All About Space

Earth-like worlds with similar land-to-ocean ratios to our planet’s may be exceedingly E rare. According to a new study, Earth-like planets with about 30 per cent of their surface covered by exposed continental land may make up only one per cent of r

Uranus and Neptune could be stranger than we once thought. On the surface these two planets – roughly midway in size between Earth and Jupiter – seem unassuming, if different from one another. Uranus is a featureless, pale-azure planet, and Neptune a

On top of Las Campanas peak, over 2,550 metres (8,500 feet) above sea level in the Atacama Desert, Chile, the next class of terrestrial supertelescope is under construction. The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is being built as part of the US Extremel

Cunningham was the Lunar Module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission. Before his career with NASA, Cunningham served as a fighter pilot with the US Marine Corps and successfully gained a doctorate in physics. After his flight into space with Walter Schirra

When it comes to searching for newly born planets that are tens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of light years away, we don’t often get too lucky. Planets are formed in thick clouds of dust and gas, known as protoplanetary discs, that swirl around

Launch: 20 November 1998 Launch rocket: Proton-K Target: Low-Earth orbit Operators: NASA, JAXA, CSA, ESA and Roscosmos Orbital inclination: 51.6 degrees First residents: November 2000 Orbits per day: 16 on average Designed to replace the ageing Russi

Hubble’s snap of a giant cosmic soap bubble was selected to mark the telescope’s 26th year in space. This seven-light-year-wide bubble, also known as NGC 7635, can be found some 11,090 light years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Within the b

Many can point out the saucepan shape of the Big Dipper, though they may not be aware it’s also part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. Ursa Major is one of 88 official modern constellations, but as with most its origins are ancient. The first evidence w

1VENUS HAS A RICH HISTORY Studies of Venus can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians in 1600 BCE. They tracked the movement of several planets and stars. The oldest astronomical document on record is a Babylonian diary of Venus appearances over a

1 MARS Cosmic impacts can make planets and moons more porous than thought, potentially boosting their ability to host life. Our Moon’s pockmarked surface is a testament to just how often cosmic impacts strike planets, moons and other major bodies wit

Searching for habitable planets has occupied the minds of scientists for years. Part of the motivation for seeking out and gathering data on exoplanets is to check for an ideal environment for life and potential signs that something may live there. I

A stronomers have spotted a bright ‘hotspot’ swirling around the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way, Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). The team thinks the hotspot could be a bubble of hot gas orbiting Sgr A* as fast as 30 per cent the speed

Modern cosmology tells us that the universe started 13.8 billion years ago as a point-like source [singularity] that expanded into the cosmos we know today. It’s perhaps not surprising that the Big Bang, the mother of all explosions, made a sound. We

Buying a telescope that fits all of your needs without leaving a dent in your finances is a balancing act that many astronomers can find daunting – especially those that are new to the hobby. It’s often easy to go for the telescope that does the most

04 NOV The Moon and Jupiter pass within 2°07’ of each other in Pisces 04 NOV Conjunction between the Moon and Jupiter in Pisces 04 NOV Conjunction between the Moon and Mars in Taurus 08 NOV The Moon and Uranus pass within 41.8’ of each other in A

Mars is always fascinating to see in the sky because of the special place it has in both the history of astronomy and pop culture. The first telescopes showed Mars as just a tiny, blurry disc with vague markings on its surface that appeared to come a

If you look at Mare Serenitatis when it’s close to the terminator you will see more detail and surface relief to it. Look at the full Moon with your naked eye or a pair of binoculars on a frosty winter’s night and you’ll see areas of light and dark.

Shining at magnitude +0.45, this red giant star – also designated Alpha Orionis – is the ninth-brightest star in the night sky and is easily visible to the naked eye. It’s thought that the star is due to explode in an astronomically short time. The O

There are many bright and obvious deep-sky objects in the sky around this time of year that telescopes are drawn to over and over again. The Orion Nebula is a stunning sight through any telescope large or small, and the Pleiades star cluster is a gli

The constellations of winter have started to make themselves known. Orion, Cetus, Canis Major and Taurus in particular make a dramatic entrance in the darker skies, appearing to push the autumn star patterns out of view, but still providing the perfe

Location: West Sussex Camera: Canon EOS 30D with Tokina AT-X Pro 12-24mm f/4 DXII lens “This is a 25-minute exposure of the night sky above Halnaker Windmill near Chichester, West Sussex. I wanted to capture the motion of the stars around the celesti

N ASA may have plans for a moonbase, but LEGO has beaten the agency to the punch with the recently released Lunar Research Base. Released alongside three other kits as part of LEGO’s Artemis–inspired range, the Lunar Research Base kit is filled with

1 Cost: £17.99 / $13.99 From: Vont 1 For a very easy-on-the-wallet headlamp, this is versatile and good quality. What’s more, it comes with a lifetime warranty for peace of mind. This two pack comes with a set of batteries, which makes it even bette

When Valentina Tereshkova embarked on her groundbreaking flight on Vostok 6, she became the first woman to fly in space. Though this was a momentous occasion, the door to space exploration was still a difficult one for female cosmonauts to prise open

SCAN HERE TO GET OUR DAILY NEWSLETTER Join us as we take a tour around the Solar System’s ‘forgotten planets – the icy Uranus and Neptune. But why am I calling them forgotten? It’s because of all the worlds in our solar neighbourhood, they seem to g

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have snapped a stunning image of a snow-circled hydrothermal lake atop the real-life Mount Doom in New Zealand. Mount Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest active volcano and the setting used to fi

The ocean inside Saturn’s moon Enceladus may be enriched with phosphorus, an important element for life as we know it. Phosphorus is a vital component of life’s biochemistry. It joins with sugars to provide a ‘backbone’ to DNA, bonding the four nucle

A new image shows that two days after NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft slammed into the asteroid Dimorphos, the space rock had grown a tail of glowing debris extending thousands of miles. The comet-like tail is made of dust a

The first husband-and-wife team to fly on Blue Origin will make a return to space. Sharon Hagle, founder of the non-profit organisation SpaceKids Global, will fly to suborbital space alongside her husband Marc during a future Blue Origin flight. The