The team travel to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands where they take control of some of the world's largest telescopes to view the most spectacular sights in the night sky.

All good travel guides need a map, and the team unveil the most detailed 3D map of the Milky Way ever produced. A map that reveals that there may be 50 per cent more stars in the galaxy than we previously thought. American astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson gives us a guided tour of the strangest stars we have ever observed, and we discover that the Milky Way may already be colliding with our neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda.

The Sky at Night team investigates the ongoing hunt for life on Mars. It is one of the great scientific questions of our time, but are we any closer to finding an answer? As well as uncovering the cause of the recent crash of the Schiaparelli lander, the team looks at the next missions designed to hunt for life on the red planet – from a rover designed to drill deep into the surface, to the orbiter sniffing for signs of methane in the atmosphere. Adam Rutherford joins the team to ask if we have been deliberately avoiding the most likely places to find life on Mars.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott present a look back at some of the biggest stories in space science of 2016, and see how these discoveries have developed since making the headlines. Featuring a look at new evidence of a ninth planet in the solar system, the Juno probe's study of Jupiter, and scientists searching for evidence of other planets capable of sustaining human life.

Chris Lintott and Maggie Aderin-Pocock report on the Rosetta spacecraft as it prepares to crash into the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
This month the Sky at Night goes behind the scenes at the European Space Agency as the Rosetta mission reaches its dramatic conclusion and the spacecraft is crashed into the surface of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
For nearly two years the Rosetta spacecraft has been in orbit around 67P – studying the comet at close range and returning the most extraordinary pictures. But now the the mission must come to an end and the project scientists have decided to have one final attempt at studying the comet at closer range than ever before.
On September 30th the spacecraft – with all its instruments running – will be crashed into the surface of the comet. Its aim is to get the best ever view of the mysterious pits on the comet's surface. Pits whose walls are thought to have been undisturbed for over 4 billion years, since the formation of the solar system.
Chris Lintott will be in mission control with the scientists as they watch the pictures come in from the spacecraft's dive towards the surface. And Maggie Aderin-Pocock will be investigating how the mission has transformed our understanding of comets and the birth of the solar system.

Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Chris Lintott present the inside story of NASA's groundbreaking visit to Pluto. This is the first time any probe has visited the dwarf planet and Sky at Night has ringside seats, bringing you the entire story and expert insight into the latest images from the New Horizons probe. Sky at Night celebrates its 750th episode with the most exciting space event of 2015.