BBC Sky at Night

Sky at Night magazine is your practical guide to astronomy. Each issue features the world’s biggest and best night sky guide complete with star charts, observing tutorials and in-depth equipment reviews to ensure that amateur astronomers never miss those must-see events.

Welcome • Have we got Uranus and Neptune all wrong?

Sky at Night - lots of ways to enjoy the night sky…

This month’s contributors

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HAT’S AMAZING! • Astronomers have unveiled a stunning new image of the Sombrero Galaxy

NASA reveals new Artemis III mission blueprint • Earth-orbit test flight will rehearse docking and landing technologies

New electric thruster tested for trips to Mars • Lithium-fed plasma engine reaches 25 times the power of NASA’s best electric thruster

JWST maps cosmic web in unprecedented detail • Survey traces the Universe’s structure back to just one billion years after the Big Bang

Tiny outer Solar System object may have an atmosphere • The icy body shouldn’t be capable of holding on to gas at all - so why is it there?

Planet formation models face fresh challenge • The Galaxy’s most abundant planets are strangely rare around its most common stars

New lasers boost power of giant telescopes • European Southern Observatory reveals how fake stars can sharpen a blurry view

China eyes Moon with new launch • Latest mission includes a year-long stay in orbit and dozens of scientific experiments

NASA Mars rover’s drill gets stuck in a rock • The problem briefly stopped Curiosity collecting samples in Gale Crater

JWST reveals blazing heart of nearby spiral galaxy • A dramatic infrared view of Messier 77 exposes a fiercely active galactic core

How small can a planet be and still host life? • Study pinpoints which rocky worlds could hang on to a life-supporting atmosphere

Why our Galaxy keeps forgetting its past • New research shows how rapidly the Milky Way erases traces of collisions

INSIDE THE SKY AT NIGHT • Our Sun isn’t always benign: space weather poses real risks to our technology and infrastructure. George Dransfield explores the hazards of living next door to a star

The Aliens Next Door?

A triangle at twilight

BBC Sky at Night

The Universe doesn’t need a multiverse • The idea that there are many universes seems to solve our most stubborn cosmic mysteries. But, argues Brian Clegg, it’s no substitute for hard evidence

What life will really be like on MARS • A new NASA-backed study has revealed the realities of humanity’s first crewed missions to Mars. As Jamie Carter discovers, it starts with simply surviving the day…

Getting there: a nuclear option • Chemical rockets aren’t enough for long space journeys. Uranium is the fuel of choice

Beyond reach: the 40-minute silence • Humans on Mars will be truly on their own, cut off from real-time contact with Earth

Planets of mystery • Uranus and Neptune - visited just once, 40 years ago - are the least-known planets in our Solar System. Now 21st-century science has revealed they may not even be the ‘ice giants’ we thought. Joseph Phelan investigates

Why Uranus and Neptune are so hard to study • Their staggering distances from Earth create one enormous barrier for astronomers

The planets that got passed over • Dedicated missions to visit Uranus and Neptune currently exist in outline only

The changing face of the MAN IN THE MOON • Many of us know the Moon’s familiar ‘face’, but across the world and through history, people have seen something very different, explains Katrin Raynor

What made the Man in the Moon? • Cataclysmic collisions and lava eruptions created the facial features we see today

The Sky...