Space is big. It's a long way to the nearest planet (over 4 light years) which means an 8.5 year round-trip just to send a message and get a response. How do we get round the speed of light? People are working on this. There is a thing called a MEGA drive which theoretically could propel a spacecraft close to the speed of light. This involves a controversial interpretation of Einstein's E=MC2.

Prof Tom Jarrett talks about Virtual Reality and how we deal with the problem of astronomical amounts of astronomical data

On the day before the US election due to be held on 3 November, an asteroid could hit the Earth. This asteroid has a name, and a known trajectory. What are the odds? And what do these odds mean?

Onto lighter topics: your local astronomy society is holding great talks that the public can attend on Zoom. Look out for them on https://www.facebook.com/capecentre/ and there is also a youtube channel also called Cape Centre of ASSA.

It was believed that the early universe was chaotic, but, using a nifty technique called gravitational lensing, researchers have detected a very young galaxy - only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, that appears to have structure, including a central bulge with closely packed stars in it.

How are satellites helping us during lockdown? What are they detecting and how is this useful to people on the ground?

Kechil is, as is often the case, worrying about being in space: how to carry out surgery and what to eat? Well it's more fun than worrying about what's going on here.

A medley of space and astronomy news including the three Martian missions launched in July, Juno has had a stay of execution and continues on its mission around Jupiter, plus salt and hot water - who'd have thought! That's what may be needed to make a big star. Lastly comet NeoWise - a washout for us down south.

Two news items here: July is the Month of Mars! There are 3 missions going to Mars this month as Earth and Mars are close to each other. The NASA mission will deliver a new rover which will gather samples to be returned at a later date - the first sample return mission to Mars. Secondly backpacks to help with your balance, inspired by space technology.

How far do you want to go to socially isolate? Find out about space tourists to the International Space Station and the future of space travel.

3 snippets of science news: a new particle has been found, there are probably a lot more Earth-like planets in the Milky Way than previously thought, and some likely candidates have been found around a nearby star.