A very rare astronomical phenomenon has been in the headlines a lot recently, and for good reason. It will be hundreds of years until we can see Jupiter and Saturn this close to one another again.

Scientists have just set a new world record for high-temperature sustained plasma with the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) device, reaching an ion temperature of above 100 million degrees Celsius (180 million degrees Fahrenh

With just a handful of days left in this strange beast of a year that will most certainly go down in history books, we thought it would be nice to reflect on the marvellous things scientists still delivered, despite everything.

The best present this holiday season came in a small package, parachuted into the Australian desert from far within our Solar System on 5 December 2020.

Sometimes, the Universe provides just the perfect method for expressing our feelings.

Scientists are edging closer to making a super-secure, super-fast quantum internet possible: they've now been able to 'teleport' high-fidelity quantum information over a total distance of 44 kilometres (27 miles).

For a while now, physicists have been hunting for primordial black holes, exotic objects that could have formed in the early Universe and spawned a whole range of cosmic shenanigans.

Although we humans generally have control of our skeletal musculature, there's at least one we don't always have a handle on. In the middle ear sits the tensor tympani, and it seems most people are unable to contract it voluntarily.

When falling asleep, it's not unusual to imagine a calm, provincial scene, like a flock of sheep jumping over a fence.

A major study has suggested that the new, possibly more contagious coronavirus variant that has been spreading in Europe - and, as of Tuesday, in Colorado - does not cause more severe illness or have a higher death rate.

Melting permafrost in the icy north of Siberia is revealing a veritable graveyard of frozen prehistoric animals.

Caught between rapidly expanding resource use and climate change-fuelled fires, the future of the Amazon rainforest and the stunning array of life teeming within it just keeps growing bleaker.

A massive study published in 2020 found evidence that blood iron levels could play a role in influencing how long you live.

Let's admit it: It's been a pretty rough year for our neck of the Solar System. But it's been a great year for scientists studying more distant reaches of the Universe. From a colossal explosion to mystery burps deciphered, here were some of the to