Members of the public are being asked to join the hunt for nearby planets that could support life. Volunteers can go to the Planethunters website to see time-lapsed images of 150,000 stars, taken by the Kepler space telescope.

After nine months of number-crunching on a powerful supercomputer, a beautiful spiral galaxy matching our own Milky Way has emerged from a computer simulation of the physics involved in galaxy formation and evolution by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) and the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Zurich.

The largest telescope ever to exist is the proposed Square Kilometre Array but with a sticker price of $2.1BN, researchers are hoping to cut costs by using distributed computing to leverage personal computer power in lieu of extremely expensive petaflop supercomputers.

Researchers announced that the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory Scientific Collaboration (LIGO), a huge physics experiment built to detect gravitational waves, has yet to find any. Rather than be disappointed by the null findings, physicists say the results were expected, and in fact help them narrow down possibilities for what the universe was like just after it was born.

New research shows how the coming generation of space telescopes will for the first time be capable of detecting "biosignatures" in the light from planets orbiting other stars.

Super-sensitive polarization detectors developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and university partners will seek to measure whether the universe is forever expanding. The sensors also have civilian uses such as reducing glare in next-generation terahertz imaging systems that can see through the thick metal of shipping containers to detect hidden contraband.

Super-sensitive polarization detectors developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and university partners will seek to measure whether the universe is forever expanding. The sensors also have civilian uses such as reducing glare in next-generation terahertz imaging systems that can see through the thick metal of shipping containers to detect hidden contraband.

NASA's plans for the mammoth Ares V rocket could do more than just launch new lunar landers and cargo to the moon. It could also haul massive telescopes that dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope or fling deep space probes on faster missions to the outer planets.

Scientists have recorded the sound of three stars similar to our Sun using France's Corot space telescope. The technique, called "stellar seismology", is becoming increasingly popular among astronomers because the sounds give an indication of what is going on in the stars' interior.

A telescope arms race is taking shape around the world. Astronomers are drawing up plans for the biggest, most powerful instruments ever constructed, capable of peering far deeper into the universe — and further back in time — than ever before.