Explore the silent night this festive season: space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock to give Royal Institution’s Christmas Lectures on the BBC

Take a trip across the universe as part of your holiday viewing this season, as the University of Leicester’s Chancellor, Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, hosts this year’s Christmas Lectures on BBC Four. 

The 2025 Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution, broadcast from 28th to 30th December, will take audiences on an extraordinary journey from the surface of the Earth to the farthest reaches of the known cosmos. 

With the help of the technology that’s revolutionising our understanding of space, space scientist and BBC Sky at Night presenter Dame Maggie will seek to answer one of the most fundamental questions asked by Humans for thousands of years: Are we alone in the Universe? Or ‘Is there life beyond Earth?’

Established by Michael Faraday in 1825, the Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution were broadcast on the BBC in 1936, making them the first science show on UK national television, and have been broadcast every year since 1966. As the iconic Christmas Lectures mark their 200th anniversary, audiences will enjoy a true celebration – of our universe and of the astounding human endeavours that are allowing us to solve its mysteries.

An award-winning scientist and broadcaster, Dame Maggie has also spent her career making novel, bespoke instrumentation in both the industrial and academic environments, ranging from hand held land mine detectors to an optical subsystem for the James Webb Space Telescope.

Dame Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Chancellor of the University of Leicester, said: “Here on planet Earth, we have stared with fascination at the skies above us for thousands of years. Today, powerful space telescopes enable us to see further into space, and further back in time, than ever before; our understanding of the cosmos increases daily. Yet so many mysteries remain to be discovered. I can’t wait to take this year’s Christmas Lectures audience into the farthest reaches of space and to the very limits of our understanding.”

The Christmas Lectures from the Royal Institution will be broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer, at 7pm, on 28th, 29th and 30th December. 

Lecture 1: ‘Destination Moon’

We begin by exploring the technology that’s allowed us to look out and discover that there are other worlds beyond our own. While advanced telescopes put paid to some of the early theories about life on our nearest neighbours, they’ve also opened up a host of other places we could look for it. We’ll leave the Earth and look back at our planet from orbit to find out what life looks like from space, how we think it might have emerged here, and how we might identify another ‘habitable planet’… if it’s out there. 

Lecture 2: ‘Voyage Through the Solar System’

In the second lecture, our search for extraterrestrial life continues as viewers are taken on a whirlwind tour through our Solar System—from the blazing Sun to the edge of the ‘heliosphere’ where space becomes interstellar. Dame Maggie delves into historic and current missions to planets like Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the gas giants, highlighting the growing evidence that moons such as Europa and Titan may harbour conditions suitable for life. 

Lecture 3: ‘To the Stars and Beyond’

Dame Maggie’s final lecture ventures into the vast Universe in search of life beyond our Solar System. With the help of the groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope, our audience will discover stunning new images of distant stars, galaxies, and planets. Dame Maggie then explains how scientists are identifying potential signs of life on exoplanets—worlds orbiting stars beyond our own—using state-of-the-art tools to search for ‘biosignatures’ and ‘techno signatures’ that could hint at life or advanced civilizations, and we’ll discusses whether we should attempt to contact alien lifeforms, and what we might say to them. Finally, we’ll delve into the mysterious world of black holes, dark matter and dark energy.