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  • Budget pressures at NASA, specifically arising from the increasing costs of several planetary science mission programmes, have rendered the Venus orbiter VERITAS as collateral damage. Currently on subsistence funding, mission scientists worry about the impact of ongoing delays on Venus exploration.

    • Sharmila Kuthunur
    Feature
  • The NANOGrav collaboration has found light-years long gravitational waves from, most likely, the mergers of millions of supermassive black holes. To keep watching this cosmic dance, we need sustained funding for black hole research.

    • C. M. F. Mingarelli
    World View
  • It’s been an eventful year for robotic missions. From probes of Solar System bodies to large-scale cosmic structures, advances in our understanding of the formation and evolution of the Universe gather speed.

    Editorial
  • A recent survey suggests that reducing the number of meetings and conferences is a viable way to address concerns about the effectiveness of the modern scientific collaboration process, its effects on the environment and the well-being of the community.

    • L. Tibaldo
    • E. Prandini
    • A. Nelles
    Comment
  • The traditional conference format has been with us for more than a century, and yet the contemporary version remains similar in many ways. Can emerging technologies enable conferencing to evolve? The Future of Meetings community of practice present their findings from bringing virtual reality to three recent conferences.

    • Vanessa A. Moss
    • Glen A. Rees
    • Ron D. Ekers
    Comment
  • Hubert Reeves, a most renowned astrophysicist for both his scientific accomplishments and outstanding outreach efforts, passed away on 13 October 2023.

    • Jean Audouze
    Obituary
  • In academia, we ignore the whole person to the detriment of the growth of the scientist and the community. Trauma is a black hole eating away at the health of individual scientists.

    • Allison Kirkpatrick
    World View
  • Charles Gammie and colleagues wrote the HARM code to tackle the extreme physics close to a spinning black hole. Twenty years later, it is performing a similar task in three dimensions in 1/10,000th of the time.

    • Paul Woods
    Access Code
  • Astronomy has always been a direct way to bring science to the public. From planetariums to books and initiatives to bring the night sky to all corners of the world, our only limit is creativity (and funding).

    Editorial
  • The first planetarium projector was completed 100 years ago, providing the public with an unparalleled view of the night sky. The International Planetarium Society is marking this major anniversary with celebratory events across the globe.

    • Michael McConville
    • Björn Voss
    • Guilherme F. Marranghello
    Comment