Cooking a Comet

Comets are considered to be time capsules containing information about the conditions of the early Solar System. In order to understand what comets are, where they come from, and their influence on the evolution of Earth, it is necessary to find out what material they contain. This teacher demonstration and student...

Gaia's place in space

Gaia is a European Space Agency satellite, mapping one billion stars in the Milky Way. 

This worksheet uses the context of the orbit of the Gaia spacecraft to look at circular motion and the gravitational force between two bodies.  The content is suitable for GCSE and A-level Physics.

A teacher's...

Getting Gaia going

Gaia is a European Space Agency satellite, mapping one billion stars in the Milky Way. 

This worksheet guides students through some calculations on the power requirements for the Gaia spacecraft, the content is suitable for GCSE and A-level Physics.

A teacher's guide gives worked solutions.

Marble-ous Ellipses

In order to understand the orbits of planets, comets and other celestial bodies, it is necessary to examine the principles of how gravity, and the velocity of an object, interact to produce an orbit. It is a common misconception among students that planetary orbits are circular. This practical activity gives a...

Episode 7: Exploring Our Backyard, the Solar System

Rebecca Barnes continues to journey through the wonders of modern astronomy bringing us closer to home as we begin to explore the Solar System. We'll discover the scale and structure of the Solar System, find out why we explore it and introduce the European missions launched on a quest to further investigate our...

Episode 2: Planck - Looking Back to the Dawn of Time

Rebecca Barnes takes a close look at Planck - a European Space Agency mission built to detect radiation from the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This mission will help find answers to some of the most important questions in modern science.

Episode 5: The Untamed, Violent Universe

Rebecca Barnes will give us a glimpse of the hot, energetic and often violent Universe revealed through X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, look at ESA missions that detect this hidden light and find out how the science that these missions perform is meticulously planned.

Episode 6: Charting the Galaxy - from Hipparcos to Gaia

Rebecca Barnes discovers the motions of the stars, learns how astronomers measure their distances and looks at the new European mission that will really get to grips with our place in the Universe.

Episode 4: Following the Redshift - from HST to JWST

Rebecca Barnes will identify some of the key discoveries achieved with the famous Hubble Space Telescope, look at the concept of redshift, and meet a new telescope that will be used to uncover the early Universe.