The shallow, snaking, braided channels of Canterbury's Waimakariri River - and the heavily-developed pastureland around it - have been captured by a NASA satellite.

Five of New Zealand's leading visionaries have just teamed up for a new high-tech showcase of Kiwi ingenuity.

While many of us may find the sounds of chewing or breathing off-putting, for some they're unbearable - and new research has shown their brains are going into overdrive.

Six scientists crammed into a tiny dome for 12 months to replicate living on Mars. What could possibly go wrong? One reveals the 'stinkiest' issue.

A 98-year-old cruise boat and her Whangarei boat shed are up for sale, an offer its owners say is "as rare as hen's teeth".

With giant Saturn hanging in the blackness and sheltering Cassini from the sun’s blinding glare, the spacecraft viewed the rings as never before, revealing previously unknown faint rings and even glimpsing its home world. This panoramic view was created by combining a total of 165 images taken by the Cassini wide-angle camera over nearly three hours on September 15, 2006.

Mining on the moon has moved a step closer and billionaire Peter Thiel, along with Kiwi firm Rocket Labs, are at the forefront of making history.

Vladimir Putin stopped by Moscow University and treated students to a stirring rendition of a traditional Soviet space song.

NASA has launched the most sophisticated weather satellite ever launched, and the pictures are incredible.

New Zealand is ready to join the space race, with Kiwi start-up Rocket Lab on the brink of launching a rocket to the moon.

Alien megastructure? Or natural mega-disaster? Astronomers have crunched the numbers and come up with a new explanation for the erratic flickering of a distant star. Indigestion.

The Moon may have formed through the merging of 20 smaller 'moonlets' following asteroid strikes on the young Earth, a new theory suggests.

A highrise-sized asteroid capable of exploding with the force of 700 megatons slipped quietly past the Earth yesterday, twice as close as the Moon. We didn't see it coming.

This is New Zealand from 400 kilometres above the earth.

Herald science reporter Jamie Morton talks to Stardome astronomer Dr Grant Christie about the stars we can see above us in the sky this summer.

This week a comet will be visible from Earth for the first time. In February another object is approaching, but Nasa can't work out what it is.

The newly formed Red Nova will burn so brightly in the constellation Cygnus that everyone will be able to see it.

Study found sparks occur in frigid, permanently shadowed regions near poles.

Rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves have puzzled astronomers. Now the signals have finally been tied to a source.

The world could be set to end in October this year, when a giant mysterious planet collides with our own - according to a conspiracy theorist.

COMMENT: What will you do with the extra time added to today to get clocks in sync with the Earth's rotation?

A posterior tattoo canvas and erotic eggplant are among the site's oddest hits of 2016.

The Star Wars series featured a man-made planet called the Death Star which destroys other worlds with a giant laser.

Mythical planets, nearby Earth-like worlds and unprecedented missions to Jupiter and Saturn. We learned a lot about our universe in 2016.

New research from NASA suggests that liquid water once existed on Mars and the dwarf planet Ceres - important clues in the search for past or present life.

Mozart may enhance a man's performance in board games - while AC/DC may hinder their chances, according to new research.

Worlds with the mass of Neptune are the most likely planet to form in the icy outer realms of planetary systems, scientists have found in a pioneering new study co-authored by Kiwi researchers.

Speaking out for the first time since he was evacuated from Antarctica, the former astronaut admits he didn't want to give up his goal of reaching the South Pole.

It sounds like an idea that should remain firmly in the realm of Hollywood but NASA thinks one day we might need to nuke any Earth-bound asteroids to save humanity.

As 2016 draws to a close, the NZ Science Media Centre picked some of the biggest national and international science stories that made headlines