The Sky at Night S60E04 · Mercury: The Problem Child of the Solar System

Overview

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.

Torrents

Subtitles

Episodes

1. 1 1. Planet 9 From Outer Space2016-02-14On 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 Neptun
2. 2 2. Five Greatest Images of the Solar System2016-03-13For 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 b
3. 3 3. Stephen Hawking on Black Holes2016-04-10Chris 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 gra
4. 4 4. Mercury: The Problem Child of the Solar System2016-05-08May 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,
5. 5 5. Secrets of the Whirlpool Galaxy2016-06-12Chris 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 an
6. 6 6. Juno: Mission to Jupiter2016-07-10A look behind the scenes of Nasa's project to study Jupiter. As the spacecraft Juno enters Jupiter's orbit, the programme explores the dangers of the mission and what Nasa is hopin
7. 7 7. Interstellar: The Journey to Proxima Centauri2016-09-11Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock report on the recent discovery of a planet with similar qualities to Earth orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system. T
8. 8 8. Goodbye Rosetta: A Sky At Night Special2016-10-02Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock report on the Rosetta spacecraft as it prepares to crash into the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This month the Sky at Night go
9. 9 9. Life on Mars2016-11-13The Sky at Night team investigates the ongoing hunt for life on Mars. It is one of the great scientific questions of our time, but are we any closer to finding an answer? As well a
10. 10 10. Review of the Year2016-12-11Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott present a look back at some of the biggest stories in space science of 2016, and see how these discoveries have developed since making the he