Scientists discover a new class of extrasolar planets Aug 31: Astronomers have announced the first discovery of a new class of planets beyond our solar system about 10 to 20 times the size of Earth — far smaller than any previously detected. The planets make up a class of Neptune-sized bodies.    FULL STORY Smallest ever extra-solar planet discovered Aug 29: A European team of astronomers has discovered the lightest known planet orbiting a star other than the Sun. The new exoplanet orbits the bright star μ (mu) Arae located in the southern constellation of the Altar. It is the second planet discovered around this star and completes a full revolution in 9.5 days.    FULL STORY South polar storms on Saturn spotted by Cassini Aug 27: This Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera view of Saturn's southern polar region features a bright white spot, or storm, surrounded by faint, darker swirls of clouds.    FULL STORY Tiny 'David' telescope finds 'Goliath' planet Aug 24: Fifteen years ago, the largest telescopes in the world had yet to locate a planet orbiting another star. Today telescopes no larger than those available in department stores are proving capable of spotting previously unknown worlds. A newfound planet detected by a small, 4-inch-diameter telescope demonstrates that we are at the cusp of a new age of planet discovery.    FULL STORY Meteorites supplied Earth life with phosphorus Aug 24: University of Arizona scientists have discovered that meteorites, particularly iron meteorites, may have been critical to the evolution of life on Earth.    FULL STORY Deepest image of exploded star uncovers bipolar jets Aug 23: A spectacular new image of Cassiopeia A from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has nearly 200 times more data than the "First Light" Chandra image of this object made five years ago. The new image reveals clues that the initial explosion, caused by the collapse of a massive star, was far more complicated than suspected.    FULL STORY Streaking away from Dione Aug 22: Saturn's crescent moon Dione hangs before the Cassini spacecraft in this magnified image. The icy moon shows a hint of the bright, wispy features that mark its surface.    FULL STORY Aug 22: Cassini spacecraft spies Saturn's moon Iapetus The dark material that coats one hemisphere of Saturn's moon Iapetus is very dark, as these two processed views of the same image demonstrate.    FULL STORY A galaxy's fatal plunge Aug 22: These images offer a dramatic look at C153, a galaxy being ripped apart as it races at 4.5 million miles per hour through a distant cluster of galaxies. The infalling galaxy's gas is being stripped by the pressure of 20-million-degree Celsius gas that permeates the cluster.    FULL STORY Meteorite has record of its lunar launch site Aug 21: Scientists have pinpointed the source of a meteorite from the Moon for the first time. Their unique meteorite records four separate lunar impacts.    FULL STORY Latest colour pictures from Cassini look like artwork Aug 19: NASA has released three new stunning colour pictures taken by the Cassini spacecraft exploring the planet Saturn. The images show the giant planet, its golden rings and several moons.    FULL STORY Cooking on a comet Aug 19: One of the ingenious instruments on board the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet-chasing spacecraft is designed to 'smell' the comet for different substances, analyzing samples that have been 'cooked' in a set of miniature ovens.    FULL STORY Bedrock in Mars' Gusev Crater hints at watery past Aug 18: Now that NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is finally examining bedrock in the "Columbia Hills," it is finding evidence that water thoroughly altered some rocks in Mars' Gusev Crater. On Opportunity, a tool for exposing the insides of rocks stopped working Sunday, but engineers are optimistic that the most likely diagnosis is a problem that can be fixed soon.    FULL STORY Out from the shadows: Two new Saturnian moons Aug 16: With eyes sharper than any that have peered at Saturn before, the Cassini spacecraft has uncovered two moons, which may be the smallest bodies so far seen around the ringed planet.    FULL STORY Disk shows signs of planets Aug 15: The sharpest image ever taken of a dust disk around another star has revealed structures in the disk which are signs of unseen planets. At a distance of only 33 light years, this is the nearest star possessing a visible disk of dust, which are believed to be the birthplaces of planets.    FULL STORY Star clusters the leftovers from snacking galaxies Aug 14: Globular star clusters are like spherical cathedrals of light — collections of millions of stars lumped into a space only a few dozen light-years across. Our own Milky Way Galaxy currently holds about 200 globular clusters, but once possessed many more.    FULL STORY Chandra catches early phase of cosmic assembly Aug 14: A NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory image has revealed a complex of several intergalactic hot gas clouds in the process of merging. The superb Chandra spatial resolution made it possible to distinguish individual galaxies from the massive clouds of hot gas. One of the clouds, which envelopes hundreds of galaxies, has an extraordinarily low concentration of iron atoms, indicating that it is in the very early stages of cluster evolution.    FULL STORY Jupiter's moon Ganymede has a lumpy interior Aug 14: Scientists have discovered irregular lumps beneath the icy surface of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede. These irregular masses may be rock formations, supported by Ganymede's icy shell for billions of years. This discovery comes nearly a year after the orchestrated demise of NASA's Galileo spacecraft into Jupiter's atmosphere and more than seven years after the data were collected.    FULL STORY Hubble peers inside a 'celestial geode' Aug 12: In this unusual image, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a rare view of the celestial equivalent of a geode — a gas cavity carved by the stellar wind and intense ultraviolet radiation from a hot young star.    FULL STORY Giant vortices found near Earth by Cluster satellites Aug 11: ESA's quartet of space-weather watchers, Cluster, has discovered vortices of ejected solar material high above the Earth. The superheated gases trapped in these structures are probably tunnelling their way into the Earth's magnetic "bubble", the magnetosphere.    FULL STORY Spitzer shows dying star that goes out with a ring Aug 9: A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the shimmering embers of a dying star, and in their midst a mysterious doughnut-shaped ring.    FULL STORY Dwarf irregular galaxies are not so pristine after all Aug 8: Astronomers have shown for the first time that even the smallest galaxies in the universe have complex structures that indicate a complex history.    FULL STORY Colliding high-speed winds light up cluster Aug 7: This Chandra image presents the first detection of X-rays from stars in the Quintuplet Cluster, an extremely dense young star cluster near the Galactic Centre.    FULL STORY Science instrument on Hubble shuts down Aug 6: One of four science instruments aboard NASA's Hubble's Space Telescope suspended operations earlier this week, and engineers are now looking into possible recovery options.    FULL STORY Hubble images majestic cousin of the Milky Way Aug 6: Our Sun and solar system are embedded in a broad pancake of stars deep within the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Even from a distance, it is impossible to see our galaxy's large-scale features other than the disk.    FULL STORY Newest picture from Cassini shows Saturn in colour Aug 6: A frigid ball of gas in the blackness of space, Cassini's new home, Saturn, appears cool and serene in this natural colour image. The spacecraft obtained this view as it sped outward from the planet on its initial orbit. At the left, Saturn's shadow stretches almost completely across the rings, while at the right, the planet's illuminated face appears to gaze down at the far-off Sun.    FULL STORY Cassini discoveries shed light on Saturn and Titan Aug 5: The Cassini spacecraft, which began its tour of the Saturn system just over a month ago, has detected lightning and a new radiation belt at Saturn, and a glow around the planet's largest moon, Titan.    FULL STORY Gamma-ray burst was new type of cosmic explosion Aug 4: Astronomers have identified a new class of cosmic explosions that are more powerful than supernovae but considerably weaker than most gamma-ray bursts. The discovery strongly suggests a continuum between the two previously-known classes of explosions.    FULL STORY South polar structure of Saturn imaged by Cassini Aug 4: Saturn's southern polar region exhibits concentric rings of clouds which encircle a dark spot at the pole. To the north and toward the right, wavy patterns are evident, resulting from the atmosphere moving with different speeds at different latitudes.    FULL STORY Is the solar system special? Aug 3: On the evidence to date, our solar system could be fundamentally different from the majority of planetary systems around stars because it formed in a different way. If that is the case, Earth-like planets will be very rare.    FULL STORY