Mankind has gone to great lengths to explore space. It is a natural curiosity that has led us to build incredible machines and push the boundaries of what we thought was possible. In the All About Space Annual Volume 4, you'll find a collection of the best articles from the last year of All About Space magazine. From the incredible space experiments and record-breaking astronauts to multiverse theories and the hunt for wormholes, this is the perfect book for any space fan. Featuring: 50 greatest discoveries of all time - The most astonishing advances is space science as chosen by readers. Are we alone in the Solar System? - Can our neighbourhood provide the answer to the quest for alien life? Think you know our Sun? - We’re still in the dark when it comes to knowing everything about our star. What happened before the Big Bang? - Was there a time before the birth of the universe?

Welcome to the ALL ABOUT SPACE ANNUAL

50 GREATEST DISCOVERIES

ARE WE ALONE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? • In our continuing quest to find alien life, can our own neighbourhood provide the answer?

Hunting for life on Mars • How this European-led mission will search for signs of life on the Red Planet

HOW WE'LL FIND ANOTHER EARTH • It may now be a matter of when, and not if, we find another planet like our own

Hubble vs. James Webb • Scheduled for launch in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will show us Earth-like worlds like never before

Record-breaking ASTRONAUTS • Journeying into space is a feat in itself but who has the greatest bragging rights?

10 YEARS AROUND MARS • A decade ago, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at the Red Planet. All About Space celebrates its ten-year anniversary

THINK YOU KNOW OUR SUN? • Despite its proximity, we're still in the dark when it comes to knowing everything about our star

How the Sun affects us • As hot as it is, our star’s activities could so easily leave us cold

All about the Sun • Interesting facts that will shed more light on your knowledge of our star

Exploring Venus • Our nearest neighbour in space is also the most hostile planet in the Solar System

STRANGEST MOONS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM • Some of the most fascinating worlds in our cosmic neighbourhood are not planets, but the moons that orbit around them

CERES UNCOVERED • With the decision made for the Dawn spacecraft to continue studying the dwarf planet, we relive what we’ve discovered from the NASA mission so far

THE HUNT FOR WORMHOLES • Usually confined to the pages of science fiction, astronomers are starting to think these portals through space-time might be real after all

How wormholes are made • If these space-time tunnels do exist, what would they look like and how would they come into existence?

VIOLENT UNIVERSE • The cosmos is not the serene place it first appears – it is full of aggressive offenders

SUPER VENUS • What can we learn from the planets that are bigger, badder and hotter than Earth?

How Venus’ past could become Earth’s future

10 AMAZING SPACE STATION EXPERIMENTS • The International Space Station is more than just an outpost in space, it is a huge orbiting research laboratory

WHY WE LIVE IN A MULTIVERSE • Could our entire universe be just one small part of many? The evidence is mounting up…

The different types of multiverse • From unseen regions of spacetime to complex structures, there are four distinct levels

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE BIG BANG? • Could there have been a time before the birth of the universe?

What caused the birth of the universe? • Many scenarios illustrate how our universe may have come into being

DARK ENERGY • It's the most mystifying phenomenon in...