All About Space

A stunning new image of a stellar nursery tells a cosmic tale of death and rebirth. This photo of the Orion Nebula, the closest starforming region to Earth, captures the transformation that occurs as massive stars die within the region, leaving the b

The colourful, wispy remains of a star’s violent death glow like fireworks in a spectacular image captured by NASA’s venerable Hubble. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the debris forms delicate sheets and in

A new image shows the exposed heart of a distant galaxy in stunning detail, demonstrating the promise of a recent addition to the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It shows the galaxy NGC 1097, which is located 45 million light years from Earth in the cons

KEEP IN TOUCH /AllAboutSpaceMagazine @spaceanswers [email protected] Detecting life on Enceladus could be achieved without even landing on the moon, but D it wouldn’t be easy. A team of researchers has found that it would require more than 100 f

A rocky meteoroid that exploded over Canada last year was more extraordinary than it first seemed: it originated from the outer Solar System, where scientists thought only icy bodies exist. A cavalcade of astronomers caught images and videos of the m

NASA has cancelled the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory (GeoCarb), a collaboration with the University of Oklahoma and Lockheed Martin that intended to put a greenhouse gas–monitoring satellite into geostationary orbit. GeoCarb would have measu

A marsquake detected by NASA’s InSight lander in May last year was at least five times larger than the next-largest seismic event recorded on the planet. The quake occurred on 4 May and registered at a magnitude of 4.7. Another indication of the scal

Since the invention of the telescope in the 1600s, astronomers have been fascinated by the surface of Mars. It’s too far away to resolve from Earth, and the atmospheres of both planets interfere with the passage of light, but they noticed dark and li

FUTURE TECH A team of scientists and engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, are devising a concept mission which could see a swarm of mini-robots exploring worlds beyond our own – and top of the list is Saturn’s

Nick Sagan As the son of acclaimed astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan, it was always inevitable that Nick Sagan would have a strong link to space. Aged just six, he recorded a greeting for the Golden Record placed aboard both Voyager spac

A new quantum experiment allows scientists to study the dynamics of wormholes, theoretical space-time entities that first A emerged from general relativity. Rather than creating an actual wormhole, a rip in time and space that’s theorised to form a b

There are different classifications of dwarf stars, and not all of them are equal he term ‘dwarf star’ was first used in the early 20th century by Ejnar Hertzsprung, used in T opposition to ‘giant star’ for two different groups of brightness, rather

You don’t have to be a space agency engineer to combine space science and craftsmanship. These projects produce some amazing results with dedication, some elbow grease and a fair amount of free time. Labelled either ‘easy’ or ‘expert’, these projects

Have you ever wondered how different your life would be if you had made different decisions? H You may never know what may have been, but incredibly, all those ‘what if’ scenarios may have played out somewhere. Over the past few years, support for th

LEVEL 1 Where an identical Earth exists The simplest multiverse is one that most certainly exists – the Big Bang model of cosmic origins predicts that every point in the universe has a ‘Hubble volume’ around it, limited by the expansion of the univer

Confirmation of a multiverse could raise some intriguing questions about the origins of life and our own place in the cosmos. According to our current understanding, the physical laws of our universe are suspiciously fine-tuned for life to arise – at

A Martian megatsunami – agiant killer wave that may have reached more than 80 stories tall – may have raced across the Red Planet after a cosmic impact similar to the one that likely ended Earth’s age of dinosaurs. Although the surface of Mars is now

There was a time, about 180 years ago, when Eta Carinae became the second-brightest star in the southern sky. Observed around 1843 in the constellation of Carina (the Keel), the supermassive star experienced an enormous celestial outburst, the cause

In 2018, two studies looked at the light that rebounded off interstellar dust as it made its way to Earth. This is called a light echo, and the delay when compared to the light taking a direct route allows experiments to be conducted many decades lat

The International Space Station (ISS) houses an incredible array of cutting-edge research facilities, allowing scientists back on Earth to conduct pioneering experiments in space. Different space agencies, academic institutions and private companies

One of the first things to do is not to rush out and buy a telescope. People think you need a telescope to enjoy the night sky, and yes, it helps, but there are a lot of telescopes out there and you can end up wasting your hard-earned cash on somethi

Of all the planets in the Solar System, Saturn is perhaps the most visually stunning. Ever O since its rings were discovered by Galileo in 1610, this gassy world has been a source of great fascination, with many studies looking at where, when and how

Conjunction An alignment of objects at the same celestial longitude. The conjunction of the Moon and the planets is determined with reference to the Sun. A planet is in conjunction with the Sun when it and Earth are aligned on opposite sides of the

A tthe end of January Venus will be a bright ‘evening star’ shining low in the southwest after sunset. You’ll see it glinting there as soon as darkness falls, looking like a bright silvery-white spark in the sky. You won’t be able to miss it. At the

Up near the top of the lunar disc, nestled in the curve of the rugged Montes Apenninus, is a small crater called Timocharis. It doesn’t look like anything special; the Moon is spattered with countless tens of thousands of craters just like it, each o

1 Hyades (Caldwell 41) The Hyades is a distinctive V-shaped star cluster representing the shoulder of Taurus, the Bull. It’s only 142 light years away, contains between 300 and 400 stars and is easy to see with the naked eye. However, dazzling bright

Dig deep in the constellation of ‘the Twins’ and you’ll find some of winter’s best-kept secrets emini, also known as the Twins, sits nicely about halfway up the sky at this time of year and G contains many lovely objects for those armed with a telesc

Location: Minsk, Belarus Telescope: Askar FMA180 “Over the course of several months I imaged some of my favourite targets: the North America Nebula, Pelican Nebula, Flaming Skull Nebula and Spaghetti Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Pleiades, Trian

Star projectors are a quick and easy way to change a room’s entire feel, and the Astronaut Starry Sky Star Projector is no different. How could we resist this on-brand astronaut wearing a spacewalking suit? We wanted to see if it performed as well as

Leo (the Lion) takes pride of place in the night sky, cutting a regal figure as its leading star – hot, blue Regulus – shines at magnitude +1.36, an unmissable L sight. Galaxies are also in abundance here, from the spiral arms of Messier 95 to the fe

1 Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max Cost: £1,549 / $1,599 From: Apple 1 Unsurprisingly, Apple is a big hitter in this guide, and its 6.7-inch flagship smartphone is top of the range. The bigger sensor on this camera phone means it produces brighter photos ev

B orn in Brooklyn in 1944, he joined NASA in August 1979 following a glittering academic career. He designed, built, tested and flew a balloon-borne gamma-ray telescope for his PhD in astrophysics at Harvard University, and he worked on X-ray astrono

Future PLC Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Content Director Gemma Lavender [email protected] Art Editor Jonathan Wells Production Editor Nikole Robinson Senior Art Editor Duncan Crook Stuart Atkinson, Mike Brown, Chris Carberry, Char