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Astronomy

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science

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Digital image showing Orion’s Belt constellation now and altered after 4 million years.

videoAstronomy

Visualisations explore what the deep future holds for our night sky

6 minutes

Painting of a group gathered around an orrery, with expressions of curiosity and wonder illuminated by its light.

essayArt

In the glow of the candle

Joseph Wright of Derby put science at the centre of his art. Eclipsed in his lifetime, his work still burns with radical ideas

Charlotte Mullins

Enhanced image of Ceres’ surface showing a bright crater and stars in space.

essaySpace exploration

Have they been here?

When we look for extraterrestrials, we often peer into the depths of space. But alien life might be closer than you think

Ravi Kopparapu & Jacob Haqq Misra

Black-and-white photo of the Moon’s surface with craters, with a distant Earth visible on the horizon in space.

essaySpace exploration

How the Moon became a place

For most of history, the Moon was regarded as a mysterious and powerful object. Then scientists made it into a destination

Danny Robb

Illustration of a tattooed man from behind looking at a starry sky with trees silhouetted in the foreground.

videoAstronomy

The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky

5 minutes

Drawing of Earth and the Moon in orbit with straight lines trailing off each on a white background with grey specks.

videoPhysics

To change the way you see the Moon, view it from the Sun’s perspective

5 minutes

Photo of a galaxy with a bright centre emitting a blue jet of energy against a background of numerous stars in space.

essayCosmology

Stars behaving absurdly

For centuries, the only way in which to illuminate the mysteries of black holes was through the power of mathematics

Steve Nadis & Shing-Tung Yau

Close-up of two black optical devices with visible yellow light inside the lenses, set against a blurry background.

videoPhysics

What does it look like to hunt for dark matter? Scenes from one frontier in the search

7 minutes

Abstract black-and-white image featuring a spherical shape at the centre surrounded by an intricate web of swirling, crisscrossing lines, creating a three-dimensional effect. The background is dark, enhancing the contrast and emphasising the white lines and central sphere.

videoPhysics

Imagining spacetime as a visible grid is an extraordinary journey into the unseen

12 minutes

Image of M87 galaxy showing a bright yellowish central core with a jet of blue plasma extending outward into space. The background is filled with faint stars and a hazy, brownish hue

essayHistory of science

His radiant formula

Stephen Hawking’s greatest legacy – a simple little equation now 50 years old – revealed a shocking aspect of black holes

Roger Highfield

Artistic depiction of a black hole with light bending around its event horizon. A bright swirl of light contrasts against the dark background, illustrating the gravitational pull and bending of light.

videoPhysics

The abyss at the edge of human understanding – a voyage into a black hole

4 minutes

An image shows the earth horizon at night seen from space. The lights of a city glow beneath the vast starry night of space

essayAstronomy

Alien life is no joke

Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific

Adam Frank

Futuristic illustration of two astronauts in red spacesuits above a moon-like surface. One astronaut points towards an illuminated city inside a crater.

videoAstronomy

The history of astronomy is a history of conjuring intelligent life where it isn’t

34 minutes

An elongated, rocky interstellar object travelling through space with stars in the background, emitting a faint, translucent tail.

videoAstronomy

Seven years later, what can we make of our first confirmed interstellar visitor?

59 minutes

Childlike drawing of buildings, a house, pyramids, and a Greek temple on a curved surface under a starry sky with a radiating sun. Stick figures roam between structures.

videoPhysics

Why the golden age of total solar eclipses is already behind us

5 minutes

Dark, craggy surface of a moon or planet with bright geysers or plumes of light erupting into space from its horizon, against a dark background.

essayAstronomy

Panspermia

It’s possible that frozen worlds with subterranean oceans are incubators of organic life. But then how did life get here?

Balazs Bradak

Silhouetted figures stand beside a car looking up at a starry night sky

essaySpace exploration

Uncertain contact

The detection of alien life won’t be obvious. It’ll be partial and inconclusive: a perfect task for the scientific method

Jaime Green

A blue planet with visible ice formations and rings, resembling a view of an icy gas giant from space.

videoSpace exploration

In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?

5 minutes

Deep space showing numerous galaxies, stars, and cosmic phenomena in varying colours, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

essaySpace exploration

Cosmic vision

By showing us a new cosmos, the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope will ripple through our moral universe

Claire Isabel Webb

People in protective suits walk through a dense, tropical forest with tall trees and lush greenery.

essaySpace exploration

There’s no planet B

The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why

Arwen E Nicholson & Raphaëlle D Haywood

Illustration of humanoid creatures with bat-like giant wings, in various activities near water and land, with a goat-like figure in the background.

videoHistory of science

Bat-people on the Moon – what a famed 1835 hoax reveals about misinformation today

8 minutes

A Martian landscape with a rover, rocky terrain, and distant mountains, with the foreground featuring rover equipment under a blue and yellow sky.

essayAstronomy

Thriving on Mars

Dust storms, long distances and freezing temperatures make living on Mars magnificently challenging. How will we do it?

Simon Morden

Painting depicting a religious scene with monks climbing a ladder, angels assisting, and demons pulling some monks down.

essayHistory of science

Inventing heaven

For hundreds of years, Christians knew exactly where heaven was: above us and above the stars. Then came the new cosmologists

Stephen Case

Hands with rings point to a colourful, antique astrological chart showing zodiac signs and celestial bodies.

videoHistory of science

How one of history’s most beautiful books was used to find fate in the cosmos

6 minutes