Why Does the Moon Have Phases?
The Moon is the brightest object in the night sky when its whole face is showing. This only happens at full Moon. So why isn't it always a full Moon?
The 'Space Age' Calculator
Every year, the Earth completes one orbit of the Sun, and every year, you have a birthday! And during a year, the Earth rotates 365 times on its axis and we experience 365 sun rises and sun sets.
Timeline of Astronomy
Did you know that our understanding of science and space had gradually been built over thousands of years? Discover the people from the past whose observations and experiments helped us understand our
Order the Orbit
These orbit maps of the inner Solar System are in the wrong places on the calendar! Can you rearrange them so each image is on the correct date?
Stephen Hawking
Early Life
Stephen was born in 1942 in Oxford, UK during World War II. He decided that he wanted to study mathematics at university, but his father wanted him to choose medicine instead. He was accepted into University College Oxford but because they did not offer a degree in mathematics, Stephen chose to study physics. After three years (and, in his words, "not very much work"), he graduated with a first-class honours degree in natural sciences. From there, he went on to study cosmology at Cambridge University.
Year born: 1942
Research Areas: Cosmology, Theoretical Physics
"All my life, I have been fascinated by the big questions that face us, and have tried to find scientific answers to them."