The Square Kilometre Array
Rosie Bolton describes the importance of this huge project and some of the interesting problems which needed to be solved in its planning and implementation.
More details | Watch nowDiscovery of a dynamic atmosphere at one of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus
In recent years, Enceladus, Saturn's sixth largest moon, has become a major attraction for scientists, with many believing it offers the best hope we have of discovering other life in our solar system. NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Satu....
More details | Watch nowThe end of the world in 2012? Science communication and science scares
21st December 2012 marks an ending of the Mayan calendar and is asserted by some to mark the end of the world. This scare is examined from an astronomical point of view, followed by some reflections on what the scare tells us about the communication ....
More details | Watch nowChasing Venus: the race to measure the heavens
New York Times Best Selling and award-winning author Andrea Wulf tells the extraordinary story of the first global scientific collaboration set amid warring armies, hurricanes, scientific endeavour and personal tragedy. On 6 June 1761 and 3 June 1769....
More details | Watch nowThe eerie silence – are we alone in the universe?
Fifty years ago, a young astronomer named Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at nearby stars in the hope of picking up a signal from an alien civilization. Thus began one of the boldest scientific projects in history: the Search for Extraterrestri....
More details | Watch nowTouchdown on Titan
After an interplanetary journey of 7 ¬ years, the ESA's probe Huygens landed on the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Professor Zarnecki describes the journey of the probe as well as its final dramatic plunge to the surface and presents the r....
More details | Watch nowAntikythera Mechanism Part 1
New interpretations of the Antikythera Mechanism reveal that it could be used to predict eclipses, and that it had a dial recording the dates of the ancient Olympiads. The 2,000-year-old box of intricate gearwork provides a glimpse of the engineering....
More details | Watch nowVoyages through the heliosphere
A series of papers in Nature analyse recent observations from the outer limits of the Solar System, and help build up a picture of how the Sun interacts with the rest of the Galaxy.
More details | Watch nowMega-impact on Mars
Scientists have identified what could be the largest impact structure in the Solar System, created on Mars at about the same time as the Moon-forming impact on Earth.
More details | Watch nowA flash from the early Universe
Light from a star that exploded 13 billion years ago has reached Earth, setting a new record for the most distant astronomical object yet observed. The characteristics of the explosion show that massive stars were already forming only 630 million yea....
More details | Watch nowOverview of the Universe
An overview of the Universe and its component parts e.g. galaxies, stars, planets etc.
More details | Watch nowOrigin of the Elements
Origin of the elements and the formation of molecules in the interstellar medium: Big Bang synthesis, stellar synthesis of He and C and other elements, interstellar scattering, interstellar species such as carbon monoxide and more complex molecules.
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