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"Boring" light from red dwarf star Gliese 581 means better odds for extraterrestrial life in that planetary system, according to University of British Columbia astronomer Jaymie Matthews. Approximately 20.5 light years from the Earth, Gliese 581 made the headlines in April 2007 when European scientists discovered a planet, named Gliese 581c. Dubbed "SuperEarth," the planet orbits Gliese 581 and could have water -- and thus able to support life.

Now, using supercomputers to simulate galaxy mergers, scientists at Stanford and elsewhere have seen the formation of a new type of structure-a central disk of gas that can be from a hundred to a few thousand light years wide and from a few hundred million to a billion solar masses. They report the first simulated formation of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) pair in the June 7 edition of Science Express, an online version of Science magazine.

Anyone connected by Internet can now see planet Mars better than at any time in history, through the eye of HiRISE, the most powerful camera ever to orbit another planet.

Actively growing supermassive black holes in centers of galaxies are common even in cosmic voids, the most rarefied and empty regions of the universe. In a study of more than 1,000 void galaxies, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-II), astronomers from Drexel and Widener Universities announced that the growth of these monster black holes -- with masses millions to hundreds of millions times that of our sun -- are found where galaxies are sparse and interact very little with each other. The researchers also found that the accretion of matter onto these void black holes is slower than in denser galactic environments.

Today, two and a half years after the historic landing of ESA's Huygens probe on Titan, a new set of results on Saturn's largest moon is ready to be presented. Titan, as seen through the eyes of Huygens still holds exciting surprises, scientists say.

Researchers will scan Venus during a spacecraft flyby this week using an $8.7 million instrument they designed and built for NASA's MESSENGER Mission, launched in 2004 and speeding toward Mercury.

Astronomers have made what is arguably the most detailed study of the environment of a pulsating red giant star, leading to significant progress in our understanding of the mechanism of how, before dying, evolved stars lose mass and return it to the interstellar medium.

Two and a half years after the historic landing of ESA's Huygens probe on Titan, a new set of results on Saturn's largest moon is ready to be presented. Titan, as seen through the eyes of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, still holds exciting surprises, scientists say.

Astronomy & Astrophysics is reporting on the XMM-Newton extended survey of the Taurus molecular cloud. One of the main results is the identification of unusual physical processes not known before in forming stars. These unprecedented observations suggest that the gas streams falling down onto the forming star and the jets being ejected from it both play major roles in the production of X-rays.

A European Science Foundation-led workshop sponsored by the European Space Agency has enabled 88 scientists from 11 European countries to agree on science goals for future Europe's planetary exploration program -- providing the continent with an ambitious roadmap to examine Mars and the moon.

Astronomers now have a new "eye" for determining the distance to certain mysterious bodies in and around our Milky Way galaxy. By taking advantage of the unique position of NASA's Spitzer's Space Telescope millions of miles from Earth, and a depth-perceiving trick called parallax, they were able to pin down the most probable location of one such object.

XMM-Newton has surveyed nearly 200 stars under formation to reveal, contrary to expectations, how streams of matter fall onto the young stars' magnetic atmospheres and radiate X-rays. The results defy astronomers’ expectations, as the streams of falling matter interact with the hot corona, cooling it, while the ejected streams of gas heat up in shocks as they are ejected from the star.

When it launches in 2013 the James Webb Space Telescope will settle in an orbit roughly one million miles from the Earth. That distance is currently too far for any astronaut or any other existing NASA servicing capability to reach. Therefore, NASA is doing everything necessary to design and test the telescope on the ground using techniques that will ensure that it deploys and operates reliably in space.

A team of astronomers with the Transatlantic Exoplanet Survey have announced the discovery of their third planet, TrES-3. TrES-3 was discovered in the constellation Hercules about 10 degrees west of Vega, the brightest star in the summer skies. It is an unusual planet because it orbits its parent star in just 31 hours.

A team of astronomers has recalculated the explosion date of the famous Crab Nebula supernova and found excellent agreement between their measurements and the classic date of the 1054 A.D. appearance of a bright "guest star" seen in the constellation of Taurus the Bull.

Astronomers combined light from four widely separated telescopes to produce the first picture showing surface details on a sun-like star beyond our solar system.

The latest find from an international planet-hunting team of amateur and professional astronomers is one of the oddest extrasolar planets ever cataloged -- a mammoth orb more than 13 times the mass of Jupiter that orbits its star in less than four days.

Evidence for an awesome upheaval in a massive galaxy cluster was discovered in an image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The origin of a bright arc of ferociously hot gas extending over two million light years requires one of the most energetic events ever detected.

Two International Space Station cosmonauts successfully completed a 5-hour, 25-minute spacewalk from the Pirs docking compartment airlock May 30, installing Service Module Debris Protection panels and rerouting a Global Positioning System antenna cable.

Helium may act as a "throttle" for the solar wind, setting its minimum speed, according to new results. The solar wind is a diffuse stream of electrically conducting gas (plasma) constantly blowing from the sun.