Field of view

Astronomers are now regularly detecting planets thousands of light years from Earth – but have we missed one in our own Solar System?

Earth’s orbit around the Sun is slightly elliptical, which means our distance from the Sun varies over the course of the year – and that brings effects that are fascinating to capture. The variation s

The year 2025 has been a vintage one for astronomy. In January, we were hooked on reports of a building-sized asteroid on course to collide with Earth. The risk was quickly downgraded from worrying to

As an astronomer, I collect stars. There are several hundred billion of them in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, so it’s important to find a way to categorise them. While others might rank their stars by co

Measuring time using the Earth’s rotation was always an imprecise business, so now we do it using the ‘tick’ of an atom

Amazing answers to your curious questions