The huge forces generated by the Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories are being used to replicate the gravitational pressures on so-called "super-Earths" to determine which might maintain atmospheres that could support life.

Astronomers believe that super-Earths—collections of rocks up to eight times larger than Earth—exist in the millions in our galaxy.

Almost 3,000 operational spacecraft orbit our Earth. This number is growing constantly, thanks to cheaper materials and smaller satellites.

Having this many satellites in orbit can create problems, including space junk and the way they change our view of the night sky. But satellites provide a vital service.

Many people are familiar with GPS, which helps us navigate. Some may know satellites provide crucial data for our weather forecasts. But satellites affect our lives in many different ways—and some of these may surprise you.

1. Spending money

Whether you pay for your morning coffee using a contactless payment, Google Pay, or even with cash withdrawn from an ATM, none of it would be possible without satellites. In fact, all financial transactions—from multimillion pound stock market transactions, to your monthly Netflix subscription – rely on satellite location and timing services for security.

Global navigation satellite systems orbit about 20,000km above the surface of the Earth and continually communicate with phones and computers to tell them precisely where they are and what time it is.

A new study out this month suggests that Jupiter's Trojan asteroids may be more peculiar than previously thought. The Trojan asteroids are rocky objects which orbit the sun just ahead of and just behind the gas giant, in gravitational sweet spots known as Lagrange points. The swarm ahead of Jupiter, known as the L4 (Greek) group, is slightly larger than the L5 (Trojan) swarm behind, but until now, astronomers believed that there was otherwise little differentiation between the two swarms. The paper released this month appears to change that.

The research team, using data from the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) based in Hawaii, has discovered unexpected variations in the shape of the Trojans. This new study suggests that objects in the L4 population are actually more elongated than those in the L5 population, on average.

Why does this matter? Well, the difference "may imply a different collisional evolution within each cloud," the paper suggests. The L4 swarm's larger population means objects within it have had had more opportunities to collide with one another. As one Trojan slams into another, larger objects are worn down or broken into smaller pieces.