This week we have a truly stellar theme - stories about the stars and planets. Read about some places in Britain associated with astronomy, as well as how Pluto got its name, and the company that had a hand in the exploration of Mars.
Light pollution has meant that the beauty of the night sky has been lost in many built up areas of Britain. But in 12 Dark Sky Places - Parks and Reserves - it's possible to experience truly dark skies - and see far-off stars and galaxies, just as our ancestors did.
Though the planet Pluto was discovered by American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, the credit for naming the outermost planet* of the solar system goes to an eleven year-old girl in Oxford.
Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire houses the remarkable Lovell Radio Telescope that was completed in 1957, as the largest steerable dish telescope in the world. It was awarded UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2019. Although the centre still operates as a working science site under the University of Manchester, visitors are encouraged, and there has even been an annual science & music festival held there.
The Otford Solar System is a scale model of the solar system constructed in and around the village of Otford, near Sevenoaks in Kent.
Now known as the Observatory Science Centre, the array of telescopes in the countryside near Herstmonceux, East Sussex, was for several decades the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory - when it moved out of central London to escape light pollution.
A Devon textiles company, Heathcoat Fabrics, has despatched its wares to many locations, the latest being Mars. It was responsible for producing the parachute that helped NASA's Mars rover, Perseverance, land on the red planet on 18th February 2021.
