Astronomy

From Claire North’s new novel Slow Gods to a 10th anniversary edition of a brilliant Adrian Tchaikovsky book, there’s lots to watch out for in November’s science fiction

Horror movie composers use musical tricks to hijack your nervous system and put you on edge

Video: 00:46:03

What began with tragedy ended in triumph. This is the untold story of the European Space Agency’s pioneering 25-year Cluster mission to study how invisible solar storms impact Earth's environment.

Like a ship in a never-ending storm, Earth is bombarded by swarms of particles ejected from the Sun at supersonic speeds. Most of these solar wind particles are deflected by the magnetosphere and sail harmlessly by, but Earth’s shield is not bulletproof.

Since 2000, Cluster sailed the seas of the Sun and revealed the complexities of the Sun–Earth connection. After two-and-a-half incredibly successful decades in space, ESA took the decision to safely deorbit the four Cluster satellites throughout 2024–2026. The mission officially ended on 8 September 2024.

But a space mission is so much more than science. Experience Cluster’s story as told by the people who lived it: scientists and engineers Arnoud Masson, C. Philippe Escoubet, Gill Watson, Gunther Lautenschläger, Lean-Nani Alconcel, Bruno Sousa, Paulo Ferri, Patrick W. Daly, Mandred Warhaut, Silvia Sanvido and Jolene S. Pickett.

The film was produced by Space Rocks for the European Space Agency. It features an original soundtrack by Karlotta Skagfield and additional music by Bruce Dickinson.

See the film poster

Listen to the podcast series about the film

More information about the film from Space Rocks

Astronomers are hustling to use interplanetary spacecraft to study the interstellar comet dubbed 3I/ATLAS while the sun is hiding it from Earth

Huge eruptions from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole in the distant past may have sterilized much of the inner galaxy

Faced with her son’s struggle with dyslexia, one mom built an AI platform to help kids learn their own way

This Halloween discover how your candy choices can trick—or treat—the microbes in your gut.

The New Scientist Book Club has various issues with Masud Husain's prize-winning popular science book about neurology

The New Scientist Book Club has various issues with Masud Husain's prize-winning popular science book about neurology

In this passage from the opening of Grace Chan’s sci-fi novel, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are introduced to her protagonists as they spend time in a virtual utopia which is becoming increasingly tempting in a dying world

In this passage from the opening of Grace Chan’s sci-fi novel, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, we are introduced to her protagonists as they spend time in a virtual utopia which is becoming increasingly tempting in a dying world

Grace Chan, author of Every Version of You, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, explores the philosophical implications of the choices her characters make

Grace Chan, author of Every Version of You, the November read for the New Scientist Book Club, explores the philosophical implications of the choices her characters make

Image: To celebrate Halloween, we bring you these spooky sights of Lake Carnegie in Australia, captured from space by Copernicus Sentinel-2.

Image: Flickering flame: spooky spirits or serious science?

Saturn is in excellent view all evening. In a telescope its rings look like a thin needle piercing the big yellow globe. Soon the rings will turn exactly edge-on.

The post This Week's Sky at a Glance, October 30 –November 9 appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

How could the principle of “radical mundanity” proposed by the Fermi paradox help explain why humans haven’t found evidence of extraterrestrial technological civilizations (ETCs)? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a lone researcher investigated the prospect for finding ETCs based on this principle. This study has the potential to help scientists and the public better understand why we haven’t identified intelligent life beyond Earth and how we might narrow the search for it.

The green mummified remains of a teenager buried in Italy 200 to 400 years ago have given us new insights into the preservative properties of copper

The green mummified remains of a teenager buried in Italy 200 to 400 years ago have given us new insights into the preservative properties of copper

The Vera Rubin Observatory saw first light in June 2025. Its images from that time are called the Virgo First Look images because they focus on the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. M61 is one of the galaxies in that cluster, and the VRO has detected a stellar stream of stars around the distant spiral galaxy in Rubin's images.