Astronomy

Looking back on the major stories of the year - from the New Horizons mission to the most distant world we have ever visited to the release of the first-ever picture of a black hole. The team relive the highlights and uncover the latest developments.

No planet beats Saturn for jaw-dropping beauty. Saturn is the most photogenic planet in all the solar system. Some of the pictures are to die for. But the postcards only tell part of the story. It really is rolling and seething inside. For ringside action, soar above the planet with its six-sided storms. Even more mystery surrounds the impressive Fountains of Enceladus where the secrets of life might spring from the moons salty geysers. And the samples are coming out in space, there's a big sign there: Free Samples: Take One.

Are the rings of Saturn a real celestial phenomenon or merely a cosmic Illusion? Technology allows the experts to get closer to the furthest planet visible to the naked eye. Old questions are answered and new ones arise. Does Saturn hold the key to Earth's weather and will one of its moons supply us with all the oil we'll ever need?

20 years ago, two astronomers made a remarkable discovery, one which would change the way we view the universe for ever. A planet outside our solar system, orbiting a distant star - an exoplanet. Since then, we have found worlds where it rains diamonds, ones that boil at 3,000 degrees centigrade and even a world with four suns in its sky. But the big question is - will we ever find another Earth? As we close in on the discovery of the 2,000th planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet, we investigates the techniques that are revealing so much about these alien worlds. The documentary asks if we are really any closer to finding another world like our own - a second Earth.

Our world, our solar system, our universe, none of it would exist without a ghostly particle called the neutrino. They are our early warning system whenever there's trouble in the universe. Neutrinos trigger star-killing explosions, supernovas. Neutrinos can answer so many questions, from why do we exist to how was the universe created. Neutrinos can be the very reason that we exist at all. The more we understand these elusive particles, the more we can gain insight into how the universe works.

The mission of NASA's Osiris-Rex is to intercept a giant space rock and crack the mysteries of a potential killer asteroid. Can it unlock how asteroids kick-start life on Earth and reveal why they might be our ticket to other worlds? To find out, we take a ride with one of NASA's most ambitious missions to investigate a space rock in more detail than ever before, to reveal how asteroids will rewrite the past and forge the future of our solar system.