How to find Andromeda – a spiral galaxy you can see with the naked eye
11 December 2019
Amazingly, it is possible to see the spiral arms of Andromeda, our nearest galaxy 2.5 million light years away – if you just know where to look
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Premium
Should SpaceX be allowed to contaminate Mars with Earth microbes?
11 December 2019
The rise of the private space industry may mean allowing Earth microbes to escape to other worlds, but is it worth the risk?
Dark energy: Understanding the mystery force that rules the universe
11 December 2019
Dark energy dominates the universe, and could lead it to a cold, bleak end. But that's not to say we have much clue what it is or how it works
Alien life could be weirder than our Earthling brains can ever imagine
11 December 2019
Our conceptions of alien life are based on a sample of one: Earth’s life. That means even our wildest imaginings are likely to be completely off beam
Big bang retold: The weird twists in the story of the universe's birth
11 December 2019
It certainly wasn’t big, and probably didn’t bang – and the surprises in the conventional story of the universe's origins don’t end there
We finally know how whole planets grow from tiny clumps of dust
9 December 2019
Minuscule dust particles can clump together to form entire planets, and they seem to require help from static electricity so they don’t bounce off one another
Black holes formed from dark matter could be making dead stars explode
6 December 2019
White dwarfs are burnt out stars that can explode into supernovae, and this process might be kicked off by a black hole made of dark matter in the heart of the star
NASA is quietly helping satellite firms avoid catastrophic collisions
5 December 2019
We thought NASA was just monitoring space junk for the US government, but it turns out it has been selling an orbital warning service to select customers
NASA's closest ever flight to the sun answers solar wind mystery
4 December 2019
The Parker Solar Probe has got closer to the sun than any other craft, revealing where the solar wind comes from and how strange magnetic switchbacks speed it up
