1. Home
  2. Heather Couper

Heather Couper

Cosmic Quest

  • Cosmic Quest

  • Heather Couper presents a sweeping history of astronomy, as heard on BBC Radio 4. In this 30-part BBC Radio 4 series, astronomer Heather Couper charts the history of our understanding of the universe. Her journey begins at the beginning as people first gaze in wonder at the life-giving Sun, the wandering planets and the changing phases of the Moon. Along the way we meet the ancient astronomers, as well as many pioneering scientific giants like Galileo, Newton, Halley and Herschel. With the invention of the telescope and the birth of astrophysics the skies were revealed as never before. These and other advances in technology enabled us to land on the Moon, discover distant galaxies, quasars and black holes - and to search for worlds beyond our own. Narrated by Heather Couper with additional readings by Timothy West, Annette Badland, Robin Sebastian, Julian Rhind-Tutt and John Palmer.

Heather Couper is a writer and broadcaster who specialises in science and astronomy. She has written over 30 books, including (with Nigel Henbest) The Story of Astronomy: How the universe revealed its secrets (2011) and The Astronomy Bible (2015). On radio, she has presented Arthur C. Clarke: the Science and the Fiction, Britain's Space Race (which won her the Arthur C. Clarke Award), A Brief History of Infinity and Cosmic Quest. She has also presented two TV series on Channel 4. She was awarded the CBE in 2007 for Services to Science, and in 1999 the International Astronomical Union named asteroid number 3922 ‘Heather’ in her honour.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies to make our website work. If you click 'Accept All’ we will use cookies to understand how you use our services and to show you personalised advertising and other content. You can change your cookie settings by clicking 'Manage Cookies'. For more information please see our Cookie Policy

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.