I have a new post on my Across the Universe blog for the Guardian:

“Even if Nasa's Kepler space telescope is coming to the end of its mission, the search for other Earths will continue

The Kepler space telescope is in trouble. On Tuesday, during one of their regular twice-weekly communications slots, Nasa scientists found the telescope in "safe mode".

An investigation has now revealed that a stabilising wheel has broken. This led the telescope to place itself in the protective, low-power mode. Without this wheel, the telescope cannot point precisely at its targets.

Although it's a little early to be writing Kepler's obituary, the signs are not good. ...”

You can read the full article here.

Nikki and I are looking forward to spending Friday and Saturday in Warwickshire at the International Astronomy Show. We'll be looking around the forty or so stands and listening to many of the talks.

I'll being giving one on each day myself and hope to see many familiar and new faces. Come and talk to me afterwards at my book stall and if you are kind enough to buy one of my novels or other publications, I'd be delighted to sign it. If you don't, I'll enjoy chatting to you anyway!

On Friday I'll be giving the latest version of Do we need a new theory of gravity, a talk I am forever updating as new ideas are put forward and new results come to light. The short answer is 'yes' but I'll string it out for an hour starting at 2 o'clock!

Then on Saturday morning at 11.15 I'll be talking about The Day without Yesterday based on my trilogy of novels dramatising the lives and times of the greatest astronomers. This talk will look at Albert Einstein and the origin of the Big Bang theory.

Details of my talks can be found here

I have a new post on Across the Universe, my astronomy blog for The Guardian.

“Nasa's Skylab fell to Earth after budget cuts left it stranded in space. More than three decades later we are still struggling with the threat from space debris

Today Nasa will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Skylab, America's first space station, launched on 14 May 1973. In a televised discussion, Skylab astronauts, a current astronaut and agency managers are expected to discuss its legacy and the future of manned space flight. ...”

You can read the full post here.

Last October I spoke about The Sensorium of God at the Wigtown Book Festival in Scotland and one of the most fun things that happened while I was there was meeting photographer Kim Ayres. He was assembling a collection of images he was taking of writers posing as one of their favourite  characters.  I agreed to dress up as Isaac Newton. He auditioned three apples and when he was happy with our partnership he snapped away.

If you’d like to see Kim's thoughts about the result, you'll find them here:

And on Facebook:

thanks, Kim!

New observations from an experiment on the space station confirm a strange antimatter signal but take us no closer to an explanation

I have a new post on my Across the Universe for The Guardian.

“The first data from the $2bn Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment on the International Space Station has confirmed a strange antimatter signal coming from space. However, the experiment has not yet collected enough data to allow scientists to determine the source of this antimatter.

It could be coming from dark matter particles, making this a major breakthrough. Or it could be coming from fast-spinning stellar corpses known as pulsars, making it merely interesting. ...”

You can read the full post here.