As the first piece of an asteroid is brought back to Earth in Japan's Hayabusa mission, it's been suggested that we could mine the worlds of the Solar System for useful materials and minerals. What's up there?
Gamma-ray bursts – or death stars – are the most violent events in the Universe. Robert Matthews asks if we've already been devastated by one, and what an explosion would do to us in the future.
With tourist trips to space on the horizon, living away from Earth may not be such a pipe dream. Stephen Baxter and other experts explain how we’ll go about colonising the final frontier in six easy steps.
They killed the dinosaurs. They wrecked the Moon. And they've appeared in some truly awful movies. But now the United Nations has declared war on asteroids. It's about time, says Paul Parsons
If just one solar storm hit Earth it would wreck life as we know it. Our electricity supply and communications network would be destroyed, returning civilisation to the 18th century. Stuart Clark asks is there any way we can protect ourselves?
The Universe appeared from a cataclysmic explosion 13.7 billion years ago in which space, time and matter were all created. So is there any truth in the theory that universes and civilisations existed before our own? Robert Matthews investigates
This month:
iSpy
With the recent accusations into alleged spying in the US, Focus takes a look at the new technology that caught them out and the gadgets used by spooks. PLUS Is the God particle dead?