Author: Damien Phillips

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The Discussion: Jeni’s talking science conferences while Paul’s doing impressions from his Who’s Who of Yorkshire legends. Ralph runs through this month’s pick of listeners tweets & emails with a focus on exoplanets and a big congrats to listener Dustin Ruoff

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• The earliest stars formed earlier than we thought!
• NASA’s latest wow-piece is a helicopter on Mars
• The first interstellar immigrant settles in our solar system

The Interview: This month we have two short interviews – something for the adults, something for the kids: Astronomy on Tap and International Astronomical Youth Camp.

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 take a look climate change (don’t groan!):

What do you think the general (or astronomy/space) science community’s approach to the problem of climate change should be? Are you optimistic? Alan Travelbea in Vancouver, Canada.

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The Discussion: Jeni, Paul & Ralph survived the wilds of the Brecon Beacon’s AstroCamp festival of astronomy, Jeni gathers a whole heap of astronomy interviews from the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, and we read out a couple of emails requesting advice on amateur astronomy mounts, berating us for our April Fools’ Twitter gag and asking for more content relevant to the southern hemisphere.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• A galaxy containing no dark matter
• NASA launches its new exoplanet hunting satellite
• An exoplanet spotted using amateur astronomy equipment

The Interview: This month Jeni caught up with Dr Jane Greaves & Dr Phil Cigan from Cardiff University to talk about their work finding phosphorus in the Crab Nebula – and why phosphorus is so important to life.

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 take a look at atmospheres & the habitability of exoplanets:

I thought red-dwarf stars were typically much more volatile than our g-type star and, as a result, planets in a red-dwarf system would typically be bombarded by solar storms and radiation stripping away their atmospheres and making them unlikely spots for life as we know it to be found. So how is it possible to have atmospheres around rocky planets in the Trappist 1 system? Dave Schlaudt in Michigan, USA

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The Discussion: Hear Jen’s talk at Pint of Science on 20-22nd May in Cardiff, less than salubrious travel arrangements for science talks, a listener’s email from the Australian Tourist Board and keep sending us your suggestion for the best historic space mission.

The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have:

• India creates a new constellation in the sky
• A new NASA asteroid mission in the planning
• Plumes of material ejecting from asteroid Bennu
• ESA’s next exoplanet space telescope is ‘go’.
• Awaiting Beresheet’s impact on the moon
• A permanent monument to humanity long after we’ve gone as a species
• Main news story: NASA accelerate their human moon landing plans.

The Debate: Will commercial providers be the future of space flight endeavours or will the real leaps still continue to be made by huge government institutions like NASA, ESA, JAXA etc. Ralph & Paul do battle. Jen will be the judge!

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The Discussion: The Beast from the East makes practical astronomy difficult and we take a look at listeners’ emails that accuse us of imperialism, suggest we throw away some solar filters, provide an alternative look at solar system creation and reveal their own astronomy outreach experiences.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• China’s space station is about to fall out the sky
• Genetic sequencing looks at an alien find
• Did a year in space alter Mark Kelly’s DNA?
• More delays to the James Webb Space Telescope
• A new European Space Agency telescope gets the green light

Famous Astronomer: This month we give you a primer on an upcoming podcast extra on the life of recently departed Stephen Hawking.

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 take a look answering difficult questions:

I live in a part of the World with very strong religious beliefs and often get asked sensitive questions relating to faith and astronomy. I’d be interested to hear your take on this and what “polite” stock replies you give. Stefan Zietara, undisclosed location in the Middle East.