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Experience the eerie serenity of 100,000 asteroids in orbit
Located at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has collected imaging data for more than 3 million astronomical objects since it began operating in 2000. Created by the US planetary astronomer Alex H Parker using data from the SDSS, this intricate, awe-inspiring visualisation reveals the colours, relative sizes and orbital paths of more than 100,000 asteroids located in our solar system. Learn more about the research behind the visualisation here.
Video by Alex H Parker
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Computing and artificial intelligence
Why large language models are mysterious – even to their creators
8 minutes
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Evolution
The many ways a lizard tongue sticks, grasps, pinches and plops – in slo-mo
6 minutes
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Biology
Starlings swoosh like brushstrokes across the sky in this dazzling short
3 minutes
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Engineering
From simple motors to levitating trains – how design shapes innovation
23 minutes
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Ecology and environmental sciences
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth
15 minutes
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Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
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Astronomy
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky
5 minutes
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Knowledge
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow
11 minutes
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Physics
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own
10 minutes