The discovery of the year was the first detection of gravitational waves.
LIGO/T. Pyle
Colliding black holes to exploding spacecraft, 2016 was an incredible year for astrophysics.
Hush.
NASA
Listen to some weird space sounds and help identify crunches, whistles and other odd effects. It could help save our satellites.
ESA
Using terrestrial forensic science to point the finger of blame to criminals in space will be much harder than it looks.
nienora/Shutterstock
Leibniz’s ‘great question’ remains a central question in philosophy and science today.
Enjoy the full moon’s glow.
mstollenwerk
Full moons are good reason to look up – and the one on Nov. 14 is no exception. But here’s why you likely won’t see something shockingly different from other full moons you’ve observed over the years.
All about the atmosphere.
Shutterstock
Atmospheric changes on exoplanets could hold clues to our own environmental problems.
Coronal mass ejections can play havoc with Earthbound communications.
NASA/JPL
There’s a disturbing history of solar flares taking out the technology we depend on. As tech becomes more and more vital, knowing what is happening in space is growing ever more crucial.
The SPARTAN re-usable space launch technology.
Thomas Keith
Whatever happens next in new space race will happen quickly. The opportunity is there for Australia to be involved, but it won’t be there for long.
Outer space should be used for peace not war.
Shutterstock/Rustam Zagidullin
The rules on armed conflict on Earth are a major source of restraint on military operations. But the rules on the use of weapons in outer space are far from clear. We need to change that.
Ceres’ Haulani Crater shows evidence of landslides from its crater rim.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA
The latest data from the Dawn space probe points to underground ice flows and a water vapour atmosphere.
Shutterstock
Mysterious radiation that appears to come from star HD 164595 is more likely to have a terrestrial origin.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Our growing dependency on satellites for all forms of communication has made the problem of space weather even more acute.
© 2016 Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc.
Films set in the ancient world can no longer adequately live up to the demands of the ‘epic’. Instead, we should look to films set in space.
Specialized chamber to study dusty plasma in the lab.
CASPER
The vast majority of matter in the universe is plasma: electrically charged gas. Scientists are untangling how dust interacts with plasma both in space and experimentally closer to home.
Luis Argerich/Flickr
The annual Perseid meteor shower gives us a glimpse of remnants from the early formation of the solar system.
Mars mission with plasma rockets concept.
NASA
Getting to Mars with current rocket technology will use massive amounts of fuel to move very small cargoes. There is a more fuel-efficient way.
Right, time for a little zero gravity and chill…
NASA
What viewing on the International Space Station tells us about life among the stars.
There are jobs to be created if Australia does more to tap into the billion-dollar space industry.
Flickr/inefekt
Increasing Australia’s role in the billion-dollar global space industry has hardly raised a mention in this year’s federal election campaign.
NASA
Scientists are working out how to grow plants in space, ready to use them as food when we visit other planets.
NASA
NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission has had its funding cut. Here’s why politicians should think again.