A GALAXY of discovery and adventure is promised once again at this year's WOMAD festival, which returns to Charlton Park near Malmesbury from July 25-28.

The World of Physics returns to the festival for 2019 and organisers have lined up a host of events and activities to keep all enquiring minds occupied.

Alongside the annual fiesta of global music and culture, the World of Physics will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing with talks from NASA astronauts, space-themed film screenings and cosmic workshops, talks and quizzes.

Brand-new to the festival is the new venue the Cosmodrome, a planetarium that will boast a packed daytime programme of the hottest topics in astrophysics. such as black holes, the nature of dark matter and how galaxies form.

As night falls a team of astrophysicists will be on hand to point telescopes at some of the most beautiful sights in the cosmos and answer questions from the audience.

The intergalactic Physics Pavilion returns with a stratospheric line-up of speakers, including quantum physicist, author and Radio 4 stalwart Jim Al-Khalili OBE. NASA astronaut and artist Nicole Stott will speak via live link from Florida about her time spent in orbit and painting the first watercolour in space.

They will also have a fascinating insight into the world of cosmic film-making, as visual effects expert Graham Jack and his team discuss their work on smash-hit Interstellar and how they managed to combine visual storytelling with theoretical physics.

Minds will boggle and brains will be busted down at The Discovery Zone and it's Crash Bang Wallop at The Lab, packed with loads of hands-on workshops for festival-goers to get stuck into.

Visit womad.co.uk for full details about the World of Physics.