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PODCAST

Pythagorean Astronomy

Chris North and Edward Gomez

Astronomy news and interviews with scientists involved in the discoveries. Hosted by Dr Chris North (Cardiff University) and Dr Edward Gomez (Las Cumbres Observatory).

science & medicine natural sciences

All Episodes

00:40:39

Hopping spacecraft and Rosalind the Rover

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2019/03/01

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

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00:28:26

Cartwheeling snowmen and raining rings

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2019/01/31

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

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00:17:18

2018: a year in space

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/12/30

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

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00:31:40

Kepler's Legacy

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/11/29

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

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00:32:30

Changing with the times

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/11/01

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

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00:40:12

Vulcans, dust storms, and Water on Mars

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/09/27

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

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00:27:16

Parking near the Sun

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/08/30

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

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00:44:12

Icy Moons and Ice Cubes

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/07/25

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

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00:26:41

Organics, asteroids and Nobel Prize winners

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/06/28

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

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01:11:48

Bonus: In conversation with a Nobel Prize Winner

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/06/27

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

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00:24:14

Missions to Mars and plumes from Europa

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/05/31

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.

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00:35:26

Exoplanet Missions and EWASS roundup

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/04/25

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

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00:39:23

Remembering Stephen Hawking

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/03/28

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

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00:18:47

March Bonus: Stephen Hawking's Theories

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/03/28

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.

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00:55:17

Tumbling Space Cucumbers and 5000 sols on Mars

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/02/28

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

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00:34:38

Glitterballs, habitable exoplanets and supermassive...

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2018/01/31

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

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00:43:06

Planetary Response Network and 2017 Review

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2017/12/30

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

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00:29:30

The Star That Would Not Die

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2017/11/29

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

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00:27:59

Gravity and Light

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2017/10/25

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

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00:29:50

Cassini’s Grand Finale

Pythagorean Astronomy ·

2017/10/03

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

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