Gas caught plunging to oblivion in a black hole

Isn’t it amazing that astronomy – humanity’s oldest science – continues to generate such a delightful amount of new knowledge? Seeing as we’ve been studying the motion of the stars for a good long whi

I think one of the most interesting things happening in astrophysics at the minute is the rapid development of new ways to study black holes. Whether it’s the virtuoso display of the Event Horizon Tel

20 amazing answers t o curious

A heartbeat-like pulse has been discovered beating deep beneath East Africa – and it’s ripping the continent apart. The strange thumping is caused by a rhythmic surge of molten mantle rock rising and

Our eyes paint such vivid portraits of the world around us that it’s easy to forget how much of our surroundings go unseen. Wi-Fi signals pinging this way and that, subatomic particles and radiation z

Of the hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system, it is all too feasible that one could strike Earth. If scientists discover this is likely to happen, what are our options for defending ourselves – and who will make the key decisions? Tomas Weber reports