Water on mars

The prospect of life on Mars – Earth’s planetary next-door neighbour, an alien world that betrays tantalising hints of a watery past – has bewitched humanity for centuries. From the ‘canals’ seen by a

Ten years ago, Pluto emerged from the gloom at the Solar System’s ragged edge – and a new world came in from the cold. Five billion kilometres (3 billion miles) from Earth, on 14 July 2015, NASA’s pia

Mars once had vast oceans on its surface. Then its magnetic field weakened, its atmosphere thinned, and its water vanished. But the numbers don’t add up. For the Red Planet to have transformed from a

The best discoveries, inventions and surprises

Scientists distinguish between weight and mass, which may seem pedantic until you see what happens on a world where gravity is radically different to Earth’s

I’ve never considered myself artistic, but I recently began experimenting with collages. Before I recycle my monthly issue of BBC Sky at Night Magazine, I take clippings of the most eye-catching image