ScienceDaily: Space & Time News

Last year, scientists looked on as a star called EK Draconis ejected a massive burst of energy and charged particles many times more powerful than anything recorded on Earth's sun. Such explosive events may have been common in the early years of our solar system, the researchers say.

A team of astronomers has discovered the fastest optical flash of a Type Ia supernova.

A new concept has been developed that has the potential to assist new instruments in the investigation of fundamental science topics such as gravitational waves and dark matter.

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has captured an image of a planet orbiting b Centauri, a two-star system that can be seen with the naked eye. This is the hottest and most massive planet-hosting star system found to date, and the planet was spotted orbiting it at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun. Some astronomers believed planets could not exist around stars this massive and this hot -- until now.

If researchers can detect Q-balls in gravitational waves, it could help explain why more matter than anti-matter was left over after the Big Bang.