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Space

Discarded gas from black holes spreads across galaxies and can even influence the formation of stars. Image credit - Flickr/ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
frontier research | space
05 September 2017

Robin Hood black holes steal from nebulae to make new stars

It's easy to picture a black hole as a kind of all-powerful cosmic drain, a sinkhole of super-strong gravity that snags and swallows passing nebulae or stars. While it is true we can’t observe matter once it crosses a black hole’s event horizon, scientists are zeroing in on what happens in the margins, where molecular clouds release vast amounts of energy as it circles the plughole.

Prof. Raffaella Schneider is investigating the nature and properties of the first stars and galaxies. Image credit – Dr Marco Mattiuzzi
space | interview
24 July 2017

The first black holes keep revealing secrets about our universe – Prof. Raffaella Schneider

Ancient black holes hidden away in deep space have left behind nuclear clues about the first-ever stars, according to Professor Raffaella Schneider from the Department of Physics of Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, who leads a team of stellar archaeologists. 

Professor Matthias Sperl is looking at how to create a lunar settlement. Image credit – DLR
space | interview
19 July 2017

Colonising the moon rests on 3D printing bricks from lunar dust - Prof. Matthias Sperl

To colonise the solar system we need to figure out how to build settlements on alien surfaces, and, according to Professor Matthias Sperl, a material scientist from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), our best bet rests on 3D-printed bricks made from moon dust.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has detected the building blocks of life in geysers hundreds of kilometres above one of Saturn’s icy moons, Enceladus. Image Credit — NASA/JPL-Caltech
space
07 July 2017

Hidden lake discovery sheds light on alien hunt

Evidence of new strains of bacteria in a lake hidden under an Icelandic glacier far from the sun has revealed how life might thrive in sub-surface oceans on the icy moons around Saturn and Jupiter.

Lightweight helium balloons can tell us how gases in the atmosphere impact the environment below. Image credit: Philipp Maier/ORISON
space | open innovation
21 June 2017

Helium balloons offer low-cost flights to the stratosphere

Using off-the-shelf technology and innovative economics, lightweight helium balloons have started carrying remote-controlled laboratories to the edge of space and back, offering the business case for new types of science missions.

Three of the seven planets could have oceans. Credit: ESO/ N. Bartmann/ spaceengine.org
space
23 February 2017

EU researchers spot seven earth-size planets orbiting dwarf star

European researchers have used telescopes around the world to spot a cluster of seven planets orbiting a Jupiter-sized ultra-cool star 40 light-years from earth, increasing the chances of discovering evidence of life on distant worlds.

Astronomers can detect faint light from the furthest galaxies to figure out when they first formed. Credit: ‘Screenshot from IMAX® 3D movie Hidden Universe showing the Carina Nebula’ by ESO/T. Preibisch is licensed under CC BY 4.0
space
16 February 2017

Ancient light reveals the structure of the universe

Light that is almost as old as the universe is being used to develop simulations of how the very first galaxies developed, as computer modellers get to grips with the inner workings of stars.

The Low-Frequency Array acts as a real-world time-machine to look back to the time before galaxies were formed. Image credit: By Haplochromis (Own work) - CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
space
06 December 2016

Waking up to the cosmic dawn

Across Europe, some 10 000 antennas stand courtly, like squat flag poles. They may not look like much, but they are in a sense an incredibly powerful time machine.

Helium balloons are being used to carry people, experiments and satellite launchers into near space. Image courtesy of Zero2Infinity
space | open innovation | industry
16 November 2016

Space for the masses as helium balloons and remote control planes reach through the stratosphere

Space will soon be within the grasp of everyday people, small countries, researchers or start-up companies thanks to a fleet of low-cost launch vehicles under development across Europe.

Using satellite data from the EU’s Sentinel missions along with other data is helping scientists figure out how to improve shipping safety. Copyright 2016 EUMETSAT
ict | open science | policy | space | environment
10 November 2016

New trends identified by computers that scour web, satellite data

Highly sophisticated computers are mining vast amounts of data from the web, digital maps and satellite imagery to pick out trends in areas like demographics, transport and the environment.

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