Rosetta went where no space mission had been before! It caught up with a comet in deep space and went into orbit around it. Its lander Philae was the first ever to land on a comet. At the end of the mission, Rosetta also landed on the comet to join it and Philae on the comet's journey.

Saturday is Saturn's day. Saturn, a god of ancient mythology, is the planet with the beautiful rings. For 13 years, the Cassini space mission studied Saturn, its rings and moons. We now know of 145 moons of Saturn.

Since the name of Nicolaus Copernicus is still well known nearly five hundred years after his death, why was his grave unmarked until 2010? Find out about the life of the quiet revolutionary that turned our view of the universe inside out.

Neptune, named for the Roman sea god, was discovered in 1846. And 17 days later, William Lassell found a moon. Its moon is probably a captured Kuiper Belt object, similar to Pluto, but colder than Pluto. It's a strange object. Nasa is considering a mission to Neptune and Triton to have a look.

You can see planets without a telescope. People have been seeing Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn for thousands of years. Even though Uranus was the first planet discovered by telescope, sometimes it can be seen without one.

The night sky is full of starry birds. Here is a selection, ranging from the majestic swan to the exotic birds of the southern skies: the peacock, bird of paradise and toucan. There is also an emu whose image appears not in the stars, but in the dark nebulae.

Christmas 2022 is past, but the daily "astro advent" images in the Astronomy Forum are still there to enjoy. The second eight days included both a magnificent aurora and an awesome meteor shower.

Christmas 2022 is past, but the daily "astro advent" images in the Astronomy Forum are still there to enjoy. The final eight days – plus a Christmas bonus – included a fire rainbow, ice halos and a spectacular comet.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has protocols for the naming of heavenly bodies. In the past, there were traditional names, names given by discoverers, and all sorts of other names. Moons were a novelty, and they were a long time in getting names. How many of these stories do you know?

In addition to the great astronomy stories of 2020, there are also stories that are overwrought, careless, crazy, mischievous or just plain wrong. Here are five of them.