Experts have cracked the four-letter code of a 400-year-old brass padlock recovered from a shipwreck off the Welsh coast, using modern CT scanning. The lock was found in the sand at Margam near Port Talbot in 1999 and is part of a collection from the Ann Francis, which was wrecked in 1583.
The first Ordnance Survey map, covering Kent, is being celebrated 225 years after it was published. Surveyors spent over a decade creating it, and today the organisation uses aircraft and digital tools to keep Britain's maps up to date, with an area that once took years now surveyed in about 10 days.
Stargazers across the UK enjoyed vivid Northern Lights on Halloween night. Parts of Scotland and Northern Ireland had clear skies at the right moment to see the display.
Two staff members at Armagh Observatory and Planetarium have had asteroids named after them in recognition of their work. Dr Rok Nežič, a tours and outreach officer, called it a dream come true, while Shane Kelly's asteroid honours decades of weather observation at the observatory.
