ASTRONOMY

A composite image of one night watching the Orionids meteor shower. Flickr/Jeff Sullivan Where 2019 was a disappointing year for meteor showers, with two of the big three (the Quadrantids, Perseids and Geminids) lost mainly...

A recently discovered black hole – found by the way it makes a nearby star wobble – is hard to square with our understanding of how these dark cosmic objects form. NAOC, Chinese Academy...

The Milky Way: a pattern of stars, or a pattern of gaps? Luke Busellato/Wikimedia Commons Almost every person throughout the existence of humankind has looked up at the night sky and seen more than...

Near-Earth asteroids such as Bennu, and 2019 OK which passes close to Earth this week, pose a potential threat to our planet. NASA A 100-metre-wide asteroid passed just 70,000km from Earth on Thursday, Australian...

When (if) we go back to the Moon we need some rules on behaviour. Flickr/coniferconifer, CC BY The Moon has always served as an inspiration for humanity, and there are many potential benefits for further...

Relative sizes of planets that are in a zone potentially compatible with life: Kepler-22b, Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Earth (named left to right; except for Earth, these are artists’ renditions). NASA, CC BY This article is...

Finally dragged out of the shadows. Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration Black holes are long-time superstars of science fiction. But their Hollywood fame is a little strange given that no-one has ever actually seen...

The 2018 Geminids meteor shower recorded over two very cold hours on the slope of Mount Lütispitz, Switzerland.  Flickr/Lukas Schlagenhauf The year gets off to a bang with the Quadrantids, the first of the annual...

Earthrise: astronauts aboard Apollo 8 captured this spectacular photo of Earth rising above the lunar horizon as they emerged from behind the dark side of the Moon. Image Credit: NASA December 24 is the 50th...

Signs of life on Mars? These are the tracks of NASA’s Curiosity rover exploring the Martian landscape. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS It’s touchdown again on Mars, with NASA’s InSight probe due landing sucessfully yesterday. This latest mission will continue our exploration...