Old junk: the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle crashing into Earth’s atmosphere in 2008.
NASA/wikimedia
A crashing piece of space junk could be a a good fortune for researchers, despite falling on Friday the 13th.
Aalto University
Recent Martian findings are just the latest discoveries of aurora on other planets, both in and out of our solar system.
Unmanned rocket explodes moments after launch.
NASA/Joel Kowsky
Cheap, affordable space travel would be revolutionary. Chances are, when it comes, it won’t rely on the brute force approach of rockets.
NASA
New materials and new designs could help astronauts withstand longer periods of time in space and deal with the hazards of exploring other planets.
I’m not coming in. I might catch something.
NASA
New research shows that bacteria is thriving on the ISS. But is that really such a bad thing?
TB145 will miss. But Earth has been hit by countless asteroids in the past.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab/flickr
An asteroid will flash by the Earth at the weekend. What do we know about it? And what would happen if a such an object did hit us?
A disintergating asteroid caught in the gravitational pull of a white dwarf star: could this be the future fate of the Earth?
Mark A. Garlick
A study into a distant white dwarf could help us learn more about the future fate of the Earth – and it could be a violent one.
20th Century Fox
The latest of the spate of recent space films may be the brightest, but it doesn’t inspire this author to head to the Red Planet.
A selection of spacesuits and the TM Soyuz descent module are among the objects at the Cosmonauts exhibition.
The Science Museum
An exciting new exhibition at the Science Museum in London celebrates Soviet space success.
BBC/David Venni
Five science (fiction) reasons why you should get to know Doctor Who.
Gilt-edged. The James Webb telescope steps up the search.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
A giant golden mirror is on the brink of opening up a glimpse of the very first galaxies to be formed.
NASA artists’ interpretation of the neutron star Swift J1749.4-2807 (left) with it’s companion star (right).
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
They’re are the overachievers of the universe: incredibly dense but very small when compared to others stars. So how much do we know about the extreme behaviour of neutron stars?
Hurricane Arthur photographed by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst.
ESA/NASA
Astronauts living on the ISS get to experience the wonders of the universe’s natural phenomena like no one else.
A simulated view of a black hole.
Wikimedia/Alain r
The information paradox is one of the great mysteries in our understanding of black holes. But has the famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking found the solution?
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Space scientists have a busy decade ahead with plans to visit Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and other interplanetary bodies all on the cards.
A needle in a haystack? Search for the first ever biological molecule.
Hubble Heritage/Flickr
Researchers have created a star-forming cloud in the laboratory to try to recreate the first-ever biological molecule. The study could explain why such molecules are left-handed.
Pluto’s newly clear topography.
NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Photos from the spacecraft’s close approach are dazzling. They and other data from the mission will fill in some of the blanks about Pluto and provide a snapshot of the infant solar system.
Preparation of Mariner 4 before its fly-by of Mars, exactly 50 years ago.
NASA/JPL
Exactly half a century ago the US Mariner 4 made the first flyby of Mars. But why are we still doing flybys today?
Latest and most detailed image of Pluto, just before the fly-by.
NASA
After a decade in space, New Horizons has finally completed its fly-by of Pluto. And the fact that it is no longer a planet makes it all the more interesting.
What would New Horizons be able to achieve if it had been built today rather than 20 years ago?
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/NASA
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is nearly two decades old. Is that a problem?