Science
Black holes, dark matter, gravitational waves and exoplanets: find out how astronomy is unlocking the secrets of the Universe.
Ireland from space
A selection of images of the Emerald Isle from Earth orbit.
Alien life could emerge on the moons of rogue planets wandering the cosmos. Have we just widened the scope for life beyond Earth?
Life might not need a stable orbit and host star after all
White holes spew alien matter into space. Could they really exist? Here's what science says
We've all heard of black holes. But what about white holes? Could they really exist?
null
undefined
What would the James Webb Space Telescope look like if you saw it in space? This space mission found out
Clever calculations by two astronomers enabled Gaia to capture an image of Webb in space.
"It went completely bonkers..." Astronomers witness two planets colliding around a distant star
"If we can observe more moments like this elsewhere in the Galaxy, it will teach us lots about the formation of our world."
Earth, our home, is incredibly special. It's the only planet known to support life
Our average star the Sun has a unique selling point: it is the only star we know of to host a planet that has life on its surface.
There's an enormous void of nothingness in our Universe. And scientists found it by accident
The Boötes void spans an area 330 million lightyears across but contains very few galaxies, making it the largest void in the known Universe.
This is how many Earths could fit in the Sun
How big is Earth compared to the Sun, and how many times would our planet squish into the space occupied by our host star?
9 of the biggest mysteries in the Universe
Cosmic quandaries and mysterious secrets about space that remain as yet unsolved.
These spinning stars are the lighthouses of the Universe, and one spoonful of them would weigh five billion tonnes
Everything you need to know about pulsars and how these spinning neutron stars were discovered.
This is light from the birth of the Universe. It's called the Cosmic Microwave Background, and it's mind-boggling
A clearer picture of the early Universe is emerging thanks to studies of the Big Bang’s afterglow
Does a beam of light travel forever, or will it eventually run out? Here's what the science says
Our Sun and its twins fled the centre of the Galaxy 4 billion years ago. Otherwise, life may never have emerged on Earth
Our Sun was part of a mass migration that could have helped life emerge on Earth
These are the most common planets in the Galaxy. Scientists have finally worked out where they come from
Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes are everywhere – now we finally know how they’re made
We may be about to see an asteroid-mining gold rush. But here's why it could be a very bad idea
We examine the scramble to harvest metals from asteroids – and why we should think twice about it
A scientist looked at 'little red dots' in the early Universe and found a black hole that shouldn't exist
The mystery of ‘little red dots’ just got deeper, as a galaxy hiding an overmassive black hole hints at a whole population of cosmic Jekyll and Hydes
An enormous brain in a jar? NASA's best space telescope just saw something really weird...
James Webb Space Telescope explores the Exposed Cranium Nebula
North Sea crater was created by an asteroid smashing into Earth, causing a tsunami taller than Big Ben
Silverpit Crater was caused by an asteroid or comet smashing into the North Sea, generating a 100m-tall tsunami, say scientists.
The Universe is unimaginably chaotic. 10 violent cosmic explosions that would instantly wipe out our Solar System
Join us on a turbulent tour through the most powerful explosions in the cosmos
'A fingerprint from another solar system'. Latest 3I/ATLAS data proves interstellar comet is unlike anything we've seen before
3I/ATLAS contains more methanol than what's normally seen in Solar System comets
From a stellar diamond to a squashed mammoth and one as old as the Universe, 8 of the weirdest stars ever seen
Among the trillion trillion stars in the Universe, there are some real oddballs. Here are some of the weirdest stars astronomers have uncovered in the depths of space.
The story of the first alien world discovered with rings like Saturn's
J1407b is the first exoplanet with a ring system to be discovered. This is its story.
Strangest things in our Solar System
Some of the weird and wonderful objects we find close to Earth
Why doesn’t the Sun just float away into space? Here's what the science says
The Sun seems to be static, but in truth is anything but
