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Focus: The story of hydrogen 
Hydrogen is the most important element in the Universe and to see why, let us follow hydrogen through time, from its ferociously hot birth to its dark, cold end. 
A cloud of simple hydrogen can create anything through the wonders of nuclear alchemy - the same process that makes our Sun shine. 
Hydrogen is not only profuse within stars and interstellar gas; there is lots of it too on the planets, where it wields plenty of influence. 
So the saying goes, everything that has a beginning has an end. Hydrogen will marshall the fortunes of stars and planets for trillions of years but one day they will be no more. Features 
New images from space never cease to amaze and one of the masters of deep space photography is NASA's Cassini space probe. Orbiting the planet Saturn, it has no shortage of beautiful vistas to look at, but now its mission may be under threat. 
One of the most dramatic environments in the entire Milky Way Galaxy is the galactic centre, home to a potpourri of stellar flora and fauna and the rarest of beasts, a supermassive black hole. 
This February it will be four decades since the passing of the audacious astronomer Fritz Zwicky, who died on 8 February 1974 at the age of 75. He left a profound scientific legacy that grows more important with each passing decade. 
Exoplanet discoveries have progressed to the point where we are routinely finding entire planetary systems around other stars. Becky Enoch surveys the field and in the process explores the mystery of planet migrations. 
Family connections took Steve Ringwood on a visit stateside to visit a famous base of female education and the site of a superb observatory. 
Regulars 
It is a great time of the year for planetary observers, with long dark nights, the giant planets up high, Mars getting into shape and Venus and Mercury at sunrise and sunset. 
A champion nebula stands out in winter skies in the lowly constellation of Monoceros, home to a sparkling star cluster. 
For 150 years the Dawes limit has been held up as the arbiter of how fine a detail your telescope can see. However, with modern day optics Steve Ringwood finds that we are now far surpassing the old limits. 
Damian Peach test-drives the new Guide planetarium software from Project Pluto and finds it is true to its word in guiding the user through the night sky. BUY ONLINE Free First Class delivery in the UK! DOWNLOAD The iPad and iPhone edition |
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