video
Space exploration
In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?
5 minutes
video
Space exploration
What are you really seeing when you see magnificent images of space?
5 minutes
essay
Space exploration
Cosmic vision
By showing us a new cosmos, the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope will ripple through our moral universe
Claire Isabel Webb
video
Space exploration
Burning ice, metal clouds, gemstone rain – tour the strangest known exoplanets
31 minutes
essay
Space exploration
There’s no planet B
The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why
Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood
essay
Astronomy
Thriving on Mars
Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?
Simon Morden
essay
Space exploration
Telescopes on the Moon
Our future in space relies on settling the Moon and using it as a base to probe the deepest questions in the cosmos
Joseph Silk
video
Physics
An interstellar voyage explores the ‘paradox’ of twins separated by light years
6 minutes
essay
Cosmology
Dark horses in the cosmos
Could primordial black holes from the beginning of time explain ‘dark matter’, the mysterious missing mass in the Universe?
Briley Lewis
video
Astronomy
From zero to 5,000 – music and visuals express 30 years of exoplanet discoveries
1 minute
essay
Space exploration
Decolonising the cosmos
Instead of treating Mars and the Moon as sites of conquest and settlement, we need a radical new ethics of space exploration
Ramin Skibba
essay
Cosmology
The search for alien tech
There’s a new plan to find extraterrestrial civilisations by the way they live. But if we can see them, can they see us?
Corey S Powell
video
Physics
How would a piano sound on Mars? Embark on an interplanetary sonic journey
20 minutes
essay
Space exploration
Riches in space
Asteroids could pay for so much space exploration. We just need to mine those valuable resources – and duck a direct hit
Martin Elvis
essay
Astronomy
Contact
An alien-made artefact or just interstellar debris? What ʻOumuamua says about how science works when data is scarce
Matthew Bothwell
essay
Animals and humans
Thanks for all the fish
The search for dolphin intelligence and the quest for alien life have moved in historical lockstep. What does the future hold?
Thomas Moynihan
video
Space exploration
Spacewalks above, pandemic below – how one ISS crew member experienced 2020
15 minutes
essay
Space exploration
A lunar pandemic
In the 1960s, NASA went to huge expense to contain possible pathogens from the Moon. What can we learn from the attempt?
Dagomar Degroot
essay
Space exploration
Do we send the goo?
The ability to stir new life into being, all across the Universe, compels us to ask why life matters in the first place
Betül Kaçar
video
Space exploration
How do you message an alien? Carl Sagan offers some simple suggestions
8 minutes
video
Space exploration
What the Martian surface looked like to Oppy – humanity’s most resilient rover
2 minutes
video
Astronomy
Watch the rare, awesome spectacle as Mercury passes between the Earth and Sun
1 minute
idea
Space exploration
How to optimise your headspace on a mission to Mars
Ramin Skibba
essay
Consciousness and altered states
The whole-planet view
Psychedelics offer a sense of expansive connectedness, just like astronauts have felt looking back to Earth from space
Rosalind Watts, Sam Gandy & Alex Evans