The Sky at Night

The Sky at Night team explore how light pollution impacts the beauty of the night sky, animal behaviour and human health, and what might be done to mitigate its harmful effects.

The Sky at Night team report on the new scientific methods being used to detect exoplanets and how the winter darkness of Antarctica is critical to their success.

2022 marks the fiftieth year since an astronaut last stepped on the moon's surface. We look back at the legacy of the Apollo programme and forward to the future of lunar exploration. Maggie and Chris visit the Science Museum in London, where Maggie discovers from space curator Doug Millard that one of the museum's star attractions – Apollo 10's command module – nearly did not make it back to Earth.

Chris discovers that Nasa's latest assault on the moon, the ‘Artemis' programme, plans to set up an orbiting moon station and a shuttle from it to a permanent base on the moon's surface, and learns from Nasa's Dana Hurley that much of the technology needed for such a mission has yet to be invented. Nonetheless, the first dry run for the SLS rocket and the Orion command capsule and moon landing system will go ahead without a crew and is planned later this year. On that first mission to orbit the moon, 13 tiny ‘cubesats' will be released into the moon's orbit to discover more about the lunar surface in anticipation of greater future human activity on the moon. These low-cost satellites are providing the next generation of space scientists and engineers an opportunity to work on spacecraft for the first time.

Maggie talks to Craig Hardgrove, an associate professor from Arizona State University, who leads a relatively inexperienced team in building LunaH-Map. The pint-sized craft will scan the lunar surface for evidence of hydrogen, and therefore water, which will be enormously useful for future missions and moon bases to provide sustenance and fuel – once the technology is in place to deliver it.

Pete Lawrence is on hand for tips on how best to observe the moon from Earth during the upcoming lunar eclipse on the 16 May, and Chris learns from Professor Sara Russell of the Natural History Museum that the Apollo missions allowed science to identify moon asteroids here on Earth, and that future missions retrieving more moon rock might tell us even more about how the Earth formed and how life emerged.

Martin Rees is perhaps Britain's most renowned cosmologist. He was master of Trinity College, Cambridge, President of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Institute of Physics, and has led the nation's foremost science institution, the Royal Society. Now, about to celebrate his 80th birthday, Lord Rees talks to Chris Lintott about his career in science.

Lord Rees says he wasn't particularly interested in the night sky as a child, and only pursued science at school because he found languages difficult. He also regretted reading Maths at Cambridge, only finding his stride during his post-graduate studies when he was taken on by Dennis Sciama to undertake research in astrophysics, leading to his PhD.

Rees's career spans what he calls a ‘golden age' for astronomy. Starting during a time when the origin of the universe was debated, with the flamboyant Fred Hoyle's ‘steady state' theory eventually put to the sword by the bookish Martin Ryle using the new technology of radio astronomy – in part aided and abetted by a young Martin Rees, whose work on quasars helped deal the fatal blow.

Rees was a contemporary of Stephen Hawking, and witnessed first hand the excitement of seeing black holes elevated from speculative concept to integral part of our universe's evolution. Like many advances, including radio astronomy, this was an advance thanks to accidents in simultaneous progress. For radio astronomy, work on radar during WWII led to advances in seeing the universe in non-visible wavelengths. Though they had been postulated in the 19th century, the reality of black holes arrived via Einstein's theory of relativity, combined with radio astronomy and Roger Penrose's genius for maths.

Time and again, over Rees's career, seemingly bizarre ideas in cosmology have turned out to have merit. Rees himself (and colleagues) showed that ‘dark matter' – a speculative ‘fix' for inconsistencies in galaxy dynamics – is also essential to the understanding of how the early universe found form, giving the concept increased credibility.

One of science's most celebrated thinkers and writers, Rees has never been shy of engaging with difficult concepts. While the ‘big bang' solved the question of our origin story, it also raises other questions such as ‘what was there before the big bang?', and Rees enjoys considering the possibility that there are other universes, perhaps with the properties of our universe that gave rise to us, or perhaps wholly or partially different.

Lord Rees also discusses the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, noting that while complex life may arise or has arisen in the universe, the likelihood is that, given the massive timescales involved, we are almost guaranteed to co-exist. But this leads to the intriguing prospect that any intelligent civilisation, including our own, is likely to create artificial intelligences that will supersede us, and may well be near-immortal.

While Lord Rees worries about the threats that AI and mis-use of technology poses to our civilisation, he sees a potentially bright future in terms of scientific discovery, citing international collaborations and technological advances that might see us answering some of the questions we consider today to be too difficult. Like the start of the universe and black holes used to be not so long ago.

The British weather is often the enemy of stargazers up and down the country. A forecast of a couple of hours of cloud cover will disappoint even the most determined of amateur astronomers. So, this month, the Sky at Night becomes the ‘Sky at Day' to provide an alternative range of spectacles to observe and activities to partake in, ideal when the nights are short, and the stars are hiding behind the clouds.

The most obvious spectacle to observe is of course our own star, the sun. A moment is needed to appreciate that whilst amateurs and scientists alike spend lifetimes and whole careers searching after distant stars in the night sky, we have a star on our celestial doorstep that we can actually send a space probe to. In 2018, that is exactly what Nasa did. The idea for the Parker Solar Probe was conceived in 1958, but it took 60 years to develop the technology to make it possible, namely, working out how to prevent it from melting.

Justin Kasper, principal investigator for the Sweap instrument (Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons investigation), spoke to Chris about how the probe entered the sun's atmosphere and made incredible discoveries about its structure. It revealed that the boundary where solar material anchored to the sun first escapes and becomes the solar wind is not a smooth ball but has spikes and valleys that wrinkle the ‘Alfvén critical surface'. Previously, the coronal streamers that cause this wrinkling had been observed from a distance but never measured directly until Sweap came along. Its discoveries are altering what scientists know about the way in which the sun's atmosphere transforms into the solar wind.

Back on earth, Dr Hannah Wakeford shows us how observing the sun as it rises and sets in the sky can tell us a huge amount about the composition of our atmosphere and the weather on the horizon. The adage ‘Red sky at night, shepherd's delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning' is dismissed as many as an old wives' tale. However, due to our unique position in the mid-latitudes, it turns out that this saying may be more accurate than many think. Hannah also explores, as light travels from the sun to our eye, how different wavelengths are absorbed and scattered by the atmosphere, and the light that completes the journey to our eye or our telescope can reveal the combination of gases that make up the atmosphere. Hannah explains how this process has helped scientists to work out the composition of the atmosphere of other planets in our solar system and even exoplanets orbiting distant stars.

Exploring during the day can sometimes unlock a whole new scientific field. Guest presenter George Dransfield spoke to urban micrometeorite hunter Jon Larsen about how he accidentally discovered a micrometeorite on his garden table whilst eating strawberries on a fine summer's day, and how, ever since, he has been pioneering a method for amateurs across the globe to discover pieces of stardust in their own back garden. George tries to find some micrometeorites of her own, and in the process, learns about the huge spectrum of micrometeorites that Jon, along with his partner Jan Braly Kihle, has found and photographed in astounding detail.

As well as hunting meteorites and watching the sunset, there is also stargazing to be done during the day. Amateur astronomer and outreach hero Simon Holbeche from Bath spends every sunny weekend showing members of the public the sun in a whole new light. Using different specialist telescopes and heavy solar filters, Simon is able to show passers-by the incredible sunspots on the solar surface and the exploding prominences in the sun's atmosphere. His enduring hope is that those passers-by might become hooked by what they've seen, and one day come back to see the sky at night.

On 12 July 2022 the Sky at Night joined the rest of the world to watch as the James Webb Space Telescope released its long-awaited first images. And it didn't disappoint. Stars and galaxies were revealed in such detail that they blew even the most experienced astronomers away. However, as spectacular as these images were, it was the data that they represented that really excited the scientists watching.

Chris Lintott travels around the country, meeting some of the scientists getting their hands on the very first batches of data coming from the JWST. His first stop is Professor Andy Bunker at the University of Oxford, who is pushing the world's newest space telescope to its limits to look for some of the first stars and galaxies formed after the big bang.

Chris also meets Dr Mika Matsuura of Cardiff University. She is studying the gas structures that dying stars exude as they reach the end of their lives. Mika explains how the incredible infrared capabilities of the JWST allow her to probe the discs of dust and gas around nebula and reveal the surprising conditions that form them.

Chris then heads on to the University of Bristol to visit Dr Hannah Wakeford, who is incredibly excited by her data, data that is revealing the secrets of the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting far-flung stars. Hannah's method of studying exoplanets uses the JWST to measure the light from a target star as an exoplanet ‘transits' in front of it, briefly and almost imperceptibly dimming it. It is these incredibly precise measurements, only made possible by the sensitivity of this new supertelescope, that she hopes will change what we know about the atmospheric composition of these distant worlds.

Finally, Chris visits Professor Leigh Fletcher at the University of Leicester. Leigh is using the space telescope to look a little closer to home and shows Chris the latest images of Jupiter revealed in a whole new light by the JWST's infrared data. He explains to Chris the difficulties of capturing large bright objects in the telescope's small field of view, and what his plans are for studying our solar system's gas giants.

Meanwhile, Maggie Aderin-Pocock gives a JWST masterclass in the studio. Why is this telescope so revolutionary and how exactly does it work? She looks at why the JWST is observing light from the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and also why scientists chose to place the telescope in a location so far from Earth that we could not fix it if something went wrong. Maggie also explores the instruments that call the telescope home and takes a closer look at some of the tricks they have up their sleeves.

For centuries, humans have been drawing what they see in the night sky through telescopes. But there is something about a photograph that can make you feel like you are right there, up close to the moon, planet, star or galaxy you are looking at. Having the light from those distance objects, fixed in an image, has meant scientists can analyse and understand the beautiful universe around us. So, this month, the Sky at Night is looking at the wonderful world of astrophotography.

Dr Jen Gupta visits Chris to talk about her favourite pictures, many of which have changed our very understanding of the cosmos. Some leave us with questions still to be answered even 60 years on.

Maggie is in Scotland looking at the latest in new technology being built for the Very Large Telescope. Once installed, it will give scientists the ability to understand and study the formation of galaxies throughout the entire history of the universe.

Meanwhile, the Sky at Night's very own astrophotographer, Pete Lawrence, is being taken on a trip down memory lane at some of his highlights over the years.

Plus, a look at how the camera on your phone can be a great place to start if you are new to taking astrophotographs and want to give it a go.

With favourite pictures, competition-winning images and a guide to all there is to see and do in the coming month, there is lots to discover.

A special ‘Question Time' edition of the programme, recorded at The Venue in De Montford University, Leicester, as part of the British Science Association's annual science festival.

Chris, Maggie and Pete are joined on stage by planetary scientist Dr Suzie Imber and astronomer Professor Nial Tanvir to answer questions from viewers, covering all things astronomical – from the size of the universe to the possible nature of alien life.

Chaired by Dallas Campbell.

The Sky at Night in the Multiverse of Mystery is a magical journey into the far-flung ideas at the very edge of scientific knowledge, exploring the concepts that today seem like science fiction but may one day become science fact.

Delving into the archive at the Royal Society, we look at the dreamers who first considered the possibility of travelling to the moon and black holes long before they could be proven to exist. From there, the team explore some ideas and theories that today could be dismissed as fanciful thinking.

They imagine a world where a popular TV programme asks two scientists, Hiranya Peiris and Emma Chapman, to meet, have dinner and talk science, all under the watchful eye of maître d' Pete Lawrence.

Meanwhile, Maggie Aderin-Pocock sails off to explore the realities of interstellar travel and astrobiologist Doug Vakoch explains some of the challenges of communicating with aliens. Astrophysicist Becky Smethurst is lost in a world of black and white holes, and Chris Lintott, as you have never seen him before, argues the case for a multiverse.

Along with animation from the BBC Ideas team, this edition of The Sky at Night shines a very different light on the world of astrophysics.