The universe. It is a thing so vast it is almost impossible to comprehend. Our sun, the huge ball of fire that the Earth revolves around, is just one of roughly 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. And the Milky Way is one of anywhere between 100 billion and two trillion galaxies in the universe. It is clear: we are little more than a tiny speck. For a tiny dot, we know a vast amount: we have used telescopes to gaze far into the past and rockets to blast beyond our atmosphere. But there is still so much we have yet to learn — if we ever will. And there is one question that everybody in the world, no matter who they are, will at some point in their life stop to consider: can we really be alone?
Spotlight: Beyond Earth
A neutron star is falling into a black hole in outer space. Scientists have detected two collisions between a neutron star and a black hole – an event once considered extremely rare – in the space of 10 days.