Welcome to issue 71!

Have we made contact with alien life but just don't know it? In this issue of All About Space, from Tabby’s Star – known affectionately as the ‘megastructure star’ – to those ‘signatures’ on Mars, we speak to the astronomers from NASA, ESA, the SETI Institute and elsewhere about whether these signals could hint at life elsewhere in the universe. As always, split opinions on what these signals could be are rife – we’ve delivered the facts, so turn to our cover story to see who you agree with on page 16.

Back in the Solar System, our Sun seems to be exhibiting some pretty strange behaviour. We get right to the core of our nearest star to find out why it’s been so much more volatile than usual, and speak to the solar physicists wondering the same thing. They reveal some illuminating information to All About Space about some possible explanations. We also find out what Mars’ longestserving rover Opportunity is up to on the Red Planet, highlighting what it has discovered, and find out more about a new flavour of gravitational wave: ripples in space-time that have been seen emanating from the smash up between neutron stars for the very first time.

That’s not all, as we discover what will happen to the

International Space Station when it’s decommissioned by 2024. Will it plummet to a watery grave on Earth, or is there hope that it can be saved by an organisation willing to buy it?

“The things that affect our life here on the Earth are typically the flares and coronal mass ejections”