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Focussing on a patch of sky covering roughly the same area as 100 full moons, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope in Western Australia has captured the bright glow of dozens of galaxies as they looked billions of years in the past.

Have you ever wanted to measure something truly ridiculous? With a lamp and a piece of paper, you can answer a silly sounding question: How bright is the Sun?

Written by Neha Karl When your car runs out of fuel, it stops. But when a massive star runs out of fuel – it doesn’t just stop – it explodes! An exploding star is called a supernova. The big blast can leave behind a pulsar, which is a kind of neutron star.

Written by Neha Karl Can you imagine a force so powerful that it can pull in light? It may seem unreal, but this force exists in our Universe as a black hole, and nothing can escape its pull!

The idea there are living organisms, as yet undiscovered by humans, living on other planets, has fascinated people for years. The search for alien life is not just a science fiction topic – it’s part of a scientific field called astrobiology.

Written by Sarah Kellett When the rover Curiosity landed on Mars on 6 August (AEST), Australia was listening. Between hitting the atmosphere and landing safely, there were ‘seven minutes of terror’. Then, mission scientists heard the good news.

The starlight that we see at night is only a fraction of what is out there. Stars and galaxies don’t just emit visible light but a range of electromagnetic radiation, including UV radiation, X-rays and radio waves. Most of this radiation is invisible to humans.