Pythagorean Astronomy

Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the latest events from around the Solar System. Hayabusa 2 has successfully hopped down onto the surface of Ryugu, meanwhile an Israeli lander has been launched to the Moon, where it will also hop about. Further afield, there are new clues to the origin of Neptune's odd little moon Hippocamp. Down hear on Earth, the LOFAR radio telescope array has produced the first phase of its survey, containing a third of a million galaxies. With this just being 10% of the full LOFAR survey, and much larger telescopes being planned, this is just a taste of what awaits the future of radio astronomy. February 2019 also saw the official end to the Opportunity, the Mars rover which landed on Mars 15 years ago, and was last heard from in June 2018. But there was also good news about the future of Mars exploration, as ESA announced the name of its first Martian Rover, due for launch in 2020: Rosalind Franklin. The rover is being built here in the UK, and systems engineer Paul Meacham explai

Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the latest events from around the Solar System. At the start of the year, the Chinese Space Agency successfully landed their latest lander (Chang'e 4) on the far side of the Moon. The lander also carried a rover, Yutu 2, which has begun exploring the lunar surface, and a radio telescope. Further from the Sun, new analysis of data from the Cassini spacecraft has indicate that the magnificent rings of Saturn might be much younger than previously thought - and perhaps that we're lucky to be able to see them at all. There are plans for more missions to the Saturnian system, with the Dragonfly mission being proposed to fly around the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, exploring its mountains, lakes and rivers. The most prominent space news at the start of the year was the flyby of the New Horizons probe past the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 (sometimes called "Ultima Thule"). Located 6 billion miles from the Sun, the first tantalising images show a very oddly-shaped o

Chris North, Mat Allen and Sarah Roberts discuss the highlights of 2018, and look forward to 2019. From missions to the inner Solar System, landers on Mars, and rovers on asteroids, lots has happened. In 2019, we're looking forward to New Horizon's flyby of Ultima Thule out in the Kuiper Belt, more results from the asteroid belt, courtesy of both Hayabusa-2 and Osiris-Rex, and developments in commercial spaceflight. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th December 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Chris North, Matt Smith and Sarah Roberts discuss the landing of NASA's Insight probe, which is set to investigate the interior of Mars and search for Mars-quakes. Closer to home, we're celebrating 20 years of the International Space Station this month. In astrophysics research, Cardiff researchers, including Matt, were involved in a study of exploding stars, and identifying where many of the Universe's heavy elements originate. Over the past 20 years, the number of planets known outside our own Solar System has increased hugely. Many of those discoveries were made by the Kepler mission, which launched in 2009 to try to figure out just how many planets there were out there, and whether they were anything like the Earth. After a problem with its gyroscopes meant that the mission had to change its operation mode, becoming the "K2" mission, the science outputs diversified. Geert Barentsen, from NASA's Ames Research Centre, explains what Kepler's legacy is. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 1st No

Chris North, Sarah Roberts and Mat Allen discuss the launch of Bepi Colombo, which is on its way to study the planet Mercury. Meanwhile, the Hayabusa 2 mission continues its exploration of the asteroid Ryugu, while the Hubble Space Telescope has experienced a problem with its gyros - we discuss what that means for the telescope. (Update: the Hubble Space Telescope is back up and running again). Elsewhere, there are some kilonova lookalikes, and hints at the possible origins of binary neutron stars. Here on the ground, work is underway to design and build a futuristic telescope - the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Due to be completed in the early 2020s, the telescope will take images of the entire southern sky every three days, revolutionising our understanding of the way the skies change on timescales of days. Dr Amanda Bauer joins us from LSST to explain the project and what it will do for astronomy. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 1st November 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radi

Chris North, Sarah Roberts and Mat Allen discuss a number of recent news stories. One of the latest planets to be discovered, "40 Eridani A a", seems to be a lot like the fictional planet Vulcan, home to Spock in Star Trek. The RemoveDEBRIS mission has test-fired its net, and the Hyabusa 2 mission has successfully sent to rovers bouncing around the asteroid Ryugu. There's also new results from the Gaia satellite, a new wind-monitoring satellite, and the discovery of dust storms on Titan. With news of the discovery of water on Mars seeming to hit the headlines every few months, it seems time to focus on what we know about Mars and its geology. Dr Joel Davis, from the Natural History Museum in London, researches Martian geology, and explains all about its history, and what we mean when we talk about discovering water on Mars. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 27th September 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Earlier this month it was announced that an entrepreneur would like to launch an "artificial star" into orbit, adding to the mass of space junk. Chris North and Edward Gomez give their views on the matter, and how missions such as RemoveDEBRIS might help. Further afield, there's more water on Mars - or in this case beneath its surface - and ice near the poles of the Moon. While these seem like perenial stories, are these any different? On 12 August NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe, a mission to explore the Sun's corona, or atmosphere. Professor Lucie Green, from MSSL, explains how the mission will explore how the Solar System's central engine drives the solar wind, and puts it in context with our broader understanding of the Sun's effect on its surroundings. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th August 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

July's astronomy update from Chris North and Edward Gomez. It was announced this month that Jupiter has got even more moons than previously thought, with its total haul now coming in at 79! We discuss why the new moons are odd. The Very Large Telescope in Chile also made a new discovery – a very young planet forming in the dusty disk of material around its star. And back here on Earth, the MeerKAT radio telescope has been inaugurated in South Africa, producing a new image of the centre of our galaxy and making important progress towards the eventual goal Square Kilometre Array, which will be spread across Southern Africa and Australia.. But there was a more unusual announcement this month from the IceCube neutrino observatory, which is sensitive to ghostly subatomic particles called neutrinos. At the end of last year, the team worked with “traditional” astronomers, i.e. those looking at light of various wavelengths, to identify a neutrino that originated from a blazar – material surrounding a supermassive bl

There were new results about organic compounds from two places in the Solar System this month: the planet Mars and the dwarf planet Ceres. We discuss what organic compounds are, and why their discovery doesn’t mean we’ve found life, but is still an interesting find. Further afield, the ALMA telescope has been finding planets orbiting other stars. While we know of over 3000 exoplanets to date, these are the first discovered by ALMA, and were found using an innovative technique. The end of June also sees the celebration of Asteroid Day – Edward explains how to get involved with observing asteroids through Las Cumbres Observatory. Finally, we have an excerpt from a much longer interview with Prof Barry Barish, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves. This interview was in partnership with Jeni Millard from Awesome Astronomy, and if you want to hear more of what Barry had to say, then check out the full interview in our

In May 2018 we welcomed to Cardiff a Nobel Prize winner: Professor Barry Barish, who was one of the scientists who founded the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, As regular listeners will remember, LIGO made the first direct detection of gravitational waves a few years ago. Barry’s been involved with the experiments for many years, and as such was one of three recipients of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2017 for significant contributions to the detection of gravitational waves. Barry was in town to give a public talk, part of the launch of the Gravity Exploration Institute here at Cardiff University. While he was here, I teamed up with one of our PhD students, Jeni Millard, who is a presenter on the Awesome Astronomy podcast, to grab some time with Barry and speak about all things LIGO. We talked to Barry for about an hour - in case you want to skip to a particular section, there's a brief running order at https://wp.me/p4hmOz-UV

This month has seen missions large and small launch towards Mars, and new results from the Gaia satellite. Meanwhile, astronomers have been using machine learning to address a number of problems – we discuss a couple of examples which have been published recently. Finally, there have been exciting new signs of plumes from Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons – something that future missions might be able to explore in more detail.

April saw Liverpool host the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, from which there were a many new developments and discoveries, a few of which we discuss this month. The conference came just days after the NASA and ESA made the announcement that the largest astronomy project in recent times, the James Webb Space Telescope, will be delayed. It's launch has been pushed back from the (already-delayed) 2019 to 2020. In more cheery news, NASA's TESS satellite was successfully launched, with an aim of discovering thousands of new exoplanets. Meanwhile, ESA selected ARIEL to be launched in just over a decade. With a goal of characterising the atmospheres of exoplanets, Ariel will revolutionise our understanding of these alien worlds. To find our more about TESS, Ariel and other current and future exoplanet missions, I spoke to Dr Subi Sarkar, based here in Cardiff University.

Earlier this month the world was saddened to hear of the death of Professor Stephen Hawking, arguably one of the most famous physicists of recent times. He died peacefully at the age of 76, having lived with the debilitating condition of motor neurone disease which he was diagnosed with in his early 20s. Despite that he contributed hugely to science and its popularisation. This month we discuss the scientific achievements of Stephen Hawking, his inspirational impact on younger generations, as well as what he was like as a person to work with and to interact with. I'm joined by Professors Peter Coles, Mike Edmunds and Bernard Schutz, all of whom met and/or worked with Stephen. In addition, a number of members of the Cardiff Gravitational Physics Group describe what got them into physics, and the effect that role models like Stephen Hawking had on their path.

To accompany the March episode of Pythagorean Astronomy remembering Professor Stephen Hawking, we’re also releasing the uncut(!) version of the interview with Professor Peter Coles, in which he discusses the theories for which Stephen Hawking is famous – in particular Hawking radiation.

Ever taken a selfie on your birthday? Well, that's just what the Mars Rover Opportunity did to celebrate its 5000th "sol" (martian day) on Mars. This doesn't sound like much, but 5000 sols is about 14 years - not bad for a rover that was only expected to last about 3 months! The selfie - the first one Opportunity has ever taken - was thought up and coordinated by Doug Ellison, who has been involved with Opportunity (initially as an amateur, now at NASA JPL) since it landed way back in January 2004. Who better to speak to to find out what this plucky little rover has been up to for the last 5000 sols? There's also an update from on 'Oumuamua, the interstellar asteroid that came whizzing through the Solar System in late 2017. Dr Wes Fraser, from Queen's University Belfast, explains what we know, what we don't know, and what we'll probably never find out about our fleeting visitor. Oh, and why it's called the Space Cucumber...

Space is getting crowded, so the recent launch of a space glitterball (called the “Humanity Star”) by RocketLabs has irked astronomers. Our suggestion: why not go and look at the space station instead? And if you’re interested in things to not get too hyped up about, the so-called “Super Blue Blood Moon” was another example – we have suggestions on what to do if you want to see such an event (spoiler: wait for the next lunar eclipse, or just go and look at the Moon at any time…). There’s also been a slight anomaly during a launch the normally-reputable Ariane 5 rocket, and some new results about the seven-planet system TRAPPIST-1 (which we covered back in March last year) An interesting result published earlier this month was the discovery that may be more massive stars than we previously thought. With impacts on the expected number of supernovae, neutron stars and black holes there might be out there to find, the effects could be far-reaching. Find out from University of Oxford’s Dr Fabian Schneider what t

To some, astronomy is a purely a curiosity-driven activity, trying to understand more about the Universe around us. While that is the primary reason for a great many astronomers, there are many ways in which it benefits life down hear on Earth – including the saving of lives. Most recently, this became relevant in the late summer 2017, when s a number of hurricanes and storms hit the Caribbean and east coast of the the United States. Using satellite imagery, combined with techniques first developed for studying supernovae, Dr Brooke Simmons worked with astronomers and developers at the Zooniverse to create the Planetary Response Network, an online portal that allows people all over the world to guide the disaster recovery teams, particularly in regions with poor infrastructure. This month, Chris North spoke to Brooke about the development of the Planetary Response Network and its impact on the rescue efforts. But first, since this is the last episode of 2017, Chris and Edward Gomez reviewed progress in astr

Artist’s impression of the star that would not die. Image credit: NASA, ESA, G. Bacon (STSci) When a star explodes in a supernova, it’s generally assumed that once the afterglow has faded the star will never be seen again. But astronomers at Las Cumbres Observatory have found a star that seems to have refused to die. This month, Edward Gomez chats to colleague Dr. Iair Arcavi, who led the study of this unusual star. Closer to home, we’ve had an interstellar visitor in the form of asteroid (or perhaps comet) 1I/2017 U1, or ‘Oumuamua to its friends. There was a new earth-sized planet discovered around the nearby Ross 128, and a ring of dust found around the Sun’s closest neighbour, Proxima Centauri. And, of course, how would we forget another pair of merging black holes discovered by the LIGO collaboration – this time the lightest yet. For our take on all of these stories, have a listen to this week’s Pythagorean Astronomy. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 29th November 2017 as part of Pythagor

Artist’s impression of the collision of two neutron stars. Image credit: NSF/LIGO/SSU/A.Simonnet On 16th October a huge team of astronomers announced to the world that they had detected, for the first time, gravitational waves and light from the same event. That event was the collision of two neutron stars in a galaxy around 130 million light year away. The signal was first detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors, and less than two seconds later by the Fermi gamma ray satellite. Neither of those initial detections pinpointed the location particularly well, but astronomers from over 70 observatories, including Edward’s Las Cumbres Observatory, went on the hunt. A matter of hours later a new object was spotted in galaxy NGC 4993 – the afterglow of the collision. Follow-up observations told us a huge amount more about this extremely violent event, which is thought to have created huge quantities of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. The concepts involved in this are complex, and can be

Cassini at Saturn. Image credit: NASA The 15th of September marked the Cassini spacecraft’s final plunge into Saturn’s gaseous atmosphere. This grand finale marked then end of a 20 year journey, 13 of which were spent orbiting Saturn, studying the ringed planet and its extended family of moons. Here in Cardiff, Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder has been closely following Cassini, and working with some of its data. This seemed like an ideal time to gather Emily’s thoughts on the remarkable mission. September also marked “Herschel week“, in which ESA celebrated the legacy of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel launched in May 2009, and operated until April 2013. Even though the spacecraft is no longer functional, the science must go on. Some of that science involves the study of distant galaxies, and our own Professor Steve Eales leads one of the teams doing just that. With some new results in the process of being published, Steve explains why galaxies may not be behaving quite as astronomers have thought. An exten