For as long as humans have walked the Earth, the stars have fascinated us. But we have come a long way since the earliest days of astronomy when we had nothing but our eyes to observe the night sky. Since then we have designed an arsenal of ingenious machines to help us unlock the secrets of the stars – from how they work and move around the Universe to how they live and die. For more than 60 years, the Sky at Night has covered every major development in our understanding of the stars, and regular Sky at Night presenter, Professor Chris Lintott, uses this archive to reveal spectacular and surprising facts about these heavenly bodies. From the ancient myths of the constellations to today's cutting edge attempts to map our own Milky Way, this is a story of incredible ingenuity, extraordinary technology and spectacular discoveries. We will discover how stars work, from the nuclear reactions at their cores to the strange phenomena on their surfaces, and we will follow the life cycle of a star all the way through to its spectacular end – one of the most dramatic events in the Universe that also turns out to hold the key to our very existence.
Source: BBC 4
Ancestral Skies
This month, The Sky at Night teams up with BBC Ideas to discover the secrets of archaeology and astronomy and to reflect on our ancestral skies. \n\nThroughout history and acros ...
14-11-2024
BBC 4
Question Time Special
Get ready for The Sky at Night’s annual Question Time Special, where viewers get the opportunity to ask the questions they have always wanted answered about our universe.\ ...
08-10-2024
BBC 4
2075: Our Place In Space
The Sky at Night is embarking on a journey into the future as we explore how space will revolutionise life on Earth over the next 50 years. As humanity's reach extends into the ...
11-09-2024
BBC 4
Nicky, Nasa And The Next Frontier
In this Sky at Night special, the team talk to Dr Nicola Fox, NASA’s head of science, whose life began in the UK.\n\nPresenter Chris Lintott chats to Nicky about her early ...
15-08-2024
BBC 4
Webb Telescope: The Story So Far
In July 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope released its first images. They were visually stunning, and it was clear they provided more detail of stars, galaxies and planets th ...
11-07-2024
BBC 4
Cosmic Ghosts
This month, The Sky at Night has a spooky twist. Across the universe, there are hidden objects that we can’t see, but astronomers and scientists still believe they’r ...
13-06-2024
BBC 4
Hiding In Starlight
Total solar eclipses, like the one seen last month in North America, allow us to see details of the Sun that can’t be seen at any other time. So, this month, The Sky at Ni ...
16-05-2024
BBC 4
Space Rock Return
The Sky at Night is back for a brand new series, and this month it is delving into Nasa’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which last year brought back a sample from the near-Earth ast ...
11-04-2024
BBC 4
The Sky At Night Meets The Infinite Monkey Cage
In this special episode to mark the end of another season of The Sky at Night, we team up with Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage to talk all things amateur astronomy. Joi ...
16-11-2023
BBC 4
The Hunt For Et
Are we alone? Geneticist Dr Adam Rutherford seeks to define what life is and Maggie Aderin-Pocock explores our chances of finding it in the universe.
14-09-2014
BBC 4
The Mystery Of 'oumuamua
In October 2017, astronomers made a spectacular discovery - they spotted the first ever object to visit our solar system from outer space. They gave it a suitably exotic name... ...
15-02-2018
BBC 4
Et And The Bbc
Chris and Maggie dive into the archives to discover how the hunt for extra-terrestrial life in the universe has been reported by the BBC over six decades. Such luminaries as Pat ...
14-07-2021
BBC 4
Wonders Of The Night Sky
The Sky at Night celebrates one of the most profound, moving and enjoyable activities there is - the ancient art of looking up, studying and marvelling at the night sky. The pro ...
10-12-2017
BBC 4
Is Cosmology In Crisis?
Ever since we discovered that distant galaxies are racing away from us, there has been a heated debate over just how fast the Universe is expanding.\n\nAt the beginning of the 2 ...
14-02-2019
BBC 4
Gaia: A Galactic Revolution
For past three and a half years, ESA's Gaia Space telescope has been mapping the heavens in unprecedented detail. At the end of April 2018 it released precise data on over 1.3 b ...
17-05-2018
BBC 4