Astronomy

Earlier this year, asteroid 2024 YR4 was discovered and found to have a trajectory through the Earth/Moon system in 2032. The world's telescopes focused on the potential threat and downgraded the chance to negligible for the Earth...but it still has a non-zero chance of hitting the Moon. As the asteroid became too dim to continue observing, its Moon impact chance stood at 4%. When will we update this number? Not until it does another close flyby in 2028.

This illustration shows the parts of a space shuttle orbiter. About the same size and weight as a DC-9 aircraft, the orbiter contains the pressurized crew compartment (which can normally carry up to seven crew members), the cargo bay, and the three main engines mounted on its aft end.

Kat Zhou has won the Aquatic Life category in the 2025 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition, while a shot of a death-defying leap by a lemur took the top prize

Kat Zhou has won the Aquatic Life category in the 2025 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition, while a shot of a death-defying leap by a lemur took the top prize

Foundation's new series is full of new characters and dramatic potential. But instead of mining those rich seams, too many plotlines have become shallow and absurd. It's hard to see a good show go bad, says Bethan Ackerley

Language is evolving rapidly in a world of social media. Our millennial reviewer finds Adam Aleksic's Algospeak to be a much-needed helping hand

Language is evolving rapidly in a world of social media. Our millennial reviewer finds Adam Aleksic's Algospeak to be a much-needed helping hand

The awe-inspiring distances of the cosmos are hard to visualise, so how can we be certain we are measuring them correctly? Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explains

Feedback has been invited to an event next year in Shaoxing, China. It's an academic conference promising "revolutionary thinkers who are redefining human intimacy through cutting-edge robotics and AI"

The UK's health secretary has announced a 10-year plan to check newborns for a huge range of rare conditions. There are major medical and ethical issues with this, argues neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan

The population is set to plummet and we don't know how to stop it, warn Dean Spears and Michael Geruso in their new book, After the Spike

The awe-inspiring distances of the cosmos are hard to visualise, so how can we be certain we are measuring them correctly? Chanda Prescod-Weinstein explains

Feedback has been invited to an event next year in Shaoxing, China. It's an academic conference promising "revolutionary thinkers who are redefining human intimacy through cutting-edge robotics and AI"

The UK's health secretary has announced a 10-year plan to check newborns for a huge range of rare conditions. There are major medical and ethical issues with this, argues neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan

The population is set to plummet and we don't know how to stop it, warn Dean Spears and Michael Geruso in their new book, After the Spike

An example from the history of mathematics shows how views on the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence can quickly start to change

An example from the history of mathematics shows how views on the trustworthiness of artificial intelligence can quickly start to change

Astronomers have traced a mysterious blast of X-rays to a star that, like a cosmic action hero, just refused to die.

One of the best star projectors, the Pococo Galaxy Star projector, has 24% off this Amazon Prime Day.