8 December 2021
The most anticipated space telescope ever is about to launch. It will give us a clear picture of the first stars and reveal the atmospheres of exoplanets too – if it unfolds without a hitch
5 May 2021
Looking for signs of life in exoplanet atmospheres is fraught with uncertainty. But now that we can detect polarised light reflected directly off other worlds, we could spot unmistakable evidence of photosynthesis
26 August 2020
From rogue worlds that roam the cosmos alone to Tatooines that orbit two suns, astronomers are expanding our definition of habitable exoplanets
19 September 2018
Mega-stars hundreds of times the mass of our sun lurk in a galaxy nearby. We don’t know how they formed – but they could make the cosmos a richer brew for life
19 September 2018
From Copernicus on, we’ve resisted the idea that Earth has a special place in the cosmos. Whisper it, but recent discoveries suggest that’s not the whole truth
9 May 2018
A shoestring experiment in the Australian outback has seen the signal of the very first stars – and a weird effect astronomers are struggling to explain
17 January 2018
The universe is well-stocked with black holes large and small, but none in medium. Strange dwarf galaxies might hold the answer
