up from the ground...
17 October 2002
Black Hole Surfing
An team of astronomers has directly observed an otherwise normal star orbiting the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy...
14 October 2002
New Evidence For Solar Systems Like Ours
Astronomers report strong evidence for the existence of massive planets on wide orbits - like those of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - around many stars...
10 October 2002
Radioastronomers Measure Sizes Of Distant Planets
Quaoar, the newest member of the solar system, has a diameter of 1250 km, making it the largest object discovered in the solar system since the discovery of Pluto in 1930...
19 September 2002
Runaway Universe May Collapse
Rather than expanding exponentially, our cosmos may be in danger of collapsing in a "mere" 10 to 20 billion years...
26 August 2002
New Evidence Of Massive Meteor Strike
A huge meteor, between 12 and 30 miles in diameter, smashed into the Earth 3.5 billion years ago with the energy of 1 billion atomic bombs, vaporizing the surface where it struck and creating a tsunami more than half a mile high...
17 June 2002
Newfound Planetary System Looks Like Home
After 15 years of observation and a lot of patience, a group of planet-hunters has found a planetary system that reminds them of our home solar system...
7 February 2002
Breakthrough In Propellant-Free Space Propulsion
Propellant-free propulsion technology has taken a critical step toward reality, completing a series of systems tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center...