Binary Star System Found

The discovery dramatically widens the range of environments and conditions in which planets could form.

Earliest human evidence in Southeast Asia

Parts of a skull found in a cave in Laos are the earliest skeletal evidence for modern human occupation in Southeast Asia.

Universe was 'born in a big chill'

The early universe can be likened to water that froze into ice and cracked as it cooled.  If proven correct, the predictions could revolutionise the way we view the birth of the universe.

Dying Star

For the first time astronomers have detected the last gasps of a star being torn apart by a previously dormant giant black hole.  The signals, which came from a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away, were x-rays generated by matter heated to millions of degrees and torn apart as material from the star crosses the black hole's event horizon.  Known as quasi-periodic oscillations, they are a characteristic feature of stellar black holes which have about ten times the mass of the Sun.

Three Planets Circling The Sun-like Star Kepler-30

Astronomers have confirmed that our solar system isn't unique, after the discovery of a planetary system that is as flat and orderly as our own.