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Visitors inside the Off-World section of the exhibition, while a swarm of bioluminescent creatures emerge above their heads

Voyage to the Edge of Imagination review: A compelling new sci-fi show

9 November 2022

A new exhibition at the Science Museum isn't so much about science fiction, as it is about involving you in a journey through the cosmos
How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres

How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres

9 November 2022

The James Webb Space Telescope can peer into alien skies like never before. With six potentially habitable planets within its sights, astronomers are entering a new era in the search for biology beyond our solar system
A white dwarf star accreting debris

Planets around graveyard star were consumed before Earth was even born

5 November 2022

A strangely cool star that has been dead for more than 10 billion years contains levels of some elements that indicate it ate its own planets
This image shows the Hyades star cluster, the nearest cluster to us. The Hyades cluster is very well studied due to its location, but previous searches for planets have produced only one. A new study led by Jay Farihi of the University of Cambridge, UK, has now found the atmospheres of two burnt-out stars in this cluster ??? known as white dwarfs ??? to be ???polluted??? by rocky debris circling the star. Seeing evidence of asteroids points to the possibility of Earth-sized planets in the same system, as asteroids are the building blocks of major planets. Planet-forming processes are inefficient, and spawn many times more small bodies than large bodies ??? but once rocky embryos the size of asteroids are built, planets are sure to follow.

Crooked star clusters may be a sign that Einstein’s gravity is wrong

1 November 2022

Astronomers have found an unexpected asymmetry in stars escaping from their clusters, and it can't be easily explained by our standard theories of gravity

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