There are no records of astronomers observing the Transit of Venus until the 17th century. Professor David W Hughes picks up the story

World Environment Day celebrates environmental issues, including biodiversity. But what's in it for you?

Over the last few decades astronomers have discovered thousands of planets orbiting stars other than the Sun – known as exoplanets. Many of these exoplanets are quite unlike anything we see in our Solar System. These include ‘hot Jupiters’ orbiting very close to their parent star and rocky ‘super Earths’ many times larger than our home planet. In this free course, The formation of exoplanets, you will learn about the challenges connected with efforts to reconcile the observed exoplanet population with current theories on how planets form. The two main theories for this, namely the core-accretion scenario and the disc-instability scenario, will be explored mathematically.

Understand the scale of the universe; orbits and gravity; the Solar System; the Sun and other stars; galaxies and the composition of astronomical objects.

Asteroid number 69423 was named ‘Openuni’ last month, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of The Open University's creation. But how do objects in space get their names?

In this three minute video, Dr Matt Balme in The Open University's Space Science research priority area, gives us a tour of his laboratory and shows how he models the landscape of Mars.

The Transit Of Venus was focused on our Solar System. But there are projects which are looking far, far further afield - and the SuperWASP is just one.

It was a huge asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs, so what damage could smaller asteroids do to life on earth. Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at The Open University, Monica Grady, explores the issue.