In this month’s Focus Keith Cooper tells the “tails” of comets and covers the five Ws of who, what, where, when and why. As the story unfolds, delve deeper into the enigmatic outburst of Comet Holmes during the autumn of 2007, and then look ahead to the ambitious Rosetta mission, which will attempt to send a lander to the surface of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

In other features Kulvinder Singh Chadha reports on the Kepler mission launching in March that will search for Earth-like worlds around other stars; David Powell revisits Uranus following Earth’s recent ring plane crossing of this outer world; and David Arditti reviews the impressive amateur research presented alongside that of the professionals at the 2008 European Planetary Science Congress.

All this plus our regular features including the UK’s biggest and best night sky guide, Starting from Scratch, Gearheads and Tech Talk. And this month we’ve also included a free copy of the kid’s space newsletter Starlight (issue 3), so do your bit for the International Year of Astronomy and pass it on to a budding young stargazer today!