CATEGORIES

COMPLETE GUIDE TO EXOPLANETS

Our knowledge of worlds beyond the Solar System has exploded in the last three decades

BLACK HOLE IN MILKY WAY'S SATELLITE DEFIES EXPLANATION

Dwarf galaxy Leo I’s giant central area seems too big for such a small host

Coded Language

Michael Wood praises a pioneering study of the transformation of Chinese script, and how this helped fuel the growth of the nation into one of the world's superpowers

Q&A - Who was history's most notorious pirate?

A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

WHAT HAPPENS TO EARTH'S DISAPPEARING CRUST?

Scientists may have finally figured out the mystery of subduction zones

THERE'S A BARRIER AROUND THE MILKY WAY'S CENTRE

Astronomers discover an enormous, bizarre feature separating the centre of the Milky Way from the cosmic ray sea

MENELAUS CRATER

How to find the impact at the end of one of the longest rays on the Moon

JUPITER'S GREAT RED SPOT IS DEEPER THAN SCIENTISTS THOUGHT

The storm system isn’t just wide… it also has incredible

HEROES OF SPACE

A record-breaking astronaut who could be one of the first women to step foot on the Moon

ELUSIVE NEUTRINO CANDIDATES DETECTED IN BREAKTHROUGH PHYSICS EXPERIMENT

For the first time ever, researchers have detected neutrino candidates produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN facility near Geneva, Switzerland.

DOES EARTH HAVE A SECOND MOON?

There’s an asteroid tracking our planet’s orbit around the Sun, and astronomers have been surprised by its composition

ANTI-SATELLITE MISSILE TEST DRAWS CONDEMNATION

Across the globe, nations and space companies alike are speaking out against Russia’s anti-satellite test, which forced astronauts in space to take cover

CELESTRON SKYMASTER PRO 15X70

This binocular offers an amazing stargazing experience, with a good combination of magnification, aperture and portability

ALL ABOUT THE ORION NEBULA

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS CRADLE OF BABY STARS THAT’S VISIBLE FROM EARTH

Looting history

DAVID OLUSOGA praises a stark exploration of the bloodsoaked British raid that plundered the treasures of Benin

A KING OF FIRE AND LIGHT

French ruler Louis IX was a Catholic hero and a vicious anti-Semite, a patron of exquisite art and a fervent burner of books. Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry consider the tangled legacy of a man who embodies both the horrors and beauty of medieval Europe

Queen of Spies

Victoria controlled an extensive network of intelligence sources that fed explosive revelations to the British government - or direct to her. Rory Cormac and Richard J Aldrich investigate her adventures in espionage

MOON TOUR EDDINGTON CRATER

Challenge yourself this month by locating one of the trickiest impacts on the lunar surface

James ‘Jim' Lovell

A space veteran who completed four impressive missions, including the ill-fated Apollo 13

THE COMPLETE GUIDE MARS

WE’RE LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE FOURTH ROCK FROM THE SUN EVERY DAY

ORION'S DEEP-SPACE TREASURES

The mighty Hunter has a horde of little-known treasures for you to track down and enjoy

THIS MONTH'S PLANETS

Look out for a bright ‘Christmas star’ gracing the evening sky this holiday season

“WE CAN BE AMAZING IF WE WANT TO BE”

Turner takes us behind the scenes of his docuseries Among the Stars, available now on Disney+

MEDIEVAL DUELS

In 1386, two Frenchmen fought a duel in a field outside Paris, each seeking to bury his blade in the other's body. One combatant had been accused of raping the other's wife, a charge he denied vehemently. After an initial verdict of innocence was returned, the accuser demanded a trial by combat. The judgment was now God's alone... ...who would be chosen to die?

ROYAL The duke of duplicity

SARAH GRISTWOOD on a new profile of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson that casts them in a distinctly unflattering light

FIVE BIG QUESTIONS ABOUT...Going to church in the Middle Ages

From social interaction to confessing your sins, Nicholas Orme reveals why the church HistoryExtra played such a central role in medieval life PODCAST INTERVIEW BY DAVID MUSGROVE

Dark forces

MARION GIBSON praises a retelling of a 17th-century witchcraft trial that never loses sight of the women at its heart, nor the social and economic factors that contributed to their plight

The worlds first superhero

When Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, his transformation into multicultural icon was only just beginning. Edmund Richardson chronicles the Macedonian king’s remarkable afterlife as the original global A-lister

America's Fall Guy

King George III has long been cast as the crazed despot who squandered America. Yet, argues Andrew Roberts, this grim characterisation is the result not of hard facts but a historical stitch-up

“IT IS STARTLINGLY CLEAR THAT THERE IS NO PLANET B”

The ESA’s first British astronaut reveals how space travel will develop, what life is like on board the ISS and why we need to protect our planet