18 May 2022
A big solar storm could fry the internet, but at least space weather forecasts would give us a day or two to prepare. Or maybe not, because physicists have just discovered a new kind of solar storm that strikes without notice
19 January 2022
To understand the secrets of the most common type of planet in our galaxy, we need to explore ice giants Neptune and Uranus. But we must act now or wait decades for another launch window, says planetary scientist Leigh Fletcher
1 December 2021
When we started finding planetary systems around other stars we thought many of them would be like ours. We’ve now found hundreds – and it’s so far, so wrong
11 November 2020
The strange, beautiful shapes that sand dunes form are a mystery. Now researchers are conducting huge desert experiments and using dune racetracks to figure it out
19 June 2019
Earth's nearest neighbours have turned into uninhabitable hellholes. Understanding their transformation will teach us which rocky exoplanets might be fit for life
22 May 2019
An audacious mission circling Jupiter’s poles is probing the planet’s deepest mysteries - including how it shaped our solar system and paved the way for our existence
10 April 2019
Proxima Centauri is 4 light years away. Ambitious space mission Breakthrough Starshot is developing a way to push spacecraft there at a fifth of the speed of light
5 December 2018
If you want to find your way across the universe, forget using stars or GPS. The light from quasars billions of light years away can guide us and even help here on Earth
19 September 2018
Puffball planets the density of polystyrene are just some of the oddities we’ve spied in other solar systems – is our own backyard the exception, not the rule?
25 July 2018
A fleeting glimpse of the ice giants 30 years ago hinted at very weird science that could tell us a lot about exoplanets. Now we have a rare chance to go back
