NEWS PREVIEW 2010:  09:00 23 December 2009  | 46 comments

Fifty years ago next April, Frank Drake kick-started the modern search for extraterrestrial life at a radio telescope in West Virginia

22:48 22 December 2009  | 10 comments

Conventional theory says water ice should be concentrated in permanently shadowed craters near the poles, but that's not where it seems to be turning up

IN BRIEF:  16:10 21 December 2009  | 13 comments

Comets may be bombarding planets closer to the centre of the galaxy more heavily than Earth, making things tough for life

10:00 21 December 2009  | 76 comments

So far humans have only made it to the moon. We look at some technologies and wild ideas that could take us much farther

NEWS PREVIEW 2010:  14:09 18 December 2009  | 27 comments

Each of the three surviving orbiters will make their final flights, ending a dream that space exploration could become mundane

12:28 18 December 2009  | 46 comments

An experiment in a Minnesota mine has seen a tantalising glimpse of dark matter, the stuff thought to make up most of the universe's mass

THIS WEEK:  18:00 16 December 2009  | 54 comments

The discovery of a planet that seems to made almost entirely of water suggests "super-Earths" are a more diverse bunch than we thought

INTERVIEW:  10:17 16 December 2009  | 9 comments

As the Royal Society enters its 350th year, its president says its mission is to speak up for science to public and politicians alike

13:22 15 December 2009  | 24 comments

The merger of two types of dead star to form a black hole may explain the origin of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays

14:28 14 December 2009  | 32 comments

Comets may have given birth to Earth's atmosphere, rather than volcanoes spewing gases from deep within the planet

THIS WEEK:  12:13 14 December 2009  | 49 comments

The FERMI space telescope could beat the Large Hadron Collider to the first evidence of the Higgs boson, the particle thought to give others mass

20:25 11 December 2009  | 56 comments

The agency is sure to get an injection of cash to rescue its faltering space programme, says a Washington insider – but probably not the $3 billion recommended

00:38 10 December 2009  | 140 comments

A huge, glowing whirlpool that appeared in the skies above Norway on Wednesday was most likely a failed Russian missile launch, says a Harvard astrophysicist

23:39 08 December 2009  | 24 comments

NASA's Spirit rover was already fighting an uphill battle to escape a sand trap; if a second wheel cannot be coaxed back into action, the rover may freeze to death

14:42 08 December 2009  | 35 comments

The first private passenger-carrying spacecraft was unveiled last night. New Scientist shadowed its designer through a stormy evening of razzmatazz

03:12 08 December 2009  | 133 comments

The state has approved a deal in which the Pacific Gas and Electric Company will buy power beamed down from satellites beginning in 2016

19:49 07 December 2009  | 41 comments

An asteroid impact 65 million years ago did not trigger global wildfires after all, new work suggests, leaving open the question of what killed off most of the world's species

THIS WEEK:  11:03 07 December 2009  | 14 comments

Vast banks of snow and ice on Mars could harbour liquid water just centimetres below the surface, making them potential habitats for life

18:46 04 December 2009  | 71 comments

A massive ancient moon that has since disappeared may be the reason Uranus now lies on its side

COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:  13:28 03 December 2009  | 210 comments

The Planck spacecraft promises a feast of data and profound insights into the origin of the universe – but we mustn't be gluttons, says Stuart Clark