The year 2023 provided a lot of exciting astronomy. It wasn't easy to choose the most interesting, but here are the ones that I liked best.

Pluto was the baby of the Solar System planets. Although only slightly bigger than Russia, Pluto is the biggest known dwarf planet. It has five moons, and that's more than there are in the inner Solar System. Earth has one moon, Mars has two, and Mercury and Venus have none.

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.

Which tie would you give a cosmic father? What food would you serve him? Where might he find challenging mountaineering, make an astounding golf shot, or get up an interstellar soccer game?

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.

Christmas 2023 is past, but the daily “astro advent” images in the Astronomy Forum are still there to enjoy. The first eight days included the Carina Nebula, a smiley face on the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, and a breathtaking skyscape from Norway's Lofoten Islands.

Saturn's vivid rings are well known, but it's not the only ringed planet. And it isn't just planets that have rings. The cosmos has a variety of ringed objects.

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.

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?

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.