Fake alien message sent to Earth to prepare us for first contact

A coded message called “A Sign in Space” has been sent from a spacecraft orbiting Mars…

Why sending messages to extraterrestrials is controversial

If there are intelligent aliens out there, should we try to get in touch with them?…

Questions I dread: How did the universe begin, and what is space-time?

As a theoretical cosmologist, you would think I’d welcome the chance to answer these questions –…

Lab imitations of the unobservable cosmos can be genuinely insightful

Despite the obvious caveats, physicists are right to use fluids and other physical analogues to search…

Why has Virgin Orbit shut down and what will happen to UK spaceports?

Virgin Orbit’s failed launch in January was the start of the end for the company, which…

Astronomers race to observe rare supernova in a nearby galaxy

An exploding star spotted in the Pinwheel galaxy, 21 million light years from Earth, offers a…

Was SpaceX's first attempt to launch its Starship rocket a failure?

The huge Starship rocket made its first launch attempt on 20 April, but blew up shortly…

Chaotically shifting planets could be a sign of advanced aliens

Simulations show planets that jockey for position around their star and appear to bounce off each…

Astronomers have spotted the biggest cosmic explosion ever seen

The most powerful explosion ever seen seems to come from a supermassive black hole devouring a…

A distant supernova defies our understanding of the cosmos’s expansion

The two main methods of measuring the expansion of the universe have always disagreed, and observations…