Sussex Universe presents Astronomy Christmas Lecture

Sussex Universe is the public lecture series of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine at the University of Sussex, bringing cutting-edge science to the public throughout the academic year. Among its highlights are the well-established, family-friendly Astronomy Christmas Lecture and, new for 2026, the AI Christmas Lecture. This year’s Astronomy Christmas Lecture takes us into the heart of modern astronomy. Telescopes are humanity’s time machines and superpowered eyes, letting astronomers peer deeper into the Universe than ever before, catch the faintest whispers of light from the most distant objects, and see wavelengths completely invisible to the naked eye. Today, astronomers can look all the way back across cosmic history, scan the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and even “listen” to the Universe through neutrinos, cosmic rays, and — most thrillingly of all — ripples in spacetime itself: gravitational waves. Join Professor Stephen Wilkins from the University of Sussex as he takes us inside the next generation of record-breaking observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope, the colossal Extremely Large Telescope, and PRIMA — NASA’s new infrared mission, with Sussex playing a leading role.