The best episodes of The Sky at Night
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Of the 100 probes that have been sent out into space, only one probe - Voyager 2 in 1989 - has ever sent back any information about the solar system's outer planets. From afar, they seem featureless and devoid of any significant geological activity.Since then, long-range telescopes have shown that there is much more to Neptune and Uranus than previously thought and that they both warrant closer inspection. Time, however, is of the essence. Deep-space missions are dependent on Jupiter. The slingshot effect it provides to move probes along the way is only available to us every 25 years.
- 02
All good travel guides need a map, and the team unveil the most detailed 3-D map of the Milky Way ever produced. A map that reveals that there may be 50 per cent more stars in the galaxy than we previously thought. American astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson gives us a guided tour of the strangest stars we have ever observed, and we discover that the Milky Way may already be colliding with our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda.
- 03
Jupiter: Up Close and Personal
Nasa's Juno spacecraft is currently making its 13th orbit of Jupiter on one of the most ambitious and risky space missions ever undertaken. The astonishing images it has captured are not just visually stunning, they also deliver spectacular scientific insight, revolutionising our ideas about Jupiter. Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores these stunning discoveries, from a new understanding of Jupiter's core and formation to revelations about how deep its raging storms penetrate the planet's mysterious interior.
- 04
In February 2018, news broke that astronomers had seen the cosmic dawn - the moment when stars first formed, flooding the universe with light. What's remarkable is that this incredible event was discovered by an instrument the size of a ping-pong table in a remote corner of Western Australia. Chris Lintott travels to the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory to find out how they did it and what else the extraordinary radio telescopes there can tell us about the universe.
- 05
On 1 January 2019, Nasa's New Horizons probe notched up another historic first: the first ever Kuiper belt fly-by. Its target was 2014 MU69, a chunk of ice and rock about four billion miles (approximately 6.4 billion kilometres) from Earth, dubbed Ultima Thule, a Latin phrase meaning a distant, unknown region. It is the most distant fly-by in history, and it is believed the data New Horizons gathers will shed new light on the solar system's early days. Chris Lintott reports from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland to bring the latest news and pictures from this extraordinary mission.
- 06
How vision-impaired astronomers are able to see the universe.
- 07
Chris and Maggie report on the reaction to the dramatic announcement of the discovery of phosphine gas in the clouds of Venus, a gas that could be a sign of life.
- 08
The Sky at Night team looks at how scientists are creating eclipses on demand to discover the hidden secrets that might be revealed, including habitable planets like our own.
- 09
On January 20 2016, two American astronomers made an extraordinary claim - they had found evidence for a ninth planet in our solar system, a planet 20 times further out than Neptune which would take up to 20,000 years to orbit the sun. It is a discovery that could completely rewrite our understanding of our solar system and how it formed.As the world's biggest telescopes start scanning the skies searching for Planet 9, the Sky at Night team investigates. If Planet 9 exists, where is it and where did it come from?In California, Chris Lintott meets the astronomers whose study of the distant Kuiper Belt led them to predict the existence of the planet. And while some scientists are still sceptical, Maggie Aderin-Pocock discovers how our models of the formation of the solar system and the discovery of similar exoplanets around other stars all support the existence of Planet 9.
- 10
Five Greatest Images of the Solar System
For 50 years we have been sending probes to gather close-up images of the other planets and moons of the solar system. The Sky at Night presents the five greatest images captured by those spacecraft. From a view of the surface of Mars, to live pictures of the sun and a unique picture of our own planet, these are the images that have transformed our perception of the solar system we live in.
- 11
A look at two missions attempting one of the most difficult feats of space exploration, to collect a rock from another world. This episode checks in on the US and Japanese attempts to bring a piece of an asteroid back to Earth. The missions have taken decades of planning, but the results will be worth it. We'll find out how studying these space rocks can teach us about the origins of our solar and may one day help save earth from a catastrophic collision.
- 12
This edition looks at Britain's attempt to become a major player in the modern space race. From Scotland's wild northern shore, where Britain's first spaceport is planned, to the team planning Britain's new rocket system, the programme explores the technology behind a quiet revolution in Britain's space industry. Driving the resurgence of 'space Britannia' is a new breed of spacecraft - micro-satellites. As many as 12,000 of them will be built and launched worldwide over the next decade, and Britain is aiming for a slice of the action. Also, guest presenter Tim Peake celebrates Britain's past achievements in space and finds out where it all went wrong.
- 13
In this special programme, the Sky at Night takes to the air on board the largest airborne observatory in the world - a specially modified jumbo jet, flying out of California. This extraordinary aircraft is home to a 17-tonne telescope that observes the galaxy from around 40,000 feet. This telescope - called SOFIA - specialises in infrared astronomy. It can peer into the heart of a galaxy through the dust and gas, and see how stars form. It's designed to answer some of the biggest questions in astronomy: why aren't more stars being created and how do planets form?
- 14
The Sky at Night team delve into Nasa's OSIRIS-REx mission and find out what it takes to analyse the tiny pieces of space rock that may tell us about the origins of life.
- 15
The team travel to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands where they take control of some of the world's largest telescopes to view the most spectacular sights in the night sky.
- 16
Nearly 50 years ago, Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and it seemed like the dawn of a new age. Soon we'd be flying to the moon as effortlessly as we fly to America, and a moon base would be filled with men and women building a better future out in space. But then the moon fell out of fashion. We soon realized it was brutally inhospitable and getting there was eye-wateringly expensive. Rather than spend huge sums of money going where we'd already been, Mars and the other planets seemed much more exciting destinations. But now that is set to change. For the first time in a generation, there are credible plans to go back to the moon, and maybe even build a working moon base. The Sky at Night examines this renewed interest in the moon, and asks why it's happening now and who is at the forefront of this new wave of lunar exploration. They meet the tech companies driven by big ambitions to launch a new era of space exploration using private money. So, is a moon base really viable, or merely a pipe dream?
Shows like The Sky at Night
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