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 Patrick Moore, Arthur C. Clarke, Carl Sagan, James Burke and Alan Whicker discuss the eternal question of whether we are alone. The story of how the BBC has covered advancements in this scientific field is told from the birth of radio astronomy in the 1960s to the discovery of the first planets outside of our own solar system in the 1990s, and right up to probes exploring our neighbouring planets in the present day. There are also some rather more offbeat claims of UFO sightings, alien abductions and accounts of humanoid-like beings that supposedly live on Venus.
Source: 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
Question Time Special
A special Question Time edition of the programme, recorded at the University of Exeter as part of the British Science Association’s Science Festival.\n\nThe panel is chair ...
12-10-2023
BBC 4
The Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope – or VLT – has been responsible for some of the greatest astronomical breakthroughs of all time, discoveries that have resulted in Nobel Pri ...
13-09-2023
BBC 4
Black Holes: Searching For The Unknown
There has never been a more exciting time to study one of the most mysterious phenomena in space. This month, The Sky at Night team investigate the science of black holes and di ...
17-08-2023
BBC 4
Is There Anybody Out There?
The Sky at Night team investigates the controversial world of alien communication. The search for life on other planets is one of the most fascinating subjects in science. But w ...
13-07-2023
BBC 4
The Uk Space Race
The Sky at Night team investigates the incredible science and engineering helping the UK to blast into space. We are now one of the biggest satellite building nations in the wor ...
15-06-2023
BBC 4
Will An Asteroid Destroy Earth?
The Sky at Night team explores the threat of an asteroid impact on earth. Around 2,300 asteroids have been identified as ‘potentially hazardous’, and it’s tho ...
18-05-2023
BBC 4
The Search For Alien Life
The Sky at Night team investigate the latest science in the hunt for extraterrestrial life. Scientists have never been more obsessed with finding aliens than they are right now. ...
13-04-2023
BBC 4
What Have Ufos Done For Us?
From unexplained flashes in the night sky to flying saucers, this episode delves into the mysterious world of UFOs. How our drive to explain these bizarre phenomena, and desire ...
08-02-2015
BBC 4
Destination: Moon
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 e ...
11-05-2022
BBC 4
Telescopes Through Time
The Sky at Night team explore the history of the telescope – from Harriot and Galileo's lunar observations to the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes – revealing ...
18-11-2021
BBC 4
Mars: Red And Dead?
Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott reveal the latest results from Nasa's Curiosity and Esa's ExoMars TGO missions that are attempting to find signs of life on Mars. Maggie v ...
12-04-2018
BBC 4
The Moon, The Mission And The Bbc
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo mission to put a man on the moon, The Sky at Night looks back through the archives to tell the story of how the BBC reported the ...
19-09-2021
BBC 4
Exoplanets And Antarctica
In a month when the tally of confirmed exoplanets passed 5,000, it’s astonishing to remember that just 30 years ago, the notion of planets outside our own solar system was ...
14-04-2022
BBC 4
Cosmic Blasts
The Sky at Night team look at cosmic explosions. They explore the beautiful but potentially deadly outbursts of our very own star - the sun - and the most violent and energetic ...
09-08-2015
BBC 4