Come and join me in London, next week, on the evening of the 25th January to celebrate the launch of The Sensorium of God, Book II in The Sky's Dark Labyrinth trilogy. I'm thrilled to say that The Science Museum have invited me to launch the book as part of their Lates programme, an adults only open evening at the museum in South Kensington.

The Science Museum have again endorsed The Sensorium of God, as they did The Sky's Dark Labyrinth, recognising that these novels dramatise the stories of the astronomers behind the greatest discoveries in the Universe.

The Sensorium of God follows Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley as they pick up the story from the first book and seek to understand why the planets move as they do. This is from the dust jacket:

'It is the late seventeenth century and the movement of the planets remains a mystery despite the revolutionary work of Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Tycho Brahe almost a hundred years before.

Edmond Halley - dynamic adventurer and astronomer - seeks the help of Isaac Newton in unravelling the problem, but, though obsessed with understanding the orbits of the planets, Newton has problems of his own. The reclusive mathematician and alchemist has a guilty secret. He stole some of his ideas from Robert Hooke, and the quarrelsome experimentalist is demanding recognition.

While capable of contemplating the loftiest ideals and theories, the three men are just as quick to argue, and their grudges could derail the quest for scientific truth. The men's lives and work clash as Europe is pushed headlong towards the Age of Enlightenment and science is catapulted into its next seismic collision with religion.'

At the Science Museum, I will be presenting two lectures (at 7.45pm, and 8.45pm) and I'll be around for the whole evening 6:45-10pm so come and chat informally. You can find more details here. Also on that page you will find my other bookings across the UK.

Copies of Sensorium will, of course, be available at the Science Museum on the night and I'll be flourishing my signing pen! You can also order the book online here from amazon and here from Waterstone's. I hope to see you at The Science Museum or at one of my other talks.

If you've been following the demise of the failed Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt, you may have seen the rather extraordinary claims that America 'shot down' the spacecraft. The story exploded this week with a Russian newspaper publishing more details of the accusations. I thought it would be a good idea to do a little sanity check on these ideas, and New Scientist published the results:

"First there were cries of sabotage, although there was never a clear motive. Now the bizarre suggestion that the US shot down Russia's Phobos-Grunt space probe has morphed into a slightly less strange claim. A Russian newspaper has reported that radar beamed from a US military base could have accidentally damaged the probe, leading to its demise.

The spacecraft launched on 9 November with the aim of returning soil samples from the surface of Mars's largest moon, Phobos, but mysteriously failed to fire its upper-stage rocket and became stranded in Earth orbit until it re-entered the atmosphere on Sunday. How plausible is the suggestion that radar is to blame for the probe's failure? ..."

You can read the full article for free here.

I'm thrilled to have New Scientist's first cover story of 2012. The article is about the seismic shift that is taking place in our understanding of dark matter.  There is no getting away from the fact that the more observations we take, the less satisfactory our traditional models of dark matter seem to become. This article explores the way astronomers and particle physicists are feeling about this, and what the possible dark matter detections of last year really mean.

My research began back in the late summer 2011. New Scientist sent me to the Topics in Astroparticle and Underground Physics conference in Munich. I filed two news stories for them, one about antimatter and the other about dark matter.

I came away from the conference convinced that there was a deeper story, so began to follow up all the new things I had learned from the week. This article is the result.  The story is not online yet, but is available in the latest issue of New Scientist, which is dated 7 January and should be in shops now.

Enjoy it!  And look forward to another year of amazing discoveries.

What a great week it has been for The Sky's Dark Labyrinth.  All week book bloggers have been talking about the book and posting their reviews.  A huge thank you to my Canadian publisher McArthur & Co for organising this, and to the bloggers who have taken part.  It has been great to read your insights and connect with you on this project.

Thank you.

Here's a summary of all the postings from The Sky's Dark Labyrinth blog tour.  Seven stops over five days:

Monday December 12
Book Gaga Review by Vicki Ziegler

Tuesday December 13
Book Discovery Review by Jeanne Duperreault

Wednesday December 14
A Winding Road Review by Leonicka
Keeping the Passion for Writing Alive: Q&A by Krissy Brady

Thursday December 15
blog404.org Review by Elissa Smith
Book Discovery guest post on Why Write TSDL as fiction?

Friday December 16
Space Couture Review by Mark Timmins
Misfits & Mascara Review by Krissy Brady

I have a new article published by ESA:

The SOHO spaceborne solar observatory today captured comet Lovejoy in its field of view for the first time, indicating that the icy body is on its final destructive plunge towards the Sun.

Announced on 2 December, the newly discovered comet Lovejoy is on a near-collision course with the Sun and is expected to plunge to its fiery fate late on 15 December. At its closest approach, it will pass just 140 000 km above the solar surface. At that distance, the icy comet is not expected to survive the Sun's fierce heat.

Click the Read more link below the tags if you cannot see the full story already.