Pythagorean Astronomy

This is a special episode - released a couple of weeks earlier than normal – that’s because we’ve got a very special story to talk about this time. A team of astronomers has detected hints that indicate the possibility that there may be life in the clouds of Venus. Despite the maybes and possibilities, this is an astonishing statement, and we’ll explore the discovery in this episode with a few of the people involved in the discovery. This month is also an anniversary of sorts. This podcast has its roots in a monthly item on the Pythagoras Trousers radio show 10 years ago this month. The format has changed over the years, with this extended version of the podcast came later, but when Rhys Phillips and I started, I don’t think we thought we’d still be going 10 years later. The focus right now is definitely on Venus. Although its surface is pretty hellish, at about 50km altitude it's much more pleasant in terms of temperature and pressure, though there's the problem of sulphuric acid clouds. To find out more,

If there’s anything that pricks up the ears in astronomy, it’s black holes. And this month we have not one, but two black hole stories. And, depending on how you count them, four black holes, though two of them no longer exist – if that sounds confusing, then don’t worry, it’ll become clear! Regular listeners will be no stranger to black holes, with them featuring regularly – largely thanks to the work of the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave experiments, which detect the subtle ripples in the fabric of spacetime as pairs of black holes merge. Those black holes are thought to be the remnants of dead stars, and are typically called “stellar mass” black holes since their masses are typically between a few and a few tens of times the mass of our Sun. The detection we’re talking about this month comes from the third observing run, and is the latest in a string of announcements as the long list of candidate events have been studied in further detail and released. Called GW190521 it was observed in May 2019, and

In astronomy, the month of July has been the month of two things: comets, and Mars. Comet Neowise, or to give it it’s full title C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, has graced the skies of the northern hemispheres, becoming the first naked eye comet for some time. Some have even argued it’s the best comet for decades. In terms of new missions, then this summer marks the best window to launch missions to Mars. These windows come around roughly every two years, or so, since that’s how long it takes for the Earth to line up with Mars’ position around its orbit. This launch window, no fewer than three countries are taking advantage of the opportunity: the United States with the Perseverance Rover, China with the Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover and the United Arab Emirates with the Hope mission. But from missions to Mars to mission to the Sun. Back in February this year the European Space Agency launched the Solar Orbiter mission to study our star and try to answer some of the remaining mysteries. With the first set of initial image

Science news stories normally revolve around something new that's been learned, or some question that’s been answered. But sometimes, and these are often the most interesting times, there’s an observation or discovery that raises a whole new set of questions – and the mystery deepens. This month we discuss two such discoveries. First of all, an unusual gravitation wave event, detected back in August 2019 and dubbed GW190814. We’ve discussed gravitational waves a number of times on Pythagorean Astronomy before – these ripples in space that are caused by, among other things, massive objects spiralling in and merging. Cardiff University researchers Dr Fabio Antonini and graduate student Charlie Hoy explain why this discovery is unusual, and what we know about the source objects. Second up is the conundrum of Fast Radio Bursts. First discovered in 2007, the latest discovery in the unravelling detective story was made by the CHIME telescope, and involves a fast radio burst that appears to repeat on a roughly 16

Amid the turmoil of not only coronavirus, but also anti-racism protests across the US and now internationally, it's been a notable month for spaceflight. At the end of May, SpaceX launched their first crewed Dragon capsule, which became the first private vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. But the private space sector is much bigger than SpaceX, and is a very international field. There are many companies based here in the UK, including Small Spark Space Systems Ltd, based here in Cardiff. Comprising around a dozen people, and led by CEO Joe Ward, SmallSpark is a relative newcomer. Joe is, in fact, one of our own - a Cardiff physics graduate from a couple of years ago. This month, Joe explains what SmallSpark is, and what the future might have in store for commercial launches from the UK. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 4th June 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The Hubble Space Telescope is 30 years old - something that even its most enthusiastic supporters couldn't have dreamt of when it launched in 1990. With the help of a host of astronomers and space scientists, Chris North explores the history of the mission and the revolutionary discoveries that have been made. Prof Anu Ojha, Director of the National Space Centre, recaps the launch of the mission and subsequent visits to repair and upgrade it. Cosmologist Prof Steve Eales (Cardiff University) explores how Hubble has reached into the most distant reaches of our Universe. Prof Jane Greaves (Cardiff University), however, delves into the hearts of star-forming regions where solar systems are in the process of forming. Closer to home, planetary scientist Prof Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester) uses Hubble to study the atmospheres of the giant planets in our Solar System, over both long and short timescales. Lastly, we look to the future, and the James Webb Space Telescope - often billed as the successor t

In these unprecendented times, it's hard to argue that much of space science and astronomy is key infrastructure, or its staff key workers. And while that's true, like many organisations work cannot simply stop altogether. The European Space Agency runs a multitude of missions, from space observatories to interplanetary explorers, and from solar probes to space stations. Prof Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at ESA, tells Chris North how the agency is coping with the lockdowns in force around the world, with staff either self-isolating or working from home. Of course, there are also astronauts on the International Space Station, and they really don't want a serious illness infecting the crew Finally, are there lessons we can learn from those who have entered isolation voluntarily, in places like Concordia Base in Antarctica, or as part of the Mars500 programme. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2nd April 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Betelgeuse is still misbehaving, though we're starting to get more information in from observations by some of the largest telescope. Astronomers are narrowing in on the possible explanations. While the dimming of Betelgeuse isn't anything to do with aliens, the SETI programme is still going with a new project designed to focus on planets around stars that might be able to detect Earth's presence. And in the centre of our galaxy there's another hint of a mysterious object - an "intermediate mass black hole" being orbited by a bunch of gas clouds. Chris, Edward and Claudia discuss what the implications might be. In space missions, it's out with the old and in with the new. NASA's Spitzer mission has ended, after over a decade and a half in space. Meanwhile, ESA's Solar Orbiter mission has launched and got underway - after a slightly bumpy start! Finally, Christina Coch has returned to Earth from the International Space Station, after a record-breaking spaceflight. What are we learning from such long duratio

The astronomy world has been a-buzz with news of Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion, which appears to be dimming. Chris North, Edward Gomez and Claudia Antolini discuss how unusual this is, and what it means for the star's future. Further afield, there's a newly identified wave in our Galactic neighbourhood, changing our understanding of the nearby region. There are also new hypotheses about the nature of some oddly-behaving gas clouds near the galactic centre - what could explain their unexpected behaviour? Finally emminent astronomer Dr Vera Rubin has been recognised in a couple of ways. A nearby galaxy which was important in developing Rubin's understanding of dark matter has been dubbed Rubin's Galaxy, and an important telescope of the future is to be official known as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Finally, Claudia has a recommendation for something space fans might be interested in... An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st Jan 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff

The final episode of 2019 includes a look back at a few things that have happened this year, and a look forward to the future. Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the developments in exoplanet discoveries, and what future missions (such as CHEOPS, Plato and Ariel) may be able to tell us about the wide range of planets out there. We've also had the visitation of interstellar Borisov, which we've discussed a-plenty on Pythagorean Astronomy. Meanwhile, IOP Wales' Engagement Officer Dr Claudia Antolini recaps why spacecraft have been visiting some of the smaller objects in our Solar System, and what we'll learn from upcoming missions such as HERA and DART. Specifically - how might they help protect the Earth one day? Finally there's one of the biggest stories of the last year - the first image of the horizon of a supermassive black hole in galaxy M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2ndJan 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

This month saw the announcement of two follow-up discoveries of two explosive events. Firstly observations of one of the highest energy ever gamma ray burst ever seen, detected back in January, have identified where it originated. Meanwhile, colleagues in Cardiff University have been searching for signs of a remnant neutron star at the heart of Supernova 1987A (which was observed to explode back in 1987) - and they may have found crucial evidence! Closer to home, there are more signs of water vapour plumes erupting from Europa, and evidence that Hygeia, one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, could be eligble to be characterised as a dwarf planet. Over recent months, there has been excitement about Comet Borisov, a comet which originated in another Solar System. Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, from Queens University Belfast, is one of a number of astronomers from all around the world studying this interstellar visitor. We also discuss the impact on asteroid and comet searches of the recent launches of large

October 2019 saw the first all-female spacewalk, and the discover of 20 new moons of Saturn. There were also more observations of interstellar comet Borisov, and evidence for the Milky Way's black hole having sent out a violent flare several million years ago. Chris and Edward discuss these latest stories. October also saw a planned hiatus in operations of the LIGO and Virgo detectors, which are mid-way through the third observing run, looking for gravitational waves. We got an update from UBC's Jess McIver and Cardiff's Duncan Macleod, who are involved with the operation of the LIGO detectors.They gave an update on how the discovery of gravitational waves unfolds, and what's planned for the rest of this observing run - including the addition of the Japanese KAGRA detector later this year. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st October 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The space news cycle was dominated for a while this month with the discovery of water vapour in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b. The planet is in the habitable zone of its star, but is somewhat larger than the Earth - what does that mean for its habitability? Meanwhile, radio astronomers have discovered the most massive neutron star found to date - close to the maximum theoretical limit. Closer to home, India's first attempt at landing on the Moon has ended in disaster, with the Vikram lander crashing onto the surface in the final moments of its journey. And we've had a new interstellar visitor - a comet which appears to have come from another solar system. What could we learn from the interloper as it whizzes through our neighbourhood? An extended edition of an original broadcast on 26th September 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The summer might be "silly season" in the press, but not so in astronomy. With peroxide on moons and belching black holes there's lots of sensible research going on for us to discuss. A number of recent rocket engine tests lead us to consider what the near future of space travel might look like, with a proposed "lunar gateway" providing a staging point for explorers. Where might they go? Perhaps as far as Jupiter's moon, Europa, where recent observations have provided more evidence of a carbon-rich environment beneath the sub-surface ocean. A tantalising place to look for life. Further afield, NASA's TESS satellite has produced its first tranche of results after a year of observations. They show intriguing worlds that fall in what's been appearing to be a "mass gap" in terms of planets, with a narrow range of masses being under-represented. On somewhat larger scales we have the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, which appeared to briefly brighten earlier this year - evidence that it may have

July 1969 was the month that the first people walked on the Moon. 12 people walked on the surface of our celestial neighbour between 1969 and 1972. Since then, humanity has been confined to low-Earth orbit. There is talk of sending people back to the Moon, on timescales that vary depending on who you talk to. There’s also talk of missions to Mars, possibly in the next few decades. But for the vast majority of the last 50 years, our exploration has been through our robotic envoys, sent to all manner of planets, moons, comets and asteroids. Some have whizzed by, while others have gone in to orbit. Some have landed on the surface, and a small number have roved or hopped around. The missions have come from a large number of nations, initially the US and Russia, and how Japan, China, Israel and Europe – including, of course, the UK. So what does the future hold for robotic exploration? Where are we sending spacecraft next and why? Dr Colin Wilson, from the University of Oxford, explains what we've learned from j

Mars is covered in craters, but most of them are very old. But new ones do appear from time-to-time, created when objects hit the surface of the red planet. That's just what happened at some point a couple of years ago, producing one of Mars' youngest craters. Higher up in Mars' atmosphere, scientists are also learning about the role the micrometeorites play in forming clouds. And how can the Moon reveal secrets about history of the Sun? Closer to home, there has been controversy about once of the latest SpaceX launches, which released 60 satellites into orbit. While impressive, and part of plans for over 10,000 such satellites in orbit, there has been some opposition from astronomers, for whom satellites are a constant irritation. But to the ends (worldwide satellite internet) justify the means? Meanwhile, over a million vounteers have been clicking away on the Galaxy Zoo website, part of the Zooniverse. Chief zookeeper Prof Chris Lintott explains what astronomers have discovered as a result of all this ef

A roundup of the month's news from around the Solar System - and beyond. You don't think of mars rovers having drawers, but that's exactly what has just been installed on the Rosalind Franklin Rover, part of ESA's ExoMars mission. This is no ordinary drawer, of course, but the "Analytical Laboratory Drawer", designed to test martian soil for the presence of biomarkers or microfossils, either of which would indicate the presence of present or past life. Closer to home, a mile-wide asteroid called 1999 KW4 has just whizzed past the Earth. It's at a relatively safe distance - 13 Earth-Moon distances, or 5 million km, but it gives us a chance to study it in more detail - including its small moon! You can also take part in the observations, at LCO's Asteroid Tracker (asteroidtracker.lco.global). The presence of a moon isn't that unusual, with many small objects having companions - and not just in the inner Solar System. Further afield, we've just had the first official publication of the results from New Horizons

14th May 2009 marked the the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel was a cornerstone mission for ESA, the European Space Agency, with the goal of unveiling the hidden Universe. In this special bonus edition of Pythagorean Astronomy, marking 10 years since Herschel's launch, Cardiff University's Dr Chris North finds out how it did this, and what astronomers have uncovered over the past decade. Such missions take a lot of planning, and Herschel was decades in the making. But they also far outlive the operational lifetime of the spacecraft itself. Herschel’s liquid helium coolant ran out on 29th April 2013, and the spacecraft was switched off shortly afterwards. With 25,000 observations in the bag, and having imaged around 10% of the sky, scientific discoveries are still being made with data from Herschel. But what have we learned from Herschel, and what is there still to learn? We’ve had a lot of involvement in Herschel here in Cardiff University, from the design and build of the scientific instr

A roundup of the month's news from around the Solar System - and beyond. Starting with the Moon, where the first attempt by a privately funded organisation to land on the Moon has ended in a crash-landing. Despite the sad end, the Beresheet mission was otherwise a success, and a promising start for privately funded missions around the Solar System. Further afield, there are new results from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission, which is studying Mars' atmosphere. Beyond Mars, an analysis of the Cassini spacecraft's last images of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has thrown up a few surprises about its lakes. And beyond our Solar System, a study of the environment around Proxima Centauri, the Sun's nearest neighbour, has shed light on the possible conditions on its planet - Proxima b. But the most exciting story of the month was the image of the black hole in M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope. Actually a number of telescope working together, the array has provided us with the first view of material around an

In December 2018 an object hit the Earth's atmosphere at over 100,000 kph over the Arctic Ocean, entirely unnoticed, until the orange streak was spotted in satellite imagery. Meanwhile, two missions are currently exploring much larger asteroids - Japan's Hyabusa-2 mission to Ryugu and NASA's Osiris-REX mission to Bennu. Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the unexpected impact and the latest results from Hayabusa-2, showing that Ryugu is a "rubble pile" rather than a solid object. Meanwhile, out on the edge of the observable Universe astronomers have been studying a galaxy, seen as it was just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The composition of the galaxy implies that its stars are not the first - and at least one generation has come before. We are used to discussing distant galaxies in astronomy these days, but in fact it was less than 100 years ago that we had proof of galaxies beyond our own. That discovery in the 1920s led to astronomers discovering that the Universe is, in fact,