EILEEN COLLINS: “IT WAS A DIFFICULT MISSION… WE WERE THE FIRST TO SEE MIR”

Having served as both the first female pilot and first female commander of NASA’s Space Shuttle, Eileen Collins boosted the involvement of women in space exploration to a whole new level

EUROPE'S MARS ROVER IS NOW UNLIKELY TO LAUNCH BEFORE 2026 AFTER RUSSIA'S WAR ON UKRAINE

Europe's beleaguered ExoMars rover is unlikely to launch before 2026 as the European Space Agency (ESA) ponders a path forward for the mission, including finding a new rocket, replacing Russian-built parts in cooperation with NASA or restarting its partnership with Russia in case the country's war in Ukraine ends soon.

WHERE HAVE THESE GIANT FILAMENTS COME FROM?

Mysterious magnetic filaments have been found at the heart of the Milky Way, but astronomers are still trying to discover their origin

25 UNBELIEVABLE FACTS ABOUT THE SOLAR SYSTEM

WHY OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD COULD BE THE STRANGEST PLACE IN THE COSMOS

VIRGIN ORBIT TARGETS SUMMER FOR ITS FIRST ORBITAL LAUNCH

The California-based company has three straight successful orbital missions under its belt

WELCOME TO THE STELLAR AFTERLIFE

They’re hot, they’re small and technically they’re dead. Meet the stellar remnants that have a multimillion-year-long tale to tell

BLACK HOLE BILLIARDS

Around these behemoths, smaller black holes weirdly collide

PLANET PROFILE VENUS

Earth’s sister planet is a harsh, deadly world, making it an interesting one to observe

CANON EOS 6D MARK II

Is this the perfect companion for enthusiast photographers looking to make their first break into the full-frame world?

12 ASTRONOMY TUTORIALS TO MASTER

For the very best views of the night sky

Feather beds, cockfights and midnight flights to the moon

From seeing feathers as omens of death to saving soldiers with homing pigeons, our interactions with birds have always been contradictory. Roy and Lesley Adkins select five chapters from avian history to illuminate this complex relationship

Gods among men

JANE DRAYCOTT applauds an ambitious journey through the global history of emperors, from the most ancient civilisations to the 20th-century demise of world-spanning realms

EMPIRE OF THE GREATS

Not even a 2,000-year smear campaign, instigated by the Greeks, can obscure the staggering achievements of the ancient Persians. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the story of the Iranian dynasty that forged the greatest empire the world had ever known

Jesse Owens 1913-80

He was a bit of a showman and even raced against horses for money. When asked why, he said: You can't eat four gold medals'

Spinning stories

HELEN CARR assesses a magisterial overview of how people have represented the past, from medieval propaganda to historical fiction

The family behind the Tudors

The name Tudor has reverberated down the centuries, but another family lurked in the background, helping the dynasty to greatness - and sometimes seeking to tear it down. Joanne Paul chronicles the meteoric rise and deadly fall of the Dudleys

Voyage into the unknown

MARGARET SMALL commends a new biography of Ferdinand Magellan that looks beyond the Portuguese explorer's globe-circling achievements to reveal the man behind the myth

Victoria Drummond Engineering trailblazer

A century ago, the barriers facing any woman longing for a career in marine engineering seemed almost insurmountable - but not quite. JO STANLEY introduces a woman who had the talent, bravery and determination to make her mark in the male-dominated maritime world

This will be seen as a hybrid war, in which a key weapon is the deliberate misreading of history

In February, following months of escalating tensions, Russia invaded Ukraine. Are parallels with the past useful in making sense of the war, or is history being used for more sinister ends? Four experts have their say

A Cruel Renaissance

“Wicked, an abomination, and against all humanity.” These words, uttered in 1416, shine a light on a dark truth: that slavery thrived in Renaissance Europe. Hannah Skoda tells the stories of people living in bondage in a period when ideals of liberty and the nobility of human nature didn't apply to all

Black Communities Have Had to Pay for the Failures of Emancipation

Kris Manjapra speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his new book, which explores how emancipations of enslaved people have left troubled legacies that still endure today

The Determined Will

Stephen Brewer’s couple are determined to argue about free will.

Diogenes the Cynic (c.404-323 BC)

Martin Jenkins recalls what we know for sure about the philosopher in the barrel.

Paradox Lost

Paul Tissier argues that Russell’s Paradox isn’t really a paradox.

The Goodness of Existence

Jarlath Cox says whether life brings pleasure or pain, the value of being born is the ability to experience at all.

The Lottery' & Locke's Politics

John P. Irish considers through an infamous lottery.

VERY LARGE TELESCOPE FINDS NEW SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE

Scientists spotted the supermassive black hole hiding inside thick cosmic dust

THE MOON-LANDING HOAX

WHY DOES THE THEORY STILL LIVE ON? ALL ABOUT SPACE DEBUNKS A HOAX THAT RAGES AMONG CONSPIRACY THEORISTS EVER SINCE NEIL ARMSTRONG AND BUZZ ALDRIN LANDED ON THE LUNAR SURFACE

THIS MONTH'S PLANETS

A planetary parade featuring Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Saturn is something spectacular to look out for in the dawn sky

SECRETS OF BLACK HOLES

PLACES WHERE THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE PUSHED TO THE EXTREME