Series: Royal Observatory Greenwich Illuminates

People have been inspired by the colourful shifting lights of the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis for thousands of years, with modern-day adventurers travelling to 'aurora hotspots' in the hope of getting a glimpse of them. Bryony Lanigan, Astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, brings together many fields of research, from astronomy and solar physics to geology and atomic physics, as...

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and thought, 'is there anybody out there?' The stars you see are the suns of other solar systems, each system with its own complex story of formation and evolution, perhaps leading to an environment where life can exist. The Search for Life explores the possibility of other life in the Universe,...

Moons come, quite literally, in all shapes and sizes. Our Moon is just one of more than 200 moons in the Solar System that we've identified so far. Scientists have discovered moons made of rock, others of ice. There are moons with atmospheres or with oceans hidden beneath their surfaces, and even some with active volcanoes. Others could perhaps be...

Given that it includes literally everything in existence, it’s not surprising that the Universe is the source of some of the greatest mysteries in physics. How big is it? How did it begin? And, perhaps more worryingly, how will it end? Through cosmology, the study of the evolution and structure of the Universe, experts have been attempting to untangle these...