Big asteroids hit earth more frequently than was thought

On 27 December 2024, the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Rio Hurtado in Chile discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 speeding past Earth. The detection could have been too lat

Where did life on Earth begin? That sounds like a relatively straightforward question. Surely life on Earth began… well, on Earth, right? We know this planet had the right conditions for life to arise

It was 15 years ago this month, on 13 June 2010, that the world watched as a beleaguered traveller finally arrived home, after a long and perilous journey back to land. The trouble began in 2003, as A

Two contrasting visions of humanity’s future in space

The Universe is a big and complex beast, and doesn’t always behave in the way we might expect. So it’s not surprising that there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings about space. Some common

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