Awesome Astronomy

The Discussion: Britain shows that it won’t just roll over and let America take the lead in intimidating academic freedom and Jen recounts her gravitational waves research conference in Brighton in October. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Astronomers make the 1st observation of a neutron star collision Astronomers discover a missing chunk of the universe 3D videos of aurora that you can see at http://www.iap.fr/aurora3d/ The Interview: This month Cardiff University’s Professor Mark Hannam tells us more about the recent observation of colliding neutron stars and this window into a new realm of astronomy. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we’re tackling a question about the Drake Equation: “It strikes me that the Drake equation sets the probability of life at either (1) pretty close to zero - in which ca

What to look out, and up, for in November. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: A last look at Saturn for 2017 in the early evening sky A very impressive Jupiter/Venus conjunction on the 13th of November The Taurid meteor showers peaking on the 5th and 21st November and the Leonids on the 18th November Comet 2017 O1 ASASSN1 for binocular and telescope observers Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Messier 42, the Orion Nebula in the constellation Orion Jen - Messier 13, The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Paul – NCG 404, Mirach’s Ghost in the constellation Andromeda And we finish this sky guide with November’s moon phases.

In this podcast extra, we discuss the changing value of the Hubble Constant since 2000 – or put more simply, our narrowing down of how quickly the universe is expanding. This discussion takes in: The history of the Hubble Constant Edwin Hubble’s dreadful scatter plot Further attempts to narrow down the universe’s expansion rate Why research papers are awesome and accessible to everyone

The Discussion: You’d be forgiven for thinking we recorded this episode drunk – but we assure you, we weren’t. And you’ll have to forgive us for our crappy audio and shameless national stereotyping! But in this show, recorded from our dark sky star party in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, we discuss the event, Jeni’s talk on exoplanet research and we take a look at listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A fresh look at the age and high metallicity of an observable star cluster Australia takes the plunge and announces the creation of its own space agency Research giving hints of water on planets in the TRAPPIST 1 system Hat of Woo: Paul’s festering Hat of Woo gets another airing as we take a look at the end of the world on 23rd September as planet Nibiru collides with Earth (or the beginning of The Rapture, if the world doesn’t end). Assuming you’re reading this or listening to the podcast, the world clearly didn’t end! Q&A: Listeners’ questions via

What to look out, and up, for in October. Jeni, Paul & Ralph pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Blue/green ice giant Uranus The Orionids meteor shower brings us the debris from Comet Halley Saturn, recently liberated from the perpetual gaze of Cassini A not-to-be-missed conjunction of Venus and Mars on 5th October. Finally, a couple of comets that may be visible Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Paul – Spiral Galaxy NGC772 in Aries. Jeni – Brocchi’s Cluster or The Coathanger Cluster in Vulpecula Ralph – The Triangulum Galaxy in Triangulum And we finish this sky guide with October’s moon phases.

In this podcast extra episode for the dark sky star party held by the Podcast Crew, we discuss: Fighting light pollution by getting local authorities to dim & turn off street lights The value of star parties to boosting your practical astronomy knowledge What to expect at the Autumn 2017 AstroCamp A round up of Ralph, Damien & Paul’s seasonal astronomy targets

The Discussion: Jeni’s back and the band is back together to discuss watching this year’s Perseid meteor shower and coverage of the Great American Eclipse The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The shortlisted explorer and missions of opportunity being considered by NASA Jellyfish galaxies feeding supermassive black holes Goodbye to the Cassini Saturn explorer ‘The Other Section’: This month we keep Paul’s festering Hat of Woo out of sight and take a long look at the Voyager spacecraft on the 40th anniversary of this programme, which revealed the solar system unlike any other space mission.

What to look out, and up, for in September.What to look out, and up, for in September. Ralph, Paul & Jeni pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Saturn and its ring system in the evening Mercury at greatest western elongation in 12th September Neptune at opposition on 5th September in Aquarius. Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Saturn Nebula in Aquarius Jeni – The Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites Paul – NCG 7479 barred spiral Seyfert galaxy And we finish this sky guide with September’s moon phases.

In this podcast extra episode we present our full length interview with test pilot, astronaut and lunar module pilot on Apollo 16, General Charlie Duke. Drawing on this unique set of experiences, we asked Charlie: What surprised you or what weren't you expecting to see on the moon? How did having a rover change the way you could explore the moon? How much fun was the lunar rover? Which was most exciting, being capcom on the 1st moon landing or walking on the moon on Apollo 16? Is the proposed 2032 launch window for a human Mars mission achievable? Did you see any colour other than grey on the moon? Are there any features on Earth you can see from the moon? Were you able to see any star fields during the Apollo 16 mission? Then we turned the interview over to listeners' questions: @BrewsterNorth asked, what do you think of the commercial plans for lunar exploration? Gavin Price (@pillarscreatio) asked, how important is the moon as a staging post for Mars? David Blanchflower (@Davidbflower) asked, would y

The Discussion: Jeni’s bizarrely decided that a holiday is preferable to being locked in a bunker with two megalomaniacal Martians, so you’re left with an exhausted Paul and a jetlagged Ralph this month. What could go wrong? We discuss outreach at science festivals and a happy resolution to the light pollution issue in the Brecon Beacons dark sky reserve. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The new Doctor is upsetting some people (get over it!) The hunt Planet 9 takes another turn Have astronomers discovered the smallest possible star? A deep dive on the Great American Eclipse on August 21st And an update on the gravitational wave data debate Astronomy You’ve Probably Never Heard Of: This month we give Paul’s festering Hat of Woo and airing as we kick start another occasional feature looking into the science progress in areas (or astronomers) you’ve probably never heard of. This month we look at cosmology and the expanding universe from the perspective of the much-o

Download Episode! What to look out, and up, for in August. Ralph & Paul pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Dwarf Planet Ceres for small telescopes in the constellation Gemini Saturn in the evening, Venus at dawn and Uranus high up in Pisces The long anticipated total solar eclipse for observers in the United States The Perseid meteor shower peaking on the night of 12/13th August. Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Globular Cluster Messier 56 between Lyra & Cygnus Paul – Peculiar Galaxy NGC7727 in Aquarius. And we finish this sky guide with August’s moon phases.

Download Episode! In this podcast extra, Jeni recalls her most recent research trip at the Japanese Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF) situated outside Sutherland in South Africa. This research trip continues Jeni’s endeavours to collect exoplanet transit data. In this episode we cover: The IRSF observatory The life of a research astronomer The heartbeat of professional astronomy equipment Future research for Jen

Download Episode! The Discussion: Combating light pollution for the AstroCamp in the Welsh Brecon Beacons and fighting to help the National Park retain its International Dark Sky Reserve status. Then we turn our attention to politics in space science and listeners’ views on politics in podcasts. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Another gravitational wave detection and what we’re learning from it The European Space Agency’s latest mission approvals NASA’s last exoplanet data dump from the Kepler mission China’s experiment observing long distance quantum entanglement Britain’s ambitious space ambitions and Europe freezing out the UK Has the origin of the Wow Signal finally been solved? How common are the ingredients for life in the universe? The Hat of Woo: This month we look at EM drives and NASA’s cover up hiding the warp drive they’ve developed at their super-secret Eagleworks and aren’t using but they definitely, definitely have it. Honestly.

Download Episode! What to look out, and up, for in July. July is here and the summer solstice is just behind us, meaning we’re on the glide slope to every lengthening nights. So the team’s here to pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: Ralph – Saturn shows off its moons and favourably tilted rings Jeni – Mercury is low in the sky but nicely placed to observe this July Paul – Comets C/2015 er61 Panstarrs and C/2015 V2 Johnson Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens Jeni - Colourful binary star Albireo in Cygnus Paul – Messier 8, The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius And we finish this sky guide with July’s moon phases.

Download Episode! The Interview: On the discovery of only humanity’s third black hole merger by the incredible Laser Interferometry Gravitational wave Observatory (LIGO), Jeni’s speaks with Professor Patrick Sutton, Head of Cardiff University’s Gravitational Physics Group and member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration who develops new strategies to detect gravitational wave bursts and creates techniques for locating these sources on the sky for modelling and simulations. In this interview Jeni asks Patrick about: The latest gravitational wave detection What we can know about these events and the objects that created them The strength and weakness of these signals The Announcement: For a physics deep dive into the analysis, the data and the modelling of the new black hole merger detected by LIGO this month, LIGO Governing Council member Professor Sathyaprakash (Sathya to his friends) delivers the first lecture on this discovery. Return to the Interview: In this segment we return to Professor Patric

The Discussion: Jeni’s returns from her South African research using the Infrared Survey Facility telescope, Paul calls time on the Principia Mission and we go through a couple of readers emails to discuss Caroline Herschel, the Woomera Test Range and Australian space funding. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Is there any evidence for other universes in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation? An update on Tabby's Star (It's NOT an alien megastructure). Are we already creating our own defence against Coronal Mass Ejections by chance? A run through NASA's 2018 budget proposal The Interview: This month we speak to former test pilot and astronaut - and one of only 6 remaining people to have walked on the moon - General Charlie Duke. Practical Astronomy: The Hat of Woo takes a rest this month as we introduce an occasional look into areas of interest to the practical amateur astronomer with topics requested by you. This month we take a look at an essential piece o

What to look out, and up, for in June. Jeni returns from astronomy research in South Africa so the gang’s back together to pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: Ralph – Saturn reaches opposition this month and coincides with a nearby meteor shower Jeni – Jupiter in prime viewing conditions with some lovely Galilean transits Paul – We still have comet C/2015 V2 Johnson in the skies for a nice alternative distraction Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Double Double binary Alpha Lyrae Jeni - The Whirlpool Galaxy Messier 51 Paul – Globular Clusters Messiers 10 & 12 in Ophiuchus And we finish this sky guide with June’s moon phases.

This podcast extra episode comes from this year's Big Bang Fair and Jeni & Paul grabbed an interview with a Gaia mission data scientist to talk data and the efforts taken in the less-glamorous, but absolutely critical, background to provide us with the discoveries and refinements we crave from the European Space Agency's latest space-based astrometry mission. So while Paul and Jeni were there as the Sirius Space Agency explaining the science behind a mission into space on the Star Stage, they spoke to a post-doctoral researcher at Cambridge University's Data Processing Centre for the Gaia Mission. In this interview we bring you: the timelines to data capture, recovery, capture and analysis the rapid pulication of results from Gaia data a surprising discovery about the Milky Way's satellite galaxies - the Magellanic Clouds a new star cluster found hiding behind a star

The Discussion: Jeni’s missing this month as she collects transiting exoplanet data in South Africa using the SIRIUS camera on the Japanese 1.4 metre Infrared Survey Facility telescope. So Paul & Ralph take the helm and record from the AstroCamp starparty in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, discussing light pollution, the wonder of starparties and take a look at the countries which only have a solitary Awesome Astronomy downloader. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Astronomers use gravitational lensing to calculate intergalactic distances The Event Horizon Telescope gathers its data for an image of our supermassive black hole Space X demonstrates the first relaunch of previously used rocket Cassini begins its swan song in glorious style The Interview: This month we speak to Dr Dave Abergel at the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics to discuss the merit (or otherwise) of the recent creation of a substance with negative mass. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via

Download Episode! What to look out, and up, for in May. Jeni's abandoned us this month in favour of research-grade instrumentation so only Paul and Ralph pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: The planets Jupiter in the evening and Saturn in the morning Three meteor showers peaking this month A pair of comets to observe with amateur telescopes or binoculars Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Paul – The Globular Cluster Messier 5 in the constellation Serpens And we finish this sky guide with May's moon phases.