Space
The bliss of un-fame
In July, astronomers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System discovered an interstellar object racing through the solar system at…
The young Tennyson reaches for the stars
Richard Holmes describes how the poet’s early fascination with science – astronomy and geology in particular – would have a lasting influence on his writing
We should be excited about signs of alien life
Last week, a team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge professor Nikku Madhusudhan announced that they had found…
Why space is the perfect subject for podcasts
The podcasts I’m recommending to everyone at the moment are Nasa’s Curious Universe and the Royal Astronomical Society’s The Supermassive…
Three great minds explore the enigmas of the universe
It sounds like a Tom Stoppard play. A big-shot philosopher meets a big-shot boffin by way of a big-shot writer…
Britain needs to join the new space race
Elon Musk’s Starship is the biggest rocket ever built. Sending it into space is hard; bringing it back to Earth,…
Aliens exist? Prove it
At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio there is, it is rumoured, a secret underground room where a crashed alien…
The moon matters to China
China’s Chang’e-6 moon mission was launched on 3 May. It reached lunar orbit a few days later and began waiting…
Farewell, Voyager 1
Some time soon we will have to say farewell to our most distant emissary – the Voyager 1 spacecraft. After…
A bird’s-eye view: Orbital, by Samantha Harvey, reviewed
Six astronauts at the International Space Station observe the ravages on Mother Earth, but remain hopeful that mankind will find another parent planet
Now imagine a white hole – a black hole’s time-reversed twin…
Just as you can enter a black hole without leaving it, you can exit a white hole without entering it – but first you must understand what black holes really are
To infinity and beyond
How humans may populate the universe in the billions of years ahead
What Jeff Bezos should have learnt from Neil Armstrong
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos joined the billionaire space race today in his suitably phallic looking New Shepard rocket. Bezos successfully travelled…
Branson vs Bezos: In praise of the billionaire space race
They are rich boys with some very expensive toys. As Richard Branson completes his first space flight, it would be…
To the moon – and back
I have just applied to fly around the moon. My chances of being selected are slim, but is it impossible?…
Your problems solved
Q. What can be done when more people than you can cater for accept an invitation? We are giving a…
Cosmic sublime
Mark Mason on the images that make grown men cry
Epicurus on particle physics
According to a top TV scientist, in the beginning there was ‘empty space’ and ‘energy’. After a big bang, the…
