Wales Key Stage 4

Over the past few hundred years, astronomers have discovered thousands of stars whose brightness goes up and down over time. These are known as variable stars. But what causes this to happen?

In 2017, the Liverpool Telescope was involved in the investigation of an exciting new discovery: the star system TRAPPIST-1.

The ocean’s tides rise and fall every day, but have you ever wondered what causes them? The Moon and Sun both play a role in shaping the movement of water across the Earth. 

Distances to objects in space are very, very large. The nearest star (excluding the Sun), Alpha Centauri, is 41.23 trillion km, or 41,320,000,000,000 km!!