AWESOME ASTRONOMY

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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.

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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

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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)