The Earth's magnetic field protects life on Earth, shielding it from damaging radiation and moderating our climate. So the idea that it could completely flip around, or collapse altogether, should cause us to worry, right? Well, yes and no. Read More >>
It's no subspace transceiver but this prototype communicator bound for the ISS could revolutionise how we share data over the vast expanses of solar space. It will deliver Gigabit speeds through deep space. Read More >>
This is a new picture taken by the Hubble Telescope that shows us the universe in more detail than we've ever seen it. It's a 14-hour exposure that shows objects at various stages and distances in cosmic history—showing tiny objects that would appear a billion times fainter if looked upon with our weak human eyes. Read More >>
NASA has a plan to better explore how our own local star system, and life within it, got started. It wants to intercept, study, and sample a passing asteroid. The only thing more impressive than this mission's astronomical level of precision is how the space agency somehow shoehorned "Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer" into a functional acronym. Read More >>
Here's 12 minutes of gameplay footage of Star Citizen, a space flight simulator video game that will let you live in a parallel universe. Not only pilot a spaceship, but have a living avatar there. And with Oculus Rift support, it will be a total alternate universe experience. It looks absolutely fantastic. Read More >>
This bright blue sperm, in fact a swirling mass of dust and gas, doesn't need an egg to impregnate: it's producing baby stars all by itself. Read More >>
It isn't everyday we give you lot the opportunity to go into space, but today is different. We've found a deal that, provided you have the money, could see you floating around in zero gravity. Read More >>
Astronauts have been able to drink their own (treated and filtered) urine for years, but thanks to a new technique, scientists have managed to squeeze one more benefit out of an inevitable byproduct. Now, astronauts can use their urine to keep both their bodies and their spaceships running smooth. Read More >>
This photo here shows a spaceman washing his eyes. Because of the way water floats about in space thanks to gravity stuff, if something nasty gets in your eye up there there's no flapping a bit of water in your face from the sink. It's on with the eye-torture goggles for a rinse. Read More >>
In the otherwise barren space 220 miles above Earth's surface, a capsule of life-sustaining oxygen and water orbits at 17,000 miles per hour. You might know this capsule as the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to six humans—and untold billions of bacteria. Microbes have always followed us to the frontiers, but it's only now that scientists at NASA and elsewhere are seriously investigating what happens when we bring Earth's microbes into space. Read More >>
Spring has just got here, and you're probably tentatively peering out the window of your dust-filled flat for your first glimmer of real sunshine in five months. Maybe you're even prepping your garden—in which case I invite you to consider investing in space basil. It's exactly what it sounds like. Read More >>
Setting foot on the moon for the first time was perhaps one of the biggest technological, scientific and political achievements of our age. So what better way to celebrate, after exploring that new lunar landscape, than with bacon? Read More >>
Do you see it? There's a little beacon of light in the photograph of Mars above. It's on the left side of the photo and it's pretty darn bright. What could it be? More importantly, what do we want it to be? A Martian signal keeping track of the Curiosity rover? An alien laser beam? A key to a secret portal in the universe? A superhero? Read More >>
We see wonderful images from space all the time, but now you can expect them to come dripping in Hudson, Sierra or Toaster—because Instagram has finally made it into space. Read More >>
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