New Scientist Space - Cosmology

The BepiColombo mission to Mercury will pass within about 200 kilometres of the surface of Mercury in October, where it will measure the planet’s magnetic field and exosphere

A woman born without the brain regions needed to smell has puzzled doctors by gaining the ability to detect some smells in her twenties – an experience that has caused her anxiety

Uranus and Neptune appear to have less ammonia than expected, but it might have been hidden by slushy balls of ammonia and water that hail down deep into the planets’ atmospheres

A UN analysis of countries' latest plans to cut carbon emissions shows they will actually rise 16 per cent on 2010 levels by 2030, leaving only a small window to limit global warming to 1.5°C

Cuttlefish are usually solitary creatures, but videos show them forming defensive groups to migrate together, suggesting they are more social than we thought

A quantum network linking 40 computers in Hefei, China, is the largest demonstration to date of how a future quantum internet might work

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Messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp, make it hard to tackle disinformation, but a smart reporting tool could offer a solution while preserving privacy

These images of the sun, the moon and the planets of the solar system took some of the top prizes in this year’s Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition

Corals are full of symbiotic organisms but biologists have found a new form of microbe that doesn't seem to benefit its hosts

Inspired by a type of spiky evergreen leaf, researchers have come up with a material that forces different fluids to flow in opposite directions – even uphill

Fossil footprints reveal that the extinct straight-tusked elephant raised its young with groups of adult females and no adult males, just as modern elephants do – and that they were probably hunted by Neanderthals

From anywhere on Earth there may soon by hundreds of satellites visible in the night sky at any time of year because of satellite constellation projects such as SpaceX’s Starlink

A fire at a facility that connects the electricity grids of the UK and mainland Europe has led to talk of a potential winter energy crisis, but supplies should stabilise in the coming months

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

A study of 900 pregnant women has found that those infected with human papillomavirus were almost four times more likely to give birth prematurely

The 4500-year-old written tablets that shine a light on life in ancient Mesopotamia are often damaged, but a predictive AI trained on 104 languages can help fill in the gaps

The Perseverance rover on Mars was hit by 100 dust devils in its first 90 days – the Curiosity rover elsewhere on Mars is hit by the weather phenomena 5 to 10 times less often

Video-sharing app TikTok has implemented measures to prevent the spread of disinformation about the upcoming German election, but they don't seem to be fully working, say researchers

Cats form strong bonds with their owners, but the scent of their human companions doesn’t comfort them when they’re left alone – and it could even make them howl more