The 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 nowThe dark side of the universe
The emergence of cosmic structure is an outcome that has been studied by peering back through the mists of time to the remote depths of the universe as well as by deciphering the fossil structure of nearby galaxies. One of the greatest mysteries in t....
More details | Watch nowSeeing the invisible: observing the dark side of the universe
It seems that most of the universe is made up of mysterious ingredients which we cannot see directly. Dr Bridle describes in pictures 'gravitational lensing', the bending of light by gravity, which is predicted by Einstein's General Relativity. Dr Br....
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 nowAntikythera Mechanism Part 2
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 nowTick, Tick Pulsating Star: How we wonder what you are?
The discovery of pulsars, neutron stars which form when massive stars explode (supernovae), took astronomers by surprise. Their discovery is described and the way in which these bizarre objects have led to an understanding of matter under extreme con....
More details | Watch nowThe Mathematician Who Can’t Add Up
Emma was a post-graduate student at the University of Nottingham, completing a PhD in the field of theoretical cosmology. As an undergraduate at the University of Sussex she made history when she became the first woman to win the top prize at the Sci....
More details | Watch nowOverview of the Universe
An overview of the Universe and its component parts e.g. galaxies, stars, planets etc.
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