Pythagorean Astronomy Chris North and Edward Gomez
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- Science
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>Astronomy news and interviews with scientists involved in the discoveries.
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Dust to dust
Edward Gomez and Chris North discuss names going to Jupiter on the Europa Clipper mission, which is currently being assembled. Then there is a new cannibal star, suspected of eating its own planets, and the detection of new "Galactic Streams" of stars that all formed together but have since spread out through the Galaxy. Finally, we move onto planet formation and the detection of ices in forming planetary systems.
But where does all that planet-forming material come from originally? Haley Gomez and Cosimo Inserra tell us about a new object that's changing our view of where all the dust in the Universe originates. -
XRISM and Matter's Final Screams
This month Edward and Chris talk the recent lunar missions - Astrobotic's Peregrine and Japan's SLIM. There's also the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars on what turned out post-recording to be it's final flight! Further afield we talk mega-structures on a galactic scale and asteroids crashing to Earth.
January also saw the first light from the XRISM satellite, the latest X-ray satellite. We hear from Prof Chris Done (University of Durham and University of Tokyo) about the mission and the future of x-ray astronomy. -
2023 Review and 2024 look-ahead
Chris North and Edward Gomez review some stories from 2023, with asteroid missions, lunar rovers and aurora sightings. Plus a look forward to 2024, including launches of missions to asteroids and Jupiter's moons, and more commercial missions to the moon.
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The "What the Heck" Particle
Chris and Edward discuss the announcement of the detection of a highly energetic cosmic ray, dubbed "Amerterasu" or the "What the Heck" particle. Elsewhere, there is a new study of star formation in "pristine" dwarf galaxies, and the first every discovery of a disc around a star in another galaxy!
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Planet Bashing and Dipsticks of the Universe
Recorded in late October, Chris and Edward discuss recent proposals for an all-British mission to space, the launch of Psyche to...erm...Psyche, and Edward's involvement with the detection of something called a Synestia - planets bashing together.
Cardiff University also hosted Prof Duncan Lorimer, who was jointly awarded the 2023 Shaw Prize for the detection of "Fast Radio Bursts". These mysterious cosmic events seemingly come form nowhere, but provide an intersting way of investigating energetic processes in the Universe. They also make a nice "dipstick of the Universe". Prof Lorimer spoke to Chris about their detection, what we're learning about them, and his career to date
Contents:
00:00 British space mission
05:20 Psyche mission
10:15 Synestia and planet bashing
16:50 Prof Duncan Lorimer and Fast Radio Bursts -
Life, but not as we know it?
Chris and Edward discuss some recent stories, such as tantalising possible (emphasis on the possible) detections by JWST of interesting molecules on an exoplanet which coul (emphasis on the could) indicate signs of life. There's also new data on Europa, also from JWST, showing carbon dioxide on its surface - what does this mean? And further afield, astronomers have used ALMA to measure magnetic fields in incredibly distant galaxies, opening a potential new way to study the early Universe.
Customer Reviews
Accessible and stretching
I love listening to this, not that I understand everything that’s discussed, but most of it makes sense to my limited understanding of physics.
Yet even those areas which are over my head are explained in a way that lets me get a general jist of the topic at hand with enough info for me to explore further should I want to.
The enthusiasm of the hosts is contagious while also being very informative.
I thoroughly encourage anyone with any amount of interest in the cosmos to listen to this.
Perfectly pitched
I really enjoy this podcast. While aimed at the non astrophysicist it also doesn’t patronise. Full of fascinating info.
Great show!
Current astronomical affairs show, well-presented. Occasionally let down by variable sound levels with some of the non-studio items but worth listening, nonetheless :-)