Author: Damien Phillips

Download Episode!

The Discussion: Jeni and her Welsh brethren suffered an Earthquake and Ralph takes a look through listeners emails which prompts a discussion about the range of educational outreach that AweAst listeners undertake.

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

• A new and pointless star ‘graces’ our night sky
• We wave goodbye to the concept of the Late Heavy Bombardment
• Astronomers publish results on the oldest supernova detection
• Astronomy Concept: We delve into the wide array of visual observation and astrophography filters in response to John Lonergan’s request.

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 the nature of black holes:

1) I heard in the reporting that the black hole had a physical spin. Does that support the idea that a black hole cannot be a singularity/point since it has a physical spin?

2) The merging black holes lost multiple solar masses in the merging process. If the mass loss wasn’t from outside the event horizons, then what was that huge mass loss mechanism when supposedly “nothing can escape from a black hole”?

3) Can gravitational waves eventually be used by astronomers to probe the interior of a black hole?” Lt Col Dave from Florida USA

Download Episode!

The Discussion: Friend of the show and lecturer at Jeni’s Cardiff University, Dr Ed Gomez is launching a Kickstarter project to create and distribute a children’s comic book to encourage children to take an interest and career in science. Jeni tells us about Ada’s Adventures in Science, which you can give your support to at http://kck.st/2DI43hg. Paul suffers the adverse effects of being travelling science salesman and Ralph reads out some listeners’ emails – including one interesting email that suggests ‘Kim Jen Un’ may be getting into peoples’ heads.

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

• An update from Cassini on the strange orbits of Saturn’s moon Janus and Epimetheus and a look at a research paper shedding light on the ring they create around the gas giant.
• We mourn the loss of yet another Apollo astronaut as we say goodbye to John Young with a look back at his NASA career.
• Recent analysis of Martian meteorites and current Martian atmospheric constituents tempers our optimism that Mars had a long history of habitability.

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 the end of our galaxy as we know it:

In 2 million years or so, when we merge with Andromeda, would you notice anything much different from Earth? Or just another Milky Way type structure in the night sky, assuming we merge at an angle? Sean Mulcahy from Yorkshire, UK via Twitter (@sfgmulcahy)

Download Episode!

The Discussion: Paul avoids the big freeze with astronomy cheats, Ralph reads out the latest good and bad reviews, while Jeni becomes a ‘Who’s Who’ question at Cardiff University!

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

• Voyager 1 shows it still has the skills and prolongs its own life
• An update on the extrasolar asteroid that just buzzed our solar system
• Physicists observe a reversal of the arrow of time in laboratory experiments
• The European Southern Observatory image convective cells on another star
• NASA reveals its next two major planetary exploration missions

Science Concept: This month we return to astronomy-related concepts as we delve back into the quantum world for a primer on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and why you cannot know both the position and velocity of a particle.

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 the upcoming astronomical highlights:

What is the one thing in the world of astronomy that each of you is looking forward to in 2018? Steve Brown from Yorkshire via Twitter (@sjb_astro)