China has embarked on its first crewed space mission in almost five years, launching a trio of astronauts into orbit to occupy its under-construction space station, before the two final modules are launched over the next 18 months.

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Supermassive black holes are thought to grow slowly over billions of years – but how did they appear so early in the universe’s lifetime? A new origin story suggests black hole seeds were created by halos of self-interacting dark matter collapsing.

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Astronomers say they’ve closed the case on the mysterious and unprecedented dimming of the supergiant star Betelgeuse in 2019 and 2020. A new study says that the event was caused by a combination of a big dust cloud and a drop in temperature.

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Astronomers have used computer modeling to reveal the chaotic fate of a distant solar system in which the planets orbit in near perfect synchronization, and in the process shed light on how ancient white dwarfs become polluted with debris.

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The first paying seat on Blue Origin's initial New Shepard passenger flight into space has sold at auction for an eye-watering US$28 million. The telephone auction was conducted by RR Auction and involved 7,600 bidders from 159 countries.

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Not all planets orbit stars - some drift freely through the cosmos on their own. These cold, dark worlds don’t make great candidates for hosting life, but a new study suggests that their moons could be more habitable than they might seem.

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ESA has selected EnVision as its next Venus orbiter. Scheduled to launch between 2031 and 2033, the robotic deep-space probe will carry out a comprehensive survey of Earth's sibling planet to learn why the two turned out so very different.

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After an eventful start to life on Mars that has included capturing the first ever audio recordings on the planet and supporting the Ingenuity helicopter throughout its history-making flights, the Perseverance rover is ready to get down to business.

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A new instrument has made a short jaunt to space, as part of a mission to measure the total light ever emitted in the universe’s history. CIBER-2 will search for stray stars between galaxies by monitoring the cosmic background glow of infrared light.

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Scientists have recreated in the lab some of the wild weather that might be found on Jupiter and Saturn. Using extremely high pressures and laser shock waves, the researchers produced helium rain which has been hypothesized to fall on these planets.

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