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PODCAST

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

Awesome Astronomy explores the frontiers of science, space and our evolving understanding of the universe. Join Ralph, Paul & Jeni for informative and fun astronomy programmes dedicated to space and astronomy news and monthly podcast extras covering hot topics and special interviews in the world of science and astronomy.

science astronomy

All Episodes

53:46

#134 August 2023 Pt2 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/08/16

For this podcast extra, we return to NAM 2023, this year held at Cardiff University. We’re delighted to bring you the conversational style of Dr Stephen Wilkins, public engagement extraordinaire. Dr Stephen is an STFC Public Engagement Fellow (so you know this talk will be just brilliant) and serves as a Director of Outreach and Public Engagement for the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex. This episode, we have the Tale of Two Telescopes, exploring NASA’s new

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01:21:50

#134 - August 2023 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/08/01

This month we have a packed show, with stories about the European space agency launching a new space telescope to study The Dark Universe. India going to the moon with Chandrayaan-3, astereroid boulders, a key ingredient for life just 1 billion years into the Universe’s history, measuring a crater with highway seismology, hot lava piles on the moon, and a farewell to Ariane 5. We discuss observing meteor showers in our monthly skyguide and we ask the important question- where would you let superman

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48:06

How to grow a supermassive black hole with Dr Becky...

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/07/18

Once a year, astronomers descend upon an unsuspecting UK city in the greatest gathering of astronomically curious minds: the National Astronomy Meeting, otherwise known as NAM (no, not that ‘Nam, though it is quite the battle of the minds). Jen was lucky enough to attend this year and this episode is the first in a series of talks recorded at NAM 2023. We’re delighted to bring you the expertise of none other than Dr Becky Smethurst of Oxford University (you may know her as Dr Becky on Youtube). In

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01:02:47

#133 Awesome Astronomy July 2023

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/07/01

It's a summer vacation special with Jeni in the mountains of South America astronomising at altitude and visiting the Vera C Rubin telescope as well as obstech. We have an interview with a Vera Rubin Observatory astronomer as well as a skyguide and an astronomy news round up.

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20:51

Interview with Dr Kathy Thornton

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/06/15

We chat to Dr Kathy Thornton, nuclear physicist turned NASA astronaut who went on to fly on four Space Shuttle missions. Dr Thornton flew for over 40 days and completed over 21 hours of EVA, including the famous operation to fix the blurry Hubble Space Telescope. We talk about her life as an astronaut, the Hubble fix and that fateful day in mission-control on Columbia's last re-entry.

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01:22:30

#132 - June 2023 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/06/01

This month Jeni and Paul talk about the recent supernova in galaxy M101; volcanic exoplanets; the growing observational evidence putting the current Big Bang theory under strain and the history of water on both Earth and Mars. There is discussions on alien contact; exoplanet detection and how long it would take to accelerate to the speed of light. Paul does a summer reading book review with three space books to keep you entertained on the beach this summer. Jeni has a look at the Juice mission,

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48:00

Skylab 50 - Interview with Astronaut Jack Lousma

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/05/14

To celebrate the Skylab 50th anniversary here is one our favourite astronaut chats from 2012 where we caught up with Skylab 3 and STS-3 astronaut, Jack Lousma. Jack was also capcom during Apollo 13 and he tells us about taking that ominous ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’ call and how they solved each life-threatening issue in sequence to get the astronauts back alive. He talks about missing out on flying Apollo 20 to the moon, being a crew member on the Skylab space station and taking one of the

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01:20:04

#131 - May 2023 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/05/01

This month Paul and Jeni in astronomy news talk about new data on the M87 blackhole, the architecture of planetary systems, the hottest stars, an impact crater in France and how Mars might not have been oxygen rich. In exploration news there is the latest on JUICE and they welcome an old friend back to the show to talk about Starship. There is a review of the recent AstroCamp where the team witnessed one of the biggest geomagnetic storms of recent times and saw one of the most impressive Auroral

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27:20

Interview with Joshua Western CEO of Space Forge

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/04/15

Jeni visits Space Forge for an update on their mission to build reusable satellites to manufacture materials that that are impossible on the ground. She talks to CEO Joshua Western about that fateful launch from Cornwall on Virgin's Cosmic Girl, how they are getting ready for their next test aboard a Falcon 9, their re-entry tech nicknamed 'Mary Poppins in Space' and the company's future plans to scale up the manufacturing process from grams to tons!

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01:12:44

#130 - April 2023 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/04/01

In this episode Jeni and Paul talk about exoplanet atmospheres, the latest thinking on solar system visitor Oumuamua, Vigin Orbit's woes, Relativity's 3D success, and the oldest orbiting satellite. There is the sky guide for April, a discussion about what new telescope Jeni should buy and listener emails, as well as Paul's miserable weather and Jeni's gala dinner talk for International Women's Day.

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26:06

Interview with Solar Astronomer Professor Robert Walsh

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/03/15

Paul takes time out from outreach at the Festival of Tomorrow at the Swindon STEAM museum to chat with Professor Robert Walsh of the University of Central Lancashire, who with artist Alex Rinsler has created a giant representation of the Sun as an outreach and art project that uses the data of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. They talk about solar science, the coronal heating problem, sounding rockets, space missions professor Walsh has been involved with, space weather and why he has his own

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01:05:53

#129 - March 2023 Awesome Astronomy

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/03/01

In this episode Jeni tells us about her TEDx talk, dressing up for Mama Mia and eating insane burgers, while Paul appears to have started a modelling career. In astronomy news the team explore the latest JWST findings that may have broken cosmology and changed everything we thought we knew about the history of the universe, as well as a potential new explanation for dark energy and black holes. There is the sky-guide looking at the highlights for March as well as the Messier marathon, while in

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39:38

Interview with Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/02/15

Interview with astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell Jeni talks to the legendary discoverer of pulsars, champion of women in science and Oxford University astronomer about her astronomy career, inspirations, motivations and key discoveries.

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01:02:55

#128 - February 2023

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/02/01

The Discussion: Our dark sky practical astronomy event, AstroCamp Farewell Apollo 7’s Walt Cunningham Comet C2022 E3 ZTF reaches naked eye brightness The News: Rounding up the astronomy news in February, we have: Incredible finding: stars have not always been made the same way throughout the history of the Universe The debacle of the first space launch from UK soil 3 rocky water worlds found by the Kepler Space Telescope The big news story: a decade-long study finds light pollution is worse

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48:43

Interview with Chris Lee

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/01/15

Bringing back the much-missed Awesome Astronomy interviews with a bang, we’re joined by friend of the show Chris Lee. Chris began his career in the 80s in the UK space industry at British Aerospace, Matra Marconi and SCISYS where he worked on the Hubble Space Telescope, the Giotto mission to Halley’s Comet, Beagle 2, Exomars and LISA Pathfinder. He then became the UK Space Agency’s first Head of International Space Policy and then Head of Space Science Programmes before becoming Chief Scientist

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01:16:34

#127 - January 2023

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2023/01/01

The Discussion: A refreshed format coming to Awesome Astronomy in 2023 A look back at the festive season The News: Rounding up the astronomy news in November, we have: Something in the solar system is producing light that’s not unaccounted for A leak on the International Space Station’s lifeboat NASA’s Mars lander comes to an end A new way to look for aliens The big news story: As the UK gets ready to launch space vehicles for the first time, we take a look at the long history of UK space

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54:35

End of Year Show

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2022/12/24

*** Beware, stiff profanity (phnar phnar) in the outtakes at the end *** Our Christmas Pantomime sees the Awesome Astronomy crew exploring strange new worlds on the Astronomy Star Ship (ASS) Penetrator. Between the puerile skits you’ve come to expect from our end of year shows, we bring you a roundup of the best astronomy and space exploration news from 2022. And, of course, a look forward to the highlights to come in 2023. To all our listeners, a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and a

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01:07:44

#126 - December 2022

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2022/12/01

The Discussion: Meteor shower disappointment Lecturing course started Dr Jen’s 30th birthday party karaoke – with audio! more resources for astronomy and astrophotography over at nightskypix.com The News: Rounding up the astronomy news in November, we have: JWST picks up chemical reactions in an exoplanet atmosphere ESA’s latest astronaut recruitment Virgin Galactic gets go ahead to launch from Cornwall UK spaceports pop up all over the place Rocket Lab continue chasing the reusable rocket

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53:10

#125 - November 2022 Part 1

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2022/11/01

The Discussion: Enjoying the recent eclipse (weather permitting) Jeni is officially recognised as being great Visiting the Herschel Museum And listeners’ emails on: Having astronomy on the brain Cartoon characters in space A reflection of Venus off swamp gas! The News: Rounding up the astronomy news in November, we have: Why spiral galaxies seem to line up from our perspective The origin story for Saturn’s rings Still waiting for NASA’s first Artemis moon mission Farewell Apollo 9’s Jim

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59:09

Rendlesham Forest Incident

AWESOME ASTRONOMY ·

2022/10/15

Christmas 1980. Suffolk, England. Two US airmen witness what they believe is an aircraft coming down in the forest next to their base. So begins the story of the UKs most notorious UFO sighting, the Rendlesham Forest incident. Paul dives head first into a 'Hat of Woo' special as he explores the mysterious forest of Rendlesham on the Suffolk coast and considers what this famous conspiracy story says about time and place and of course what really happened.

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