Exploring the discussion of silicon and other mineral-based life in science fiction.

Looking at modern era insights into Venus in science and science fiction

Looking at early representations of Venus in science fiction

Looking at issues of biocontamination and planetary protection

Edgar Rice Burroughs was one of the most influential writers of the early twentieth century. But why do his novels still resonate today?

Looking at the science fiction of hypothetical worlds on the Other Side of the Sun.

Dinosaurs! On a spaceship!

Ever since Jack climbed the beanstock in search of treasures, and likely long before, humanity has dreamed of building an elevator to the stars.

Did humanity originate elsewhere? Why does Mars appear so prominently as the origin of the human race in science fiction?

Exploring space weather - an important problem both in science fiction and in our contemporary world.

One of the common uses of science fiction is to imagine the habitability of worlds very different from our own. Some famous science fiction narratives consider a desert as their setting, but how is human habitability envisaged in these worlds and how plausible are they?

The asteroid belt is a collection of small rocky worlds, ranging in size from pebbles to the dwarf planet Ceres at almost a thousand kilometres across. Located in orbit between Mars and Jupiter they have been an important site in the imagination of both SF writers and scientists alike.

Human settlement of space has been a given since the earliest science fiction stories were written. The High Frontier was an influential popular science book published in 1976 by an American physicist Gerard K O’Neill. The High Frontier had an enormous impact, and cylindrical space habitats have since acquired the name O’Neill Cylinders, both in fact and in fiction.

Supernovae, the explosions that end the lives of certain stars, are amongst the brightest and most dramatic events in the Universe. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they’ve attracted their fair degree of attention from the writers of science fiction.

Dan Dare: Pilot of the Future, in his journeys through the Solar System, has given us a fascinating snapshot of how our understanding of solar system habitability has changed. Here I take a look at Saturn's moon system and its very different representations in 1953 and 2017.

The vision of space portrayed in near-future science fiction often speaks to the hopes and fears of contemporary society. Children’s SF in particular can influence the scientific and technical innovators who might bring such visions to fruition. This week we take a look at the coherent vision of human space utilisation presented in the recent animated television series Thunderbirds are Go.

Interstellar comets are rare and unusual visitors - but while they're alien, are they result of intelligences beyond our Solar System? It is a premise that has formed part of the science fiction repertoire for many years.

Today we look at three stories, each of which imagines a single Earth astronaut stranded alone on the Martian surface, and considers what they tell us about changing conceptions of Martian habitability.

Is it possible for individuals to own entire planets? Science fiction has explored this question more than once, in a range of different contexts.

Exotic binary and multiple star systems, so very different from our own Solar System, have captured the imagination of many astronomers. But these strange environments also captured the imagination of the public and of science fiction writers too.

A look at the Solar System of Captain W E Johns' classic juvenile science fiction series, starting with "Kings of Space" (1954)