How the telescope was invented

When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched on Christmas Day 2021, astronomers hoped it would revolutionise our understanding of the early stages of the Universe. And they were right. Almost a

Did you know? The nearest black hole is ...

Astronomers love a challenge. They place their observatories on the highest mountains, in the driest deserts, on the coldest ice shelves, beneath the deepest oceans, in orbit around Earth and the Sun,

Ten years ago, on 14 September 2015, a new window on the Universe was opened, giving us a novel way of studying exotic, high-energy objects such as black holes and neutron stars: the first direct dete

This October marks 50 years since a heavily shielded spacecraft, the Soviet Union’s Venera 9, parachuted into the atmosphere of Venus. Then, having landed, it did something extraordinary: it beamed ba

Planetary physicist Dr Sheila Kanani on why now is the time to spot shooting stars and a sunlit Saturn