Looking back: The Sky at Night 5 April 1978

The 5 April 1978 episode of The Sky at Night took a look at the many asteroids scattered around our Solar System. Millions of the rocks are located in the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, yet they remained hidden until astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, Ceres, in 1801. The problem is that the rocks are too far away and too small to be seen with the naked eye. Even with a telescope, they are little more than dots of light in the sky. At the time the episode was broadcast, our only close-up view had come courtesy of Pioneer 10, which passed by 307 Nike in 1972. However, Patrick was joined on the show by Gordon Taylor, an astronomer from the Royal Observatory Greenwich who had developed…

You're reading a preview of

BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, April 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.