Washington, Jan 15 : Scientists have for the first time detected light from transiting exoplanets from ground based telescopes.

Transiting exoplanets are routinely detected when they pass in front of their parent star as viewed from the Earth, which only happens by chance.

The transit event causes a small drop in the observed starlight, which can then be detected.

Fifty-five exoplanets have been detected this way since the observation of the first transiting planet HD 209458 b in 1999.

When the planet revolves around its star or when it goes behind, the light coming from the system also varies, though the resulting smaller modulation is much harder to detect.

London, Jan 15 : In a new research, scientists have discovered that the mysterious overweight stars known as blue stragglers are the result of `stellar cannibalism' where plasma is gradually pulled from one star to another to form a massive, unusually hot star that appears younger than it is.

The research was part funded by the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and carried out by scientists at Southampton University and the McMaster University in Canada.

Washington, Jan 14 : The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) spacecraft has begun gathering data to build the first maps of the edge of the heliosphere, the region of space influenced by the Sun, which is at the edge of the solar system.

IBEX is using energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging to create the first global maps of interactions between the million mile-per-hour solar wind blown out in all directions by the Sun and the low-density material between the stars, known as the interstellar medium.

Paris, Jan 14 : The XMM-Newton telescope has captured the fading glow of a tiny and rare celestial object, revealing its rotation rate for the first time.

The new information confirms this particular object as one of an extremely rare class of stellar zombie - each one the dead heart of a star that refuses to die.

There are just five so-called Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters (SGRs) known, four in the Milky Way and one in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Washington, Jan 14 : In a new research, it has been demonstrated that cave sponges can help save reefs by discarding a large number of cells that in turn provide food for the organisms on the reef.

The research was led by Dutch scientist Jasper de Goeij, who investigated how caves in the coral reef ensure the reef's continued existence.

De Goeij investigated coral caves near Curacao and Indonesia.

Up until now, it had been assumed that cave sponges could only eat by filtering the non-dissolved particles from the seawater.

This research demonstrated, however, that the caves contain far more dissolved material than non-dissolved material.

London, Jan 14 : You may now be able to zoom in on some of the world''s most famous paintings from the comfort of your home, all thanks to a link between Spain''s Prado museum and the internet.

Google Earth has launched a virtual tour of the Prado Museum in Madrid that enables web surfers to examine 14 of its masterpieces in the minutest detail.

Fourteen of the museum''s finest works, including Velazquez''s Las Meninas, Goya''s Third of May and Rubens'' The Three Graces have been photographed to such a high resolution that details barely discernible to the naked eye become visible online, reports the Independent.