Prof Brian Cox ‘learns’ from Belfast university students

We’re used to seeing Prof Cox explaining how the world works and what galaxies above can tell us.

But, gazing at the screens of telescope footage, discoveries and data, tucked away in the data lab, astrophysics students found themselves answering questions about their findings and their methodology.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Prof Brian Cox said it was “wonderful to see”.

“I’ve known about many of these initiatives and experiments to track objects that are orbiting close to the earth, looking for things that may cross the earth’s orbit, that may or may not be a danger to us in the future.

“To be here to see where this data is analysed, I’ve learnt a huge amount.”

When asked if he’d like to bring any of the Belfast students back to work with him, he laughed and said: “All of them”.

“Everyone in this room knows a lot more than me about supernova explosions and the way that stars behave. So all of them, that’s the way that science works,” he added.