Discovery News

Astronomers spot youngest planet

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Astronomers made an "exciting discovery" when they spotted the youngest planet orbiting a solar-type star outside our solar system.

Aged 35 million years, BD+20 1790b is six times the mass of Jupiter and is around 83 light years away from Earth.

The international team that discovered it said it is the youngest planet orbiting a star of a similar size to the sun.

Saturn images show stunning aurorae

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The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has taken new images of Saturn showing a stunning and rare double light show on the planet.

Glowing aurorae on both poles, with the planet's rings edge-on, are seen in the images taken by the telescope.

The chance to see both of Saturn's poles at the same time occurs only twice in the nearly 30 years it takes to orbit the sun.

British-born astronaut blasts off

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Space shuttle Endeavour - whose crew includes a North Yorkshire-born man - rocketed into orbit on what is likely to be the last night-time launch for the programme.

Dr Nicholas Patrick, originally from Saltburn-by-the-Sea, near Guisborough, was one of the six crew on-board the shuttle for the pre-dawn launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The sky was ignited with a brilliant flash seen for miles around. Thick, low clouds that had delayed a first launch attempt on Sunday returned, but then cleared away just in time.

There are just four more missions scheduled this year before the shuttles are retired.

Hubble spots 'asteroid collision'

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Scientists say that a mysterious X-shaped object spotted by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope may have been created by the collision of two asteroids.

The rocks involved in the crash could be siblings of the asteroid believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs millions of years ago, they added.

Images of the comet-like object, designated P/2010 A2, were captured last week showing trails of dust and debris. It was spotted in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, around 90 million miles from Earth.

Space agency plans for asteroid

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The head of Russia's space agency has announced that the country may try to prevent an asteroid's possible collision with the earth by sending a spacecraft to divert it.

The 270m asteroid Apophis was discovered in 2004, when it was estimated by astronomers that it had a 1-in-37 chance of hitting the earth in 2019. The chances have since been lowered but it is still a matter of concern.

Anatoly Perminov said the space agency would hold a meeting to discuss a strategy, with Nasa, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others invited to join.

Astronomers find three new planets

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Astronomers have discovered three new planets orbiting a Sun-like star in the constellation of Virgo.

The planets have masses between 5.3 to 24.9 times that of the Earth and were spotted from the wobble effect their gravity has on the star.

Their parent star, named 61 Virginis, has 0.96 of the Sun's mass and is only a little less bright. It is around 27.8 light years away and is visible with the naked eye from both hemispheres.

Hubble telescope shows new galaxies

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Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have delved further into space than ever before, revealing galaxies which formed just a fraction of time after the beginning of creation.

A new image released by scientists shows previously unseen galaxies as the faintest and reddest objects.

No galaxies so old or distant have ever been observed before. The light from their stars began its journey across the universe just 600 million years after the Big Bang that brought the cosmos into existence 14 billion years ago.

Atlantis docks at Space Station

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Astronauts have unloaded a huge platform of spare parts onto the International Space Station after the shuttle Atlantis arrived for a week’s stay.

Heavy collections of pumps, storage tanks and other devices needed to keep the outpost running for another 10 years were unloaded from the platform, measuring 16 feet by 14 feet.

Robot arms helped to unload the weighty equipment, two hours after the link-up, 220 miles above the Pacific between Australia and Tasmania.

Nasa launches 'spaceworm' flight

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Muscle development is being studied by sending thousands of microscopic worms into space on the latest shuttle, the University of Nottingham has announced.

The mollusc passengers - traced to a rubbish dump in Bristol - are aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was launched from Cape Canaveral this week, and will help physiology experts at the British university understand how the body loses and builds muscle.

They will be studied in the Kibo lab on the International Space Station during the study. Nottingham's Dr Nathaniel Szewczyk, from the university's Institute of Clinical Research in Derby, will use the worms to study the signals controlling muscle protein degradation.

More water on moon than expected

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Water on the moon may be more widespread and in greater quantities than previously thought, according to Nasa.

The findings from an experiment involving a rocket smashing into the surface of earth's satellite has pleased scientists. The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was fired into the lunar crust on October 9 and created a 1.6km-high two-part plume from the Cabeus crater.

The materials unearthed had been untouched by sunlight for billions of years, according to scientists. Examination of the blast now suggests that there is more water on the moon than previously believed.