The Sky at Night 2016

Planet 9 From Outer Space (2016)

On January 20 2016, two American astronomers made an extraordinary claim - they had found evidence for a ninth planet in our solar system, a planet 20 times further out than Neptune which would take up to 20,000 years to orbit the sun. It is a discovery that could completely rewrite our understanding of our solar system and how it formed. As the world's biggest telescopes start scanning the skies searching for Planet 9, the Sky at Night team investigates. If Planet 9 exists, where is it and where did it come from? In California, Chris Lintott meets the astronomers whose study of the distant Kuiper Belt led them to predict the existence of the planet. And while some scientists are still sceptical, Maggie Aderin-Pocock discovers how our models of the formation of the solar system and the discovery of similar exoplanets around other stars all support the existence of Planet 9.

Five Greatest Images of the Solar System (2016)

For 50 years we have been sending probes to gather close-up images of the other planets and moons of the solar system. The Sky at Night presents the five greatest images captured by those spacecraft. From a view of the surface of Mars, to live pictures of the sun and a unique picture of our own planet, these are the images that have transformed our perception of the solar system we live in.

Stephen Hawking on Black Holes (2016)

Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock present a look at black holes, featuring an exclusive interview with Stephen Hawking. The physicist discusses how the recent detection of gravitational waves has added to scientific understanding of black holes, and may prove his own theories explaining how they can have properties that defy all known laws of physics. The programme looks at the latest understanding of black holes, featuring an interview with Stephen Hawking. Black holes are one of the greatest mysteries in the universe. They behave in a way that is contrary to laws of physics and one has never actually been seen. However, the recent detection of gravitational waves, as predicted by Einstein, proves that black holes exist and provides a way to investigate their remarkable behaviour and properties.

Mercury: The Problem Child of the Solar System (2016)

May 9 2016 sees one of the astronomical highlights of the year - a transit of Mercury across the sun, the best opportunity to observe this phenomenon until 2049. To mark the event, the Sky at Night attempts to explain the many mysteries of Mercury - a planet so bizarre that it is sometimes described as the 'problem child' of the solar system. Surface temperatures exceed 450 degrees but it also has patches of ice, its day is twice as long as its year, and it is a planet that appears to be shrinking.

Secrets of the Whirlpool Galaxy (2016)

Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock report on a plan to train as many telescopes as possible on the Whirlpool Galaxy. This star formation is 30 million light years from Earth and was discovered in 1773, its spiral shape believed to have been the inspiration for Van Gogh's painting Starry Starry Night. Optical and infra-red telescopes, radio observatories and ultraviolet and x-ray sensors will study the galaxy to learn more about a wave of intense star formation.