The Sky at Night 2019

Beyond Pluto (2019)

On 1 January 2019, Nasa's New Horizons probe notched up another historic first: the first ever Kuiper belt fly-by. Its target was 2014 MU69, a chunk of ice and rock about four billion miles (approximately 6.4 billion kilometres) from Earth, dubbed Ultima Thule, a Latin phrase meaning a distant, unknown region. It is the most distant fly-by in history, and it is believed the data New Horizons gathers will shed new light on the solar system's early days. Chris Lintott reports from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland to bring the latest news and pictures from this extraordinary mission.

Is Cosmology in Crisis? (2019)

Ever since we discovered that distant galaxies are racing away from us, there has been a heated debate over just how fast the Universe is expanding. At the beginning of the 21st century, we thought we knew the answer. But now, two very different viewpoints have emerged. And they are dividing the scientific community. The Sky at Night meets leading astronomers and cosmologists on both sides of the debate. Which team has the right answer? Or could both teams be right? If so, we may need to rethink everything we think we know about the Universe.

Marsquake! (2019)

Marsquake! This month's episode follows Insight, NASA’s latest mission to the Red Planet, as it goes in search of the secrets buried deep below Mars’s surface. By listening for tremors caused by Marsquakes and meteor strikes, scientists hope to reveal how the planet was formed, why its fate was so different from the Earth and whether the planet is dead or alive. The programme also says a heartfelt goodbye to Opportunity, the rover that explored the surface of Mars for more than 14 years until it was engulfed by a dust storm last year.

Supermassive Black Hole (2019)

The team reveals how the first picture of a supermassive black hole was captured. The photograph of the hole at the heart of the M87 galaxy was released in April.

Return to the Moon (2019)

In the first of two programmes to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landings, the Sky at Night team take a look at the latest plans to return to the Moon. Recently, China, Israel and India have all sent major missions to the Moon. The Europeans and Americans are planning to build a space station in permanent orbit around the Moon. And NASA has just announced that they plan to land astronauts on the Moon’s surface within five years. It all suggests that we are on the verge of a new golden age in lunar exploration.