Scientists at Nasa had a late night close encounter for Valentines' Day, studying a comet at close range.

Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking once remarked that humankind would need to colonise space within the next century if it was to survive as a species.

The sun in all its illuminating glory has for the first time been photographed on all sides at once in an historic image that could help to revolutionise our understanding of the immense magnetic forces at the burning heart of our own star.

The Astronaut husband of the congresswoman shot and badly injured in a mass shooting in Tucson last month has decided to remain as mission commander for the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour in April, Nasa confirmed yesterday.

Nasa announces the discovery of Kepler-11, six new planets orbiting around a star.

An astronaut has lost his place on Space Shuttle Discovery's final voyage after being injured in a bicycle accident. Timothy Kopra suffered unspecified injuries on Saturday, six weeks before Discovery's planned lift-off. He is on indefinite sick leave.

From tourist trips to the edge of the atmosphere to satellite companies propelling products into the ether, the galactic gold rush is on. And now private firms are making millions from Nasa, says Jerome Taylor

Where to go, what to do in 2011

Famously reclusive Neil Armstrong breaks silence to answer the burning question

It's not a stupid question, when you think about it.

A private company put a spacecraft into orbit yesterday in a test flight that Nasa hopes will lead to cargo runs to the International Space Station after its shuttles are retired next year.

NASA has a wonderful collection of photographs of planet Earth taken by satellites circling the atmosphere.

When it blasted off 20 years ago, few thought it would succeed. But it showed us a universe we didn't know existed, says Nick Harding

Astronomers believe they have witnessed the birth of a nearby black hole, formed when a massive star collapsed in on itself creating a gravitational field so strong that not even light could escape. The collapsed star, which was 20 times more massive than the Sun, created a stellar explosion, or supernova, in the M100 galaxy in the Virgo cluster, 50 million light years from Earth.