Torn From The Headlines: A Riddle, Wrapped In a Mystery, Inside An Enigma...

ENIGMA VARIATIONS: Believed to have originated in either a meteor or an asteroid,
The Enigma is the world's largest cut diamond (Picture: Sotheby's)

This week we return to the mysteries and majesty of outer space for our selection of links to inspirational news items for Doctor Who RPG (and other systems) gamesmasters looking for story ideas, locations, non-player characters etc

THE ENIGMA FROM SPACE: The largest cut diamond on the planet, a unique, 55-sided, 555-carat black diamond known as The Enigma (that possibly originated off-world) is coming up for auction at Sotheby's in Dubai on February 3, and is expected to sell for at least $6.8 million! But, for our gaming sakes, does it have any special powers or arcane significance (possibly to an alien species)?

PROXIMA CENTAURI: The first extrasolar star to be visited by mankind thanks to the first faster-than-light spaceship, piloted by Susie Fontana Brooke, granddaughter of legendary Mars explorer Captain Adelaide Brooke. But what do we know about the closest star to our Sun?

WARP DRIVE: And could this be the method of faster-than-light travel that propels Susie Fontana Brooke to Proxima Centauri?

SOUNDS OF SPACE: Take a half-hour video tour of the solar system on a spacecraft that turns space objects into sound.

THERE IS NO SOUND IN SPACE: In 2003, China's first astronaut Yang Liwei suddenly heard a loud knocking on the outside of his spacecraft. Looking out the porthole, he could see no obvious cause in the endless vacuum of space. 

BLACK HOLE SUN: Could alien races have constructed Dyson Spheres around black holes to harvest their energy as power sources for their civilizations?

DEFORMED PLANET: The first "deformed" planet has been discovered, a rugby ball-shaped world (WASP-103b) in the constellation of Hercules.

WAR IN SPACE: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) has published its "overarching" plan for operations in space, including the four key roles it believes it should play. Sounds like something UNIT would be involved in, right?

AURORA HUNTERS: The BBC talks to a variety of people, in Scotland, who are dedicated to 'chasing' The Northern Lights, aka The Aurora Borealis.