Universe

BBC2, 9pm

Few scientists in the modern era have done more for public education than Professor Brian Cox (right), and in his latest series the astrophysicist is taking us on a tour of the cosmos, revealing the latest discoveries and technology.

Cox begins with an in-depth look at the sun, where Nasa’s Parker Solar probe has been sent to get closer than any previous mission and send back unprecedentedly detailed data. But Cox also rewinds almost 14 billion years back in time, when the material that would eventually coalesce into stars was little more than thin wisps of matter stretched far across the universe – what’s now been dubbed the ‘cosmic web’.

How our sun was born out of that dust and where the universe is heading now are explained by Cox with the ease that only he brings to such matters.