Some galaxies contain black holes with billions of times the mass of the sun, occupying a volume no bigger across than the orbit of Neptune around our solar system but extending their influence through a cosmic bubble 30 million light years across.

WSJ: Book Review: Gravity's Engines

Dr. Freire and his colleagues put Einstein to the test in a cosmic laboratory 7, 000 light years from earth, where two exotic stars are circling each other.

WSJ: Einstein Proved Right on Gravity��Again

From the London-based Underground Rebel Bingo Club, which throws wild, impromptu bingo parties around the world, to a version in Philadelphia involving drag queens on roller skates, to "cosmic bingo" played under black light, bingo is crawling out of its recreation-center past.

WSJ: Bingo Finds Fans Among New, Hipster Crowd

This new photogenic moment, released Thursday, comes courtesy of the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope, which detects cosmic microwave background radiation -- the light left over from the Big Bang.

CNN: Better 'baby picture' of universe emerges

With light and power sorted, the next challenge would be protecting green houses from cosmic radiation, micro-meteorites and other dangers presented by the absence of an atmosphere.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 9.8.12: Moon farming, self powered health monitors and bringing a 50,000 year-old girl to life

Ten billion light-years distant, Mingus will help shed light on so-called dark energy, the force that appears to be speeding up cosmic expansion.

BBC: Supernova 'Mingus' could shed light on dark energy

Only the 318 in question, however, are close enough to the Milky Way for the predicted galactic speed limit not to have been imposed (300m light years may sound a long way, but it is a short hop on the cosmic scale).

ECONOMIST: Cosmic rays: They came from outer space | The

As Dr Colin described on July 9th to the International Cosmic Ray Conference held in Lodz, Poland, the moon blocks electrons and positrons as effectively as it blocks light.

ECONOMIST: The search for dark matter: Ethereal yet weighty | The