Astronomy news archive

 is used to list older newsworthy items related to Cosmology and Astronomy. Use current news and recent astronomy news to post news that occurred within the last 12 months.


 * Speck of Interstellar Dust Obscures Glimpse of Big Bang A new analysis has confirmed that the BICEP signal was mostly, if not all, stardust, and that there is no convincing evidence of inflation. New York Times. January. 30, 2015.
 * Star Trek-like invisible shield found thousands of miles above Earth Shield blocks so-called "killer electrons," which whip around the planet at near-light speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites and degrade space systems during intense solar storms. Phys Org, November 26, 2014.
 * Cosmic Case of Missing Stars Baffles Scientists A massive population of stars is missing, and scientists are stumped as to where it could be. Live Science, November 24, 2014.
 * Bad News for the Big Bang: Secular Scientists Claim Universe Shouldn’t Exist Nearly two years after the highly-publicized discovery of the elusive ‘God Particle,’ scientists have determined that the current Big Bang model cannot account for the existence of the universe. Christian News Network, June 24, 2014.
 * Big Bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble Premature hype over gravitational waves highlights gaping holes in models for the origins and evolution of the Universe. Nature, June 3, 2014.
 * Universe is Not Expanding After All, Scientists Say New evidence was based on detailed measurements of the size and brightness of hundreds of galaxies by a team of astrophysicists Lawrenceville Plasma Physics. Sci-News.com, May 23, 2014.
 * Has Cosmic Inflation Been Discovered? Claims of a major breakthrough about the big bang are swirling in the news: is it inflation, or inflating the evidence? Creation Evolution Headlines, March 17, 2014.
 * Ceres water find vindicates creation. And more particularly the Hydroplate Theory of the Global Flood. Creationism Examiner, January 25, 2014
 * 1968: Moon view gives special gift CNN airs the 1968 Christmas eve broadcast of the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis 1. CNN Newsroom, December 24, 2013.
 * Dark Matter, Sparticles, and the Big Bang Cosmologists claim that only a small fraction of all the matter in the universe is the “normal”. Acts & Facts, Aug 30, 2013.
 * Scientists ‘freeze’ light for an entire minute Research shows that light can be slowed down and even halted altogether. i09, July 26, 2013.
 * Asteroid makes case for hydroplate theory Asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass closer to earth than a communications satellite. Under the current evolutionary model of asteroid origin, this should not happen. Conservative News and Views, February 8, 2013.
 * More Evidence Our Solar System Is Uniquely Suited for Life With over 2,000 extrasolar planets found around nearly as many stars, there’s still no place like home. Creation Evolution Headlines, October 16, 2012.
 * Galaxy Cluster Stuns Scientists—Supermassive and Spewing Out Stars Galaxy cluster possibly more massive than any other known, claimed to be forging fresh stars nearly a thousand times faster than normal (though no stars are even visible at that distance). National Geographic News, August 15, 2012.
 * 'Echoes' of the Big Bang Misinterpreted? Veteran radio astronomer Gerrit Verschuur, of the University of Memphis, disagrees with the conventional interpretation of the universe's cosmic microwave background.Discovery News, Jun 15, 2012.
 * No place like home: Our lonesome solar system by Lee Billings. May 11, 2011
 * Gliese 581g, Newly Found 'Habitable' Planet, May Not Exist Francesco Pepe, who works with the Geneva Observatory and used the HARPS instrument on the La Silla telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile, said he and his team could not find the planet or confirm its existence. Epoch Time, Oct 12, 2010.
 * Freshly Discovered Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Nearby Star Could Be the First Truly Habitable Exoplanet A couple of math geeks recently calculated that the discovery of the first “habitable” exoplanet would be announced in May of next year -- but a few stargazers from UC Santa Cruz and their colleagues simply couldn’t wait that long. By Clay Dillow Posted 09.29.2010. Popular Science.
 * Big Bang Was Followed by Chaos, Mathematical Analysis Shows Seven years ago Northwestern University physicist Adilson E. Motter conjectured that the expansion of the universe at the time of the big bang was highly chaotic. Now he and a colleague have proven it using rigorous mathematical arguments. ScienceDaily. Sep. 8, 2010.
 * Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God Physics, not creator, made Big Bang, new book claims. Professor had previously referred to 'mind of God'. guardian.co.uk. September 2, 2010
 * Fate of Universe revealed by galactic lens Researchers conclude that the Universe will probably expand forever ending in a dead wasteland with a temperature approaching what scientists term ‘absolute zero’. BBC Newss, 19 August 19, 2010
 * Search for Intelligent Aliens Takes Center Stage This Weekend at SETIcon SETI Institute celebrates the 50th anniversary of its mission to scan the universe for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Space.com, August 12 2010.
 * Chlorine study suggests moon is dry after all The moon's interior may not be that wet after all, despite some recent studies that have suggested otherwise. A new analysis of Apollo rocks backs the old idea of a waterless world. NewScientist. August 2010.
 * Nemesis reconsidered. An astrophysicist and a paleontologist, after re-examining the fossil record, now propose abandoning the Nemesis hypothesis, on the theory that any companion star to the Sun ought to have had its orbit changed in the last 500 billion years and thus could not have caused extinction-level events as regularly as clockwork during that time. Solar and Stellar Astrophysics. July 2, 2010.
 * Evidence for dark matter and energy found lacking. A team of astronomers at Durham University (UK) re-examined the data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and found that previously-described evidence for an acceleration effect due to dark energy is nothing more than an error of measurement. Creationism Examiner. June 15, 2010.
 * 'Dark' matter and energy 'proof' exaggerated&mdash;again. Astronomers find the same apparent ratio of "dynamical" to "luminous" mass at the edge of the universe as near to us. As ever, they insist that this somehow "proves" the existence of "dark matter"&mdash;when in fact it proves no such thing. Creationism Examiner, 26 January 2010.
 * IBEX discovery defies standard model of the solar system. Scientists required to revise their theories and scramble for answers. NASA Science, Science News, October 15, 2009
 * Did our cosmos exist before the big bang? Loop quantum cosmology suggests a theory of a recycling universe, which bounces and starts expanding again. by Anil Ananthaswamy. New Scientist. December 10, 2008
 * Science's Alternative to an Intelligence Creator: the Multiverse Theory The physical constants of the universe are too finely tuned for life to be coincidental. So scientists speculate on an infinite variety of universes to account for our presence without a Creator. Discover November 10, 2008
 * Scientists: Earth May Exist in Giant Cosmic Bubble Scientists say Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly devoid of matter. Fox News. September 30, 2008
 * 'Big Bang' Machine Passes Major Tests The world's largest particle collider brings scientists hope to understanding the makeup of the universe. AOL News. September 10, 2008
 * Earth, Mars, Moon Have Different Origin, Study Says. In a direct challenge to the nebula hypothesis, French geologist Guillaume Caro says that the chemistries of these three bodies are inconsistent with, and unexplainable by, that model. National Geographic. March 19, 2008.
 * Hubble Detects Organic Molecule on an Extrasolar Planet. The molecule involved is methane (CH4), and the planet involved is too close to its primary to be hospitable for life. NASA press release. March 14, 2008.
 * Creation Cosmologies Solve Spacecraft Mystery. D. Russell Humphreys, PhD, shows that the apparent "slowdown" of the spacecraft Pioneer 10 and 11 is actually evidence of an acceleration of the speed of light in extrasolar space. This in turn is evidence in favor of a straightforward Biblical interpretation of the description of the "firmament of heaven" on Creation Days 2 and 3. Impact articles, Institute for Creation Research, October 1, 2007.
 * Cosmology: Crisis or Confidence? Creation Safaris: Creation-Evolution Headlines, February 13, 2007.
 * The Big Bang and the Bucks Set to Collide in Inner Space Scientists in Beijing unveiled a design for a machine 20 miles long that will slam together electrons and positrons, "to produce fireballs of energy recreating conditions when the universe was only a trillionth of a second old." Reportedly, the project will cost $6.7 billion and 13,000 "person-years" of labor to construct. NY Times. February 9, 2007.
 * Big Bang Afterglow Fails An Intergalactic Shadow Test The apparent absence of shadows where shadows were expected to be is raising new questions about the faint glow of microwave radiation once hailed as proof that the universe was created by a "Big Bang." Moondaily. September 3, 2006.
 * On July 23, 2005 the Crisis in Cosmology conference was held in Portugal by the Alternative Cosmology Group to consider the present state of understanding of the universe in the light of the increasing number of observations that challenge the conventional cosmological model.
 * Mystery of extrasolar planets' eccentric orbits - evidence suggests that, as far as planetary systems go, our solar system might be special indeed. April 19, 2005
 * Discovery By UCSD Astronomers Poses A Cosmic Puzzle: Can A 'Distant' Quasar Lie Within A Nearby Galaxy? An international team of astronomers has discovered within the heart of a nearby spiral galaxy a quasar whose light spectrum indicates that it is billions of light years away. By Kim McDonald. UDSD News January 10, 2005
 * On May 22, 2004 An Open Letter to the Scientific Community was published in New Scientist, challenging the hypotheticals that bridge the gap between this theory and observations.
 * Mysterious cosmos Why is our Universe so exquisitely tuned to host life? We are lucky to be alive. Extraordinarily lucky. Nature August 6th 2004.
 * Glimpse At Early Universe Reveals Surprisingly Mature Galaxies A rare glimpse back in time into the universe's early evolution has revealed something startling: mature, fully formed galaxies where scientists expected to discover little more than infants. Space Daily July 8th 2004
 * Speed of Light May Have Changed Recently not in some far corner of the universe, but right here on Earth. New Scientist June 30th 2004
 * Massive Black Hole Stumps Researchers - astronomers have found a colossal black hole so ancient, they're not sure how it had enough time to grow to its current size June 28th 2004
 * Newly Discovered Baby Planet Confounds Expectations Raw Materials For Habitable Planets Around Surprisingly Young Stars. Science Daily June 11th 2004