Many of the most dramatic cosmic events take the form of explosions, from asteroid impacts to the Big Bang itself. Here are some of the most spectacular examples

There’s a worrying problem with the ‘Higgs field’ — the energy field that gives particles their mass. It seems to be dangerously close to having an inherent instability. In the absence of particles, t

What is a gamma-ray burst? Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intense sources of high-energy radiation that we detect on Earth in the form of gamma rays. They were first detected in the 1960s by US military

It’s a cold, clear February evening on Brighton beach. The sun has not yet dipped below the horizon and the last of the light is that strange, luminescent blue that presages dusk. Hundreds of pairs of

Planetary nebula NGC 6537 is nicknamed the Red Spider Nebula for its narrow ‘body’ and spindly ‘legs’ that stretch into the cosmos. But in this new view from the James Webb Space Telescope, what leaps

The year 2025 has been a vintage one for astronomy. In January, we were hooked on reports of a building-sized asteroid on course to collide with Earth. The risk was quickly downgraded from worrying to