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New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Jonathan O’Callaghan

Contributor

Bio

is a freelance science journalist based in London. He specialises in stories on astronomy, astrophysics and space exploration, and was awarded the by the American Geophysical Union in 2021.

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More from Jonathan O’Callaghan

Explore the latest news, articles and features

Planets

Space

Aliens could say hello by arranging planets in prime number pattern

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meteorite on Mars

Space

Meteorites on Mars may preserve evidence of ancient alien life

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Rocket Lab catches a falling rocket with a helicopter

Space

Rocket Lab briefly caught a falling rocket with a helicopter

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This artist???s impression shows a two-star system where micronovae may occur. The blue disc swirling around the bright white dwarf in the centre of the image is made up of material, mostly hydrogen, stolen from its companion star. Towards the centre of the disc, the white dwarf uses its strong magnetic fields to funnel the hydrogen towards its poles. As the material falls on the hot surface of the star, it triggers a micronova explosion, contained by the magnetic fields at one of the white dwarf???s poles.

Space

Small explosions called micronovae discovered on dead stars

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Artist Jorge Ma?es Rubio, part of ESA?s future-oriented Advanced Concepts Team (ACT), has designed a place of contemplation to serve a future lunar settlement. It would be built on the sunlit rim of 21-km diameter Shackleton Crater, which is bathed much of the time in sunlight while overlooking a 4.2 km-deep interior mired in perpetual shadow.

Space

Double-shadowed moon craters may be coldest place in the solar system

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KAZAKHSTAN MARCH 2, 2022: A Soyuz-2.1b rocket booster with a Fregat upper stage carrying British OneWeb satellites is being transported from an assembling facility to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The launch is scheduled for 5 March 2022 at 01:41 Moscow time. Roscosmos Press Office/TASS THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY (Photo by Roscosmos Press Office\TASS via Getty Images)

Space

OneWeb 'surprised' by Russian demands over satellite launch

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Soyuz rocket

Space

Russia and UK face a stand-off over OneWeb satellite rocket launch

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Rosalind Franklin ExoMars rover

Space

Russian sanctions mean ESA's Mars rover is unlikely to launch in 2022

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space junk

Space

We don’t know whose rocket is about to hit the moon – that’s a problem

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Space explosion

Space

Huge nuclear explosion in space is so rare we may never see one again

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This illustration shows the distant Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it might look in the outer Solar System. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is estimated to be about 1000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times. It has an extremely elongated orbit, journeying inward from the distant Oort Cloud over millions of years. It is the most distant comet to be discovered on its incoming path.

Space

Biggest comet from outer solar system ever seen is 137 kilometres wide

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DON'T LOOK UP (L to R) Cate Blanchett as Brie Evantee and Tyler Perry as Jack Bremmer, Leonardo DiCaprio as Dr. Randall Mindy, and Jennifer Lawrence as Kate Dibiasky. Cr. Niko Tavernise / Netflix ?? 2021

Space

Don’t Look Up: Could we save Earth from a comet in just six months?

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