Pythagorean Astronomy

In the last month there was a show of the Northern Lights - or aurora - visible from the UK. If you didn't get to see it (spoiler: neither did we!), then you might get a chance in the future if there's another outburst. Edward Gomez and Chris North discuss how to increase your chances of seeing them next time there's an alert. In science news, some new thoughts on how the Moon could have formed, and an intriguing (and controversial) story about how balck holes might - possibly - be the answer to the mystery of dark energy. Chris also continues the conversation started in the last episode with Dr Ian Harrison and Dr Bob Watson about observing the cosmic microwave background. This time we discuss the advantages and challenges of launching in to space, and the problems caused by increasing numbers of satellites. There's also a new observatory being built in Chile - the Simons Observatory - which will present a huge leap forward in ground-based observations of the early Universe.

Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the first attempt to launch a rocket from UK soil, albeit via a piggyback on (or under) a plane. There's also an interesting supernova, the first exoplanet confirmation from JWST. Meanwhile, on Mars, does no news mean bad news for China's Zhurong rover? We also speak to Dr Ian Harrison, from Cardiff University, and Dr Bob Watson, from the University of Manchester, about the telescopes that are trying to unpick what happened at the dawn of time, by looking at the Universe's oldest light, and how a telescope in Tenerife is helping.

The 25th December marks an anniversary in the world of astronomy (as well as Sir Isaac Newton's birthday, of course) - the launch of JWST, the infrared space telescope launched to explore the Universe in unprecedented detail. One year on from launch, Chris North and Edward Gomez look at a few of the results that have come in, on top of those we've covered previously. From our own solar system, to the birth of stars, and out towards the first galaxies, the results have covered a huge range of scales in both space and time. That's thanks to the remarkable scientific instruments onboard JWST, including cameras and spectrometers. But it's not just the formation of objects that it's looked at - JWST can give unique insights into the deaths of stars as well. Dr Mikako Matsuura and Dr Roger Wesson, both at Cardiff University, explain what they've been discovering about "planetary nebulae".

With the Artemis I mission mid-mission (at the time of recording), Chris North and Edward Gomez look at what this means for the future of human space exploration, and more ambitious missions to the Moon (and beyond). Meanwhile, back here on Earth, the European Space Agency have announced their next crop of astronauts. The list includes three British astronauts, and in particular John McFall, the first para-astronaut. What does that mean for the diversity of people who can travel into space. In terms of science, we highlight the analysis of the atmosphere of an exoplanet, and studies of the structure of dust storms on Mars.

At the end of September, NASA's DART mission was deliberately crashed into the asteroid Dimorphos. Not carelessness, but a deliberate act with a view to testing planetary defense. After all, if we discover something large heading towards Earth, we might want to be able to nudge it off course. Here in Wales, the Comet Chasers team took a diversion from observing comets to looking at Dimorphos with the Las Combres Observatory global network of telescopes. But they weren't the ones doing the observing - that work is done by school children and members of the public at festivals and the like. Team members Cai Stoddard-Jones, Helen Usher and Prof Paul Roche explain the purpose of the mission, what it's taught us, and what contribution the school students have been making to "help NASA".

This is the second part of a gravitational field trip to the LIGO Hanford Observatory in Washington State, in the US. Last month we talked about how the detectors work, and the scientists and engineers who operate them. This time, we take a longer-term look, not just into the future but also into the past, and ask what it took to get here, and what the future holds. Dr Mike Landry, Head of LIGO Hanford Observatory, and Dr Fred Raab, Associate Director of Operations at LIGO explains what it takes to run an observatory. We hear about some of the technical details from Dr Georgia Mansell. And Corey Gray explains his route to becoming a Senior Operatory at LIGO Hanford, and the impact of his Native American heritage.

This month, we go on a field trip to the LIGO Hanford Observatory, one of a number of detectors that are searching for gravitational waves. In part one of this trip, we hear from a number of people working at the detector. Dr Mike Landry, Head of the LIGO Hanford Observatory, explains how, and crucially why, the experiment exists. Dr Fred Raab, Associate Director for Operations for LIGO, looks back to why the desolate landscape of Hanford was selected in the first place. Looking at the technical details, Drs Georgia Mansell and Craig Cahillane give some insights into commissioning and upgrading the detectors, while Corey Gray tells us about operating such a complex machine, and learning to fabricate one of the critical components - glass fibres that suspend the mirrors.

Amateur astronomers regularly make important contributions to astronomy research. That can be through observations of meteor showers, or images of solar system objects. But it's not always about pretty pictures, and some amateurs also make measurements that feed into our understanding of a broad range of astronomical phenomena, providing a network of telescopes that far outnumbers the professional astronomers. Ian Sharp is a member of a group of astronomers who have been making observations of something called "Post Common Binary Evolution" stars, two stars which have gone through an interesting phase of their evolution. The team carefully measure` the times at which one star appears to partially eclipse the other. By establishing when those eclipse vary differ from predictions the team can provide evidence to prove, or disprove, the existence of planets orbiting the stars. This requires careful observation and analysis, which the team of astronomers have been undertaking for a number of years. Their research is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a scientific journal used and respected by professional astronomers. Ian also discusses what got him into amateur astronomy, and how that has changed over the decades.

In the 65 years since Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957, the number of artificial satellites in orbit has been increasing. In the last two years, the number of satellites has doubled, largely thanks to the huge "constellations" launched by companies such as SpaceX. The number of satellites has a detrimental impact on astronomical observations, both with professional telescopes and by amateur astronomers. Dr Meredith Rawls, from University of Washington, is planning observations with the Vera Rubin Observatory, while Professor Andy Lawrence is a Regius Professor at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. With forecasts indicating up to 100,000 satellites in a matter of years, a 20-fold increase on today's numbers, there could be serious implications for astronomers around the world. But what has led to this increase in satellites? Dr Moribah Jah, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Privateer Space, explains why there are so many satellites being launched, and what the risks are both for satellites and down here on Earth. There are proposed solutions, but they require geopolitical collaboration. Further afield, this month saw the first images of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Edward Gomez discusses the implications of the detection, and what it might tell us about the evolution of galaxies.

It's not often that a new astronomical phenomenon is named, but this month we have a new one. The name might not be that original, but there have been the first observations of something known as a "micronova". Lasting just a few hours, a micronova is much fainter than a typical "nova", making them much harder to detect, and much less likely to be picked up. Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss what causes these events. Coming closer to home, spaceflight has been busy, with two missions to the Space Station in April - one part of the normal rotation of astronauts, and the other a privately-funded mission from SpaceX. Does this mean that space travel is becoming routine? And is that even a good thing? Most of our exploration of space is, of course, done by robotic spacecraft, and NASA have just announced extensions to a number of their ongoing missions. Some of which have already been going for over 20 years - take a bow, Mars Odyssey! From rovers on Mars to lunar mappers, and from asteroid encounters to voyagers into the unknown, there's still more exciting science to come from these missions.

With the invasion of Ukraine casting a shadow over the world, Chris North and Edward Gomez look at the impact of the war on astronomy and space science, mindful that these pale in importance when compared with the death and destruction taking place on the ground. From the international collaboration taking place on board the International Space Station, to the use of Russian rockets. Also at stake is the future of the Rosalind Franklin Rover, a European-Russian collaborative mission that was due to launch later this year. Elsewhere in the world, NASA have shown off their newest rocket - the Space Launch System, or SLS. The missions it allows should be impressive, but how does the huge price tag compare to other options? And finally, how does one de-detect a black hole? Sometimes in science, you have to take one step back to take two steps forward!

Back in September 2020, the new broke that an unexpected gas, phosphine had been discovered in the atmosphere of Venus. While plans for making further measurements are progressing, the theoreticians have been hard at work modelling the atmosphere, and trying to explain how life could possibly exist in such a harsh environment Dr William Bains, of Cardiff University and MIT, is part of a team who have developed a model that helps explain how microbial life might make the atmosphere of Venus more hospitable. On the way, it also solves a few other mysteries about our nearest planetary neighbour's atmosphere. From an excess of water and oxygen to the disappearance of sulphur dioxide, and potentially non-spherical particles, could this be the solution that solves all of the mysteries?

When a mysterious signal was found by an undergraduate student, Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker was perplexed. It was hiding in archival data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a large network of radio antennas in Western Australia. Based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Natasha started to loop deeper. Repeating every 18 minutes, and initially found at only one frequency, the signal showed signs of being something astronomers have been searching for decades - radio transmissions from an intelligent species. It's not a much of a spoiler to say that it wasn't aliens (it's never aliens!), but repeating radio signals with this period hadn't been seen before, and were very hard to explain at first. This month, Natasha explains to Chris how the discovery unfolded, why it might have been aliens, why it wasn't aliens, what else it couldn't be, and what the current favourite theory is - something called a magnetar, but one which was behaving in a very unusual way.

The first interstellar object to be discovered was 'Oumuamua, detected in 2017. Joined by Comet 2I/Borisov a couple of years later, astronomers are eagerly awaiting further discoveries of such objects, which were ejected from other solar systems. We explore what the link is between these interstellar objects and the history of star formation around the galaxy, thanks to new research by Prof Chris Lintott, Dr Ted Mackereth and Dr Michele Bannister. Chris and Ted explain how these two seemingly disconnected fields have led to new hypotheses about what we might learn from future observations.

The world of astronomy is eagerly awaiting the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope later in December. The telescope is not without controversy, but is set to revolutionise observations of the cosmos. Prof Pete Hargrave was responsible for building a calibration source for MIRI, the Mid-Infrared Imager, while Dr Tim Davis will be observing nearby galaxies to study the roles of black holes. Meanwhile, Dr Mikako Matsuura is hoping to study the final stages of stars' lives, while Dr Subi Sarkar will be using the full range of wavelengths the telescope's instruments will capture to understand the composition of atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System.

Back in 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft whizzed past Pluto on its way out of the Solar System. A few years later, as it continued on its way through the Kuiper Belt, it passed by a snowman-shaped object called Arrokoth. More recently, it's discovered two objects that are in fact four - binary objects comprised of two smaller objects orbiting each other. As Dr James Robinson, from the University of Edinburgh explains, the discovery of these objects is very useful for understanding the Kuiper Belt, and the different groups of objects within. In turn, that is important for understanding the formation of our Solar System. Closer in, the Lucy spacecraft has recently launched on its way out to the Trojan asteroids, location near Jupiter. The first mission to these unusual objects, Lucy will shed light on a type of object we've never seen before.

Way back in 1181 AD, astronomers in China and Japan recorded a "guest star" - something that we'd now call a supernova. Over 800 years later, astronomers made a connection between this ancient observation and more recent studies of a very unusual object that goes by the name of "Parker's Star". Prof Quentin Parker, from University of Hong Kong, explains how he and his team made the link, displacing a previously favoured object. And it seems that this was no common or garden supernova, but an incredibly rare "Type 1ax" supernova.

The last month or so has seen several cases of small things being discovered. The first is an asteroid, 2021 27PH, which gets closer to the Sun than Mercury. What could we learn about fundamental science from such an object? The second is one of the smallest exoplanets detected, at less than half the mass of Venus. It orbits very close to its star, and would have very high temperatures on its surface, so it's not a place to look for life (at least not as we know it). But finding planets so small, even around a relatively close star, shows just how sensitive these detection methods are getting. But the focus of this month is not planets or asteroids, but moons. Specifically, the formation of "exomoons" - moons orbiting planets around another star. Detected using the ALMA telescope array, this is the first time we've seen this happening, and has intriguing implications for our understanding of the formation of our own Solar System. Dr Stefano Facchini, from University of Milan, explains how this discovery was made, and what we're learning from it.

In late June an interesting object was discovered heading inwards from the outer solar system, identified in archival images from a survey of the sky. It was initially thought to be worth keeping an eye on over the next decade or so, as it approaches the orbit of Saturn before heading back out to the outer reaches - a chance to keep an eye on a distant wanderer. Further observations have shown that 2014 UN271 (its official designation) appears to be active, with a coma and tail like a comet - unusual for an object so far from the Sun. If it is a comet, becoming Comet Bernadinelli-Bernstein, it could be the largest on record, possibly more than 100km across. This month Dr Meg Schwamb, from Queens University Belfast, explains where this objects fits in terms of the size and scale of the Solar System, while Dr Tim Lister, from Las Cumbres Observatory, explains what he and colleagues have found from those early follow-up observations. Find out what to expect over the next decade from this icy visitor, and how future telescopes should help us find out quite how unusual it is.

Our understand of the Universe has changed a great deal in the last 100 years. From Einstein's theories of relativity and measurements of the expanding Universe, to the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background and the mysterious Dark Energy. But what are the current mysteries and unknowns that we still want to uncover? And how much is our progress guided by technological developments? Dr Ian Harrison, currently at the University of Oxford, but shortly to return to Cardiff University, studies increasingly precise observations from many different telescopes and observatories, comparing them to theoretical predictions. Dr Samantha Stever, from Okayama University, and formerly an undergraduate here in Cardiff, works on the design and build of scientific instruments designed to make these incredibly precise measurements, including the LiteBIRD satellite currently being built. Between Ian and Samantha, we can journey from our early developments in theoretical understanding the Universe and the initial measurements, to the latest technological achievements that are allowing us to test the current theories to their limits.

This month, we're joined by two people who've just been elected to prestigious roles in science here in the UK. Professor Mike Edmunds has just become President-elect of the Royal Astronomical Society, while Professor Bernard Schutz has recently been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Both these societies have a long history, and we discuss their role in the development of science in the UK, and how it has changed. Mike and Bernard have both been here in Cardiff for nearly 50 years, and have seen the way science is done change significantly over that period. But what are their thoughts about the future of astronomy, and of science in general? What are the challenges facing the two societies, and science in general, in the aftermath of the Coronavirus pandemic? What do they think we should we do to protect future of science, and possibly humanity?

Last September, a team of scientists led by Professor Jane Greaves announced the detection of a rare gas, phosphine, in the atmosphere of Venus. With no plausible explanations of how it could be there, one possibility remaining was that it was being produced by some sort of microbial life floating in the cloud decks of Venus. The idea was seen as preposterous by some, and others even questioned the validity of the detection itself. This month, Jane gives an update on the process of double and triple checking their result, and what the latest is on this exciting process of scientific discovery. It even features 1970s spacecraft! And could there possibly be a spacecraft sent to Venus in just a few years?

Where were you on 28th February 2021, just before 10pm? If you were in parts of Wales, or the west of England, you may have seen a bright flash streaking in the sky. This was a fireball - a bright kind of meteorite which is a special sight in its own right. But this was a very special fireball, as the object that created it landed on the ground and has been found, collected and is under analysis right now. To add to the magic, it's also an incredibly special kind of meteorite, and includes some incredibly old material. To learn about the process of finding, collecting and studying these rare finds, as well as what they can tell us about the origins of the Earth, we hear from Dr Martin Suttle and Dr Helena Bates from the Natural History Museum.

The idea of life elsewhere is not a new one. Hundreds of years ago it was assumed that there were beings everywhere, before such views were considered heretical, and the determination that places like the Moon were dry airless worlds started to reduce the possible places life could thrive. But even as recently as the mid-20th Century, the idea of vegetation on the surface of Mars was not considered crazy. As the dry, arid nature of Mars became clear, and the hot, hellish surface of Venus was revealed, hope of finding life, or certainly intelligent life, all but disappeared. There was a flurry of interest in the mid-1990s, when a meteorite that originated on Mars seemed to show signs of fossils of tiny lifeforms. Those turned out to be the product of geology. But the search goes on, not just in our Solar System, but also beyond. This month, we are joined by Professor Abel Mendez, who is a physicist and astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico, based at Arecibo. We got on to shadow biospheres and technosignatures, but we began by going back to basics, with Abel explaining why we even go searching for life elsewhere.

Over the course of the next month, we'll see the arrival at Mars of not one, not two, but three spacecraft: Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, with its little helicopter Ingenuity; the Chinese Space Agency's Tianwen-1 mission, which comprises an orbiting spacecraft, a landing platform and a rover; and the UAE's Hope mission, which is an orbiting spacecraft. In this episode we'll be hearing about the upcoming missions to Mars, as a bit of insight into the Chinese Space Programme. Of course, a sensible question is: why all the interest in Mars? It's a dead planet now – or certainly pretty dead – but perhaps that wasn’t always the way. To find out more I spoke to Dr Peter Fawden, whose expertise is the geological history of Mars. Peter is based at the Open University where he works on the imaging cameras of a future mission: the Rosalind Franklin Rover, due to launch in a couple of years. On Earth we can dig up rocks, or go to a cliff, perhaps by a beach, and look at the layers of rock, studying the order in which they were laid down, and taking samples all the time. But what about on Mars, when we can’t get so up-close and personal with the rocks? Well, it turns out, it's not so very different after all. Peter explains the geological history of Mars, where the Perseverance Rover is going to explore, and what the plans are for Rosalind Franklin rover in a couple of years. We also touch on two very intersting aspects of Mars - water and methane. While it's relatively easy to find people working on Nasa and ESA missions, it's somewhat hard to get information about Chinese missions. Who better to speak to than someone who has their ear to the ground, Freelance journalist Andrew Jones. Andrew writes for a range of publications, where he reports on the Chinese Space Programme. Andrew provides us with some fascinating history of the Chinese Space Programme, and what its other high-profile missions are up to, notably the Chang'e 4 and 5 moon missions. Peter Fawden 03:30 - Martian Geology 13:30 - Perseverance 17:00 - Water on Mars 21:20 - ExoMars Rosalind Franklin Rover 25:25 - Methane on Mars Andrew Jones 29:00 - Chinese Space Agency 38:40 - Chang'e 4 and 5 Moon Missions 45:30 - Tianwen-1 plans 48:20 - Hope

With the end of one of the craziest years in living memory, we start with astronomical reflections on the last 12 months - and how far we've come over the course of the last decade. A new results has been published about the structure of our own Milky Way Galaxy, using the emission from carbon monoxide gas. The results, from the SEDIGISM team, show that the galaxy is much more "flocculant", or fluffy, than previously thought. Cardiff-based team member, Dr Ana Duarte Cabral Peretto, explains how the survey of the galaxy was done, and what the results might mean. 00:00 - Reflections of the Year and Decade 08:00 - Galactic Structure

A show of two halves, this month, starting with watery moons. One isn't so surprising - Jupiter's icy Europa. Known to have an ocean under the thick ice shell, models suggest that the plumes that have been observed may not be from the global reservoir, but from smaller briny pools within the icy crust. The second moon is perhaps more surprising, being our own Moon. New measurements from the airborne observatory SOFIA have shown that there is molecular water within the rocks in some places on the surface, and not restricted to the permanently-shadowed craters. Lunar geologists Marissa Lo and Dr John Pernet-Fisher from the University of Manchester (and the Cosmic Cast podcast) explain why water on the moon is of so much interest. And what are we likely to learn when China's Chang'e 5 mission brings samples back from the Moon later this year. Moving further afield we return to Fast Radio Bursts - phenomena we've covered before a number of times on this podcast. We now have an example of a fast radio burst within our own galaxy, which is repeating its bursts. This gives us a great opportunity to study them in more detail. We finish with some more somber news: the announcement that the beleaguered Arecibo telescope, jewel in the crown of the world's radio astronomy and star of films such as Contact and Goldeneye, is to be decommissioned. Cardiff graduate Dr Rhys Taylor, who previously worked at Arecibo Observatory and regularly uses the telescope, explains quite how impressive the 300metre-diameter telescope is, and what an important role it has played in radio astronomy. 00:00 - Europa 05:05 - Water on the Moon 18:30 - Fast Radio Bursts 21:45 - Arecibo Telescope

Chris North and Edward Gomez give a round-up of the month in astronomy. Towards the end of October, NASA's Osiris Rex spacecraft grabbed a sample from the asteroid Bennu. What happens next, and what might we learn from these samples? Chris and Edward discuss. There's also an update on Betelgeuse (however you chose to pronousne it), which is not estimated to be closer than previously thought - which means it's smaller? But we're still safe when it goes supernova. Right?! Further afield, telescopes around the world spotted a star getting spaghettified by a supermassive black hole - what an Earth does that mean? An finally, October is the month that Nobel Prizes are awarded. With Sir Richard Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez sharing the prize for discoveries related to black holes. (Crucially, recorded before the recent announcement regarding the Moon - but we have something to talk about next month!)

This is a special episode - released a couple of weeks earlier than normal – that’s because we’ve got a very special story to talk about this time. A team of astronomers has detected hints that indicate the possibility that there may be life in the clouds of Venus. Despite the maybes and possibilities, this is an astonishing statement, and we’ll explore the discovery in this episode with a few of the people involved in the discovery. This month is also an anniversary of sorts. This podcast has its roots in a monthly item on the Pythagoras Trousers radio show 10 years ago this month. The format has changed over the years, with this extended version of the podcast came later, but when Rhys Phillips and I started, I don’t think we thought we’d still be going 10 years later. The focus right now is definitely on Venus. Although its surface is pretty hellish, at about 50km altitude it's much more pleasant in terms of temperature and pressure, though there's the problem of sulphuric acid clouds. To find out more, we're joined by three people involved with the study - Prof Jane Greaves, from Cardiff University, and who led the study, Prof Sara Seager from MIT, and Dr Dave Clements from Imperial College London.

If there’s anything that pricks up the ears in astronomy, it’s black holes. And this month we have not one, but two black hole stories. And, depending on how you count them, four black holes, though two of them no longer exist – if that sounds confusing, then don’t worry, it’ll become clear! Regular listeners will be no stranger to black holes, with them featuring regularly – largely thanks to the work of the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave experiments, which detect the subtle ripples in the fabric of spacetime as pairs of black holes merge. Those black holes are thought to be the remnants of dead stars, and are typically called “stellar mass” black holes since their masses are typically between a few and a few tens of times the mass of our Sun. The detection we’re talking about this month comes from the third observing run, and is the latest in a string of announcements as the long list of candidate events have been studied in further detail and released. Called GW190521 it was observed in May 2019, and immediately caused a stir among the researchers. To find out why, we're joined by Dr Patricia Schmidt. Patricia was a PhD student here in Cardiff a few years ago, and after working the US and the Netherlands is now back in the UK, where she’s a lecturer at the University of Birmingham. We also come across black holes in the hearts of galaxies, and it’s thought that all large galaxies harbour a so-called supermassive black hole at their core, typically measuring millions or even billions of times the mass of the Sun. A recent study measured the mass of one of these supermassive black holes and found that it, well, isn’t so super. Dr Federico Lelli, from Cardiff University explains all, from what a supermassive black hole is, to why this one is so interesting. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 3rd September 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In astronomy, the month of July has been the month of two things: comets, and Mars. Comet Neowise, or to give it it’s full title C/2020 F3 NEOWISE, has graced the skies of the northern hemispheres, becoming the first naked eye comet for some time. Some have even argued it’s the best comet for decades. In terms of new missions, then this summer marks the best window to launch missions to Mars. These windows come around roughly every two years, or so, since that’s how long it takes for the Earth to line up with Mars’ position around its orbit. This launch window, no fewer than three countries are taking advantage of the opportunity: the United States with the Perseverance Rover, China with the Tianwen-1 orbiter and rover and the United Arab Emirates with the Hope mission. But from missions to Mars to mission to the Sun. Back in February this year the European Space Agency launched the Solar Orbiter mission to study our star and try to answer some of the remaining mysteries. With the first set of initial images and results out, Professor Lucie Green, from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, provides an update. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th July 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Science news stories normally revolve around something new that's been learned, or some question that’s been answered. But sometimes, and these are often the most interesting times, there’s an observation or discovery that raises a whole new set of questions – and the mystery deepens. This month we discuss two such discoveries. First of all, an unusual gravitation wave event, detected back in August 2019 and dubbed GW190814. We’ve discussed gravitational waves a number of times on Pythagorean Astronomy before – these ripples in space that are caused by, among other things, massive objects spiralling in and merging. Cardiff University researchers Dr Fabio Antonini and graduate student Charlie Hoy explain why this discovery is unusual, and what we know about the source objects. Second up is the conundrum of Fast Radio Bursts. First discovered in 2007, the latest discovery in the unravelling detective story was made by the CHIME telescope, and involves a fast radio burst that appears to repeat on a roughly 16 day timescale. The study was led by Dongzi Li, a graduate student in Toronto University, who explores what might create such a peculiar signal. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2nd July 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Amid the turmoil of not only coronavirus, but also anti-racism protests across the US and now internationally, it's been a notable month for spaceflight. At the end of May, SpaceX launched their first crewed Dragon capsule, which became the first private vehicle to dock with the International Space Station. But the private space sector is much bigger than SpaceX, and is a very international field. There are many companies based here in the UK, including Small Spark Space Systems Ltd, based here in Cardiff. Comprising around a dozen people, and led by CEO Joe Ward, SmallSpark is a relative newcomer. Joe is, in fact, one of our own - a Cardiff physics graduate from a couple of years ago. This month, Joe explains what SmallSpark is, and what the future might have in store for commercial launches from the UK. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 4th June 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The Hubble Space Telescope is 30 years old - something that even its most enthusiastic supporters couldn't have dreamt of when it launched in 1990. With the help of a host of astronomers and space scientists, Chris North explores the history of the mission and the revolutionary discoveries that have been made. Prof Anu Ojha, Director of the National Space Centre, recaps the launch of the mission and subsequent visits to repair and upgrade it. Cosmologist Prof Steve Eales (Cardiff University) explores how Hubble has reached into the most distant reaches of our Universe. Prof Jane Greaves (Cardiff University), however, delves into the hearts of star-forming regions where solar systems are in the process of forming. Closer to home, planetary scientist Prof Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester) uses Hubble to study the atmospheres of the giant planets in our Solar System, over both long and short timescales. Lastly, we look to the future, and the James Webb Space Telescope - often billed as the successor to Hubble. Dr Sarah Kendrew, ESA instrument scientist on the MIRI instrument, explains what this future telescope has learned from Hubble, and what we can expect in terms of discoveries. We finish with a look at one of Hubble's most iconic images, and what it means for both astronomers and the general public. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th April 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In these unprecendented times, it's hard to argue that much of space science and astronomy is key infrastructure, or its staff key workers. And while that's true, like many organisations work cannot simply stop altogether. The European Space Agency runs a multitude of missions, from space observatories to interplanetary explorers, and from solar probes to space stations. Prof Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at ESA, tells Chris North how the agency is coping with the lockdowns in force around the world, with staff either self-isolating or working from home. Of course, there are also astronauts on the International Space Station, and they really don't want a serious illness infecting the crew Finally, are there lessons we can learn from those who have entered isolation voluntarily, in places like Concordia Base in Antarctica, or as part of the Mars500 programme. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2nd April 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Betelgeuse is still misbehaving, though we're starting to get more information in from observations by some of the largest telescope. Astronomers are narrowing in on the possible explanations. While the dimming of Betelgeuse isn't anything to do with aliens, the SETI programme is still going with a new project designed to focus on planets around stars that might be able to detect Earth's presence. And in the centre of our galaxy there's another hint of a mysterious object - an "intermediate mass black hole" being orbited by a bunch of gas clouds. Chris, Edward and Claudia discuss what the implications might be. In space missions, it's out with the old and in with the new. NASA's Spitzer mission has ended, after over a decade and a half in space. Meanwhile, ESA's Solar Orbiter mission has launched and got underway - after a slightly bumpy start! Finally, Christina Coch has returned to Earth from the International Space Station, after a record-breaking spaceflight. What are we learning from such long duration space flights? An extended edition of an original broadcast on 27th Feb 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The astronomy world has been a-buzz with news of Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion, which appears to be dimming. Chris North, Edward Gomez and Claudia Antolini discuss how unusual this is, and what it means for the star's future. Further afield, there's a newly identified wave in our Galactic neighbourhood, changing our understanding of the nearby region. There are also new hypotheses about the nature of some oddly-behaving gas clouds near the galactic centre - what could explain their unexpected behaviour? Finally emminent astronomer Dr Vera Rubin has been recognised in a couple of ways. A nearby galaxy which was important in developing Rubin's understanding of dark matter has been dubbed Rubin's Galaxy, and an important telescope of the future is to be official known as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Finally, Claudia has a recommendation for something space fans might be interested in... An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st Jan 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The final episode of 2019 includes a look back at a few things that have happened this year, and a look forward to the future. Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the developments in exoplanet discoveries, and what future missions (such as CHEOPS, Plato and Ariel) may be able to tell us about the wide range of planets out there. We've also had the visitation of interstellar Borisov, which we've discussed a-plenty on Pythagorean Astronomy. Meanwhile, IOP Wales' Engagement Officer Dr Claudia Antolini recaps why spacecraft have been visiting some of the smaller objects in our Solar System, and what we'll learn from upcoming missions such as HERA and DART. Specifically - how might they help protect the Earth one day? Finally there's one of the biggest stories of the last year - the first image of the horizon of a supermassive black hole in galaxy M87 with the Event Horizon Telescope. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2ndJan 2020 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

This month saw the announcement of two follow-up discoveries of two explosive events. Firstly observations of one of the highest energy ever gamma ray burst ever seen, detected back in January, have identified where it originated. Meanwhile, colleagues in Cardiff University have been searching for signs of a remnant neutron star at the heart of Supernova 1987A (which was observed to explode back in 1987) - and they may have found crucial evidence! Closer to home, there are more signs of water vapour plumes erupting from Europa, and evidence that Hygeia, one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, could be eligble to be characterised as a dwarf planet. Over recent months, there has been excitement about Comet Borisov, a comet which originated in another Solar System. Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, from Queens University Belfast, is one of a number of astronomers from all around the world studying this interstellar visitor. We also discuss the impact on asteroid and comet searches of the recent launches of large groups, or "constellations" of satellites by groups such as SpaceX. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 28th November 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

October 2019 saw the first all-female spacewalk, and the discover of 20 new moons of Saturn. There were also more observations of interstellar comet Borisov, and evidence for the Milky Way's black hole having sent out a violent flare several million years ago. Chris and Edward discuss these latest stories. October also saw a planned hiatus in operations of the LIGO and Virgo detectors, which are mid-way through the third observing run, looking for gravitational waves. We got an update from UBC's Jess McIver and Cardiff's Duncan Macleod, who are involved with the operation of the LIGO detectors.They gave an update on how the discovery of gravitational waves unfolds, and what's planned for the rest of this observing run - including the addition of the Japanese KAGRA detector later this year. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st October 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The space news cycle was dominated for a while this month with the discovery of water vapour in the atmosphere of planet K2-18b. The planet is in the habitable zone of its star, but is somewhat larger than the Earth - what does that mean for its habitability? Meanwhile, radio astronomers have discovered the most massive neutron star found to date - close to the maximum theoretical limit. Closer to home, India's first attempt at landing on the Moon has ended in disaster, with the Vikram lander crashing onto the surface in the final moments of its journey. And we've had a new interstellar visitor - a comet which appears to have come from another solar system. What could we learn from the interloper as it whizzes through our neighbourhood? An extended edition of an original broadcast on 26th September 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The summer might be "silly season" in the press, but not so in astronomy. With peroxide on moons and belching black holes there's lots of sensible research going on for us to discuss. A number of recent rocket engine tests lead us to consider what the near future of space travel might look like, with a proposed "lunar gateway" providing a staging point for explorers. Where might they go? Perhaps as far as Jupiter's moon, Europa, where recent observations have provided more evidence of a carbon-rich environment beneath the sub-surface ocean. A tantalising place to look for life. Further afield, NASA's TESS satellite has produced its first tranche of results after a year of observations. They show intriguing worlds that fall in what's been appearing to be a "mass gap" in terms of planets, with a narrow range of masses being under-represented. On somewhat larger scales we have the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, which appeared to briefly brighten earlier this year - evidence that it may have belched after a small snack. There's even something odd with the galaxy as a whole, with a survey of Cepheid variable stars showing a distinct lop-sided warp to the Milky Way's disk of stars. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th August 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

July 1969 was the month that the first people walked on the Moon. 12 people walked on the surface of our celestial neighbour between 1969 and 1972. Since then, humanity has been confined to low-Earth orbit. There is talk of sending people back to the Moon, on timescales that vary depending on who you talk to. There’s also talk of missions to Mars, possibly in the next few decades. But for the vast majority of the last 50 years, our exploration has been through our robotic envoys, sent to all manner of planets, moons, comets and asteroids. Some have whizzed by, while others have gone in to orbit. Some have landed on the surface, and a small number have roved or hopped around. The missions have come from a large number of nations, initially the US and Russia, and how Japan, China, Israel and Europe – including, of course, the UK. So what does the future hold for robotic exploration? Where are we sending spacecraft next and why? Dr Colin Wilson, from the University of Oxford, explains what we've learned from just a few of our robotic explorers, and where they might take us in the future. We discuss past, present and future missions to both Venus and Mars, and an exciting prospect of a quadcopter on Titan. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 1st August 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Mars is covered in craters, but most of them are very old. But new ones do appear from time-to-time, created when objects hit the surface of the red planet. That's just what happened at some point a couple of years ago, producing one of Mars' youngest craters. Higher up in Mars' atmosphere, scientists are also learning about the role the micrometeorites play in forming clouds. And how can the Moon reveal secrets about history of the Sun? Closer to home, there has been controversy about once of the latest SpaceX launches, which released 60 satellites into orbit. While impressive, and part of plans for over 10,000 such satellites in orbit, there has been some opposition from astronomers, for whom satellites are a constant irritation. But to the ends (worldwide satellite internet) justify the means? Meanwhile, over a million vounteers have been clicking away on the Galaxy Zoo website, part of the Zooniverse. Chief zookeeper Prof Chris Lintott explains what astronomers have discovered as a result of all this effort. It's overturned commonly held views about the shapes of spiral galaxies, both in their beautiful spiral arms and their central bulges. The result is that we might be able to get a better understanding of the how spiral arms behave when two galaxies get close together. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 4th July 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

14th May 2009 marked the the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel was a cornerstone mission for ESA, the European Space Agency, with the goal of unveiling the hidden Universe. In this special bonus edition of Pythagorean Astronomy, marking 10 years since Herschel's launch, Cardiff University's Dr Chris North finds out how it did this, and what astronomers have uncovered over the past decade. Such missions take a lot of planning, and Herschel was decades in the making. But they also far outlive the operational lifetime of the spacecraft itself. Herschel’s liquid helium coolant ran out on 29th April 2013, and the spacecraft was switched off shortly afterwards. With 25,000 observations in the bag, and having imaged around 10% of the sky, scientific discoveries are still being made with data from Herschel. But what have we learned from Herschel, and what is there still to learn? We’ve had a lot of involvement in Herschel here in Cardiff University, from the design and build of the scientific instruments to the analysis of its data. What better people to ask than those that helped run the mission, and who are using its data to continue to make scientific discoveries a decade on from its launch. Chris, who was the UK Herschel Outreach Officer, speaks with Cardiff-based colleagues Professor Matt Griffin, lead scientist on the SPIRE instrument onboard Herschel, cosmic dust investigator Prof Haley Gomez, galaxy hunter Dr Mattia Negrello, and star former Dr Sarah Ragan.

A roundup of the month's news from around the Solar System - and beyond. You don't think of mars rovers having drawers, but that's exactly what has just been installed on the Rosalind Franklin Rover, part of ESA's ExoMars mission. This is no ordinary drawer, of course, but the "Analytical Laboratory Drawer", designed to test martian soil for the presence of biomarkers or microfossils, either of which would indicate the presence of present or past life. Closer to home, a mile-wide asteroid called 1999 KW4 has just whizzed past the Earth. It's at a relatively safe distance - 13 Earth-Moon distances, or 5 million km, but it gives us a chance to study it in more detail - including its small moon! You can also take part in the observations, at LCO's Asteroid Tracker (asteroidtracker.lco.global). The presence of a moon isn't that unusual, with many small objects having companions - and not just in the inner Solar System. Further afield, we've just had the first official publication of the results from New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of 2014 MU69, which seems to be the result of two smaller objects colliding very slowly. Meanwhile, the search for gravitational waves goes on, with LIGO and Virgo now well into their third observing run. It's early days, but they're on track for having several dozen detections by the end of this run. May 2019 marks the 10 year anniversary of the launch of the Herschel Space Observatory, ESA's infrared space observatory that studied the formation of stars in our galaxy and beyond. We have the thoughts of four people who worked on the project: Prof Matt Griffin, Prof Haley Gomez, Dr Mattia Negrello and Dr Sarah Ragan. There's also a special bonus episode dedicated to the Herschel's legacy ten years after its launch. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th May 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

A roundup of the month's news from around the Solar System - and beyond. Starting with the Moon, where the first attempt by a privately funded organisation to land on the Moon has ended in a crash-landing. Despite the sad end, the Beresheet mission was otherwise a success, and a promising start for privately funded missions around the Solar System. Further afield, there are new results from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission, which is studying Mars' atmosphere. Beyond Mars, an analysis of the Cassini spacecraft's last images of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has thrown up a few surprises about its lakes. And beyond our Solar System, a study of the environment around Proxima Centauri, the Sun's nearest neighbour, has shed light on the possible conditions on its planet - Proxima b. But the most exciting story of the month was the image of the black hole in M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope. Actually a number of telescope working together, the array has provided us with the first view of material around an object billions of times the mass of our Sun. And if the image isn't astounding enough, the technological achievement required to obtain it is simply astounding. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 2nd May 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In December 2018 an object hit the Earth's atmosphere at over 100,000 kph over the Arctic Ocean, entirely unnoticed, until the orange streak was spotted in satellite imagery. Meanwhile, two missions are currently exploring much larger asteroids - Japan's Hyabusa-2 mission to Ryugu and NASA's Osiris-REX mission to Bennu. Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the unexpected impact and the latest results from Hayabusa-2, showing that Ryugu is a "rubble pile" rather than a solid object. Meanwhile, out on the edge of the observable Universe astronomers have been studying a galaxy, seen as it was just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. The composition of the galaxy implies that its stars are not the first - and at least one generation has come before. We are used to discussing distant galaxies in astronomy these days, but in fact it was less than 100 years ago that we had proof of galaxies beyond our own. That discovery in the 1920s led to astronomers discovering that the Universe is, in fact, expanding. Cardiff University's Dr Ermenia Calabrese explains what we know about the expanding Universe, and begins by describing what astronomers like Hubble and Lemaitre were trying to do in the 1920s. The story of our understanding has evolved over the decades, and seemed to be coming together until a few years ago. As measurements increased in precision, it became obvious that different methods of measuring the Universe's expansion are giving slightly different results. Erminia explores why this might be, and what we might learn over coming years. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 28th March 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 full LOFAR survey, and much larger telescopes being planned, this is just a taste of what awaits the future of radio astronomy. February 2019 also saw the official end to the Opportunity, the Mars rover which landed on Mars 15 years ago, and was last heard from in June 2018. But there was also good news about the future of Mars exploration, as ESA announced the name of its first Martian Rover, due for launch in 2020: Rosalind Franklin. The rover is being built here in the UK, and systems engineer Paul Meacham explains what the current status of the project is, and how the legacy of Opportunity has impacted the mission. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 28th February 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 perhaps that we're lucky to be able to see them at all. There are plans for more missions to the Saturnian system, with the Dragonfly mission being proposed to fly around the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, exploring its mountains, lakes and rivers. The most prominent space news at the start of the year was the flyby of the New Horizons probe past the Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 (sometimes called "Ultima Thule"). Located 6 billion miles from the Sun, the first tantalising images show a very oddly-shaped object, with a notably wintery appearance. Cardiff's Professor Jane Greaves studies the outer solar system, and tells us what we know about MU69 so far, and why it is similar to a cartwheeling snowman... An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st January 2019 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 Solar System has increased hugely. Many of those discoveries were made by the Kepler mission, which launched in 2009 to try to figure out just how many planets there were out there, and whether they were anything like the Earth. After a problem with its gyroscopes meant that the mission had to change its operation mode, becoming the "K2" mission, the science outputs diversified. Geert Barentsen, from NASA's Ames Research Centre, explains what Kepler's legacy is. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 1st November 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 stars. Here on the ground, work is underway to design and build a futuristic telescope - the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. Due to be completed in the early 2020s, the telescope will take images of the entire southern sky every three days, revolutionising our understanding of the way the skies change on timescales of days. Dr Amanda Bauer joins us from LSST to explain the project and what it will do for astronomy. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 1st November 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 of the discovery of water on Mars seeming to hit the headlines every few months, it seems time to focus on what we know about Mars and its geology. Dr Joel Davis, from the Natural History Museum in London, researches Martian geology, and explains all about its history, and what we mean when we talk about discovering water on Mars. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 27th September 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 explore the Sun's corona, or atmosphere. Professor Lucie Green, from MSSL, explains how the mission will explore how the Solar System's central engine drives the solar wind, and puts it in context with our broader understanding of the Sun's effect on its surroundings. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th August 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 and making important progress towards the eventual goal Square Kilometre Array, which will be spread across Southern Africa and Australia.. But there was a more unusual announcement this month from the IceCube neutrino observatory, which is sensitive to ghostly subatomic particles called neutrinos. At the end of last year, the team worked with “traditional” astronomers, i.e. those looking at light of various wavelengths, to identify a neutrino that originated from a blazar – material surrounding a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy. Since this takes us in to the realm of particle physics, I spoke to Dr Ben Still, honorary researcher at Queen Mary University London and author of “Particle Physics Brick by Brick“, in order to find out more about neutrinos, how we detect them, and what we can learn from them. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 25th July 2018 as part of Pythagoras' Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

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 end of June also sees the celebration of Asteroid Day – Edward explains how to get involved with observing asteroids through Las Cumbres Observatory. Finally, we have an excerpt from a much longer interview with Prof Barry Barish, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves. This interview was in partnership with Jeni Millard from Awesome Astronomy, and if you want to hear more of what Barry had to say, then check out the full interview in our Special Bonus Episode!

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 give a public talk, part of the launch of the Gravity Exploration Institute here at Cardiff University. While he was here, I teamed up with one of our PhD students, Jeni Millard, who is a presenter on the Awesome Astronomy podcast, to grab some time with Barry and speak about all things LIGO. We talked to Barry for about an hour - in case you want to skip to a particular section, there's a brief running order at https://wp.me/p4hmOz-UV

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.

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 aim of discovering thousands of new exoplanets. Meanwhile, ESA selected ARIEL to be launched in just over a decade. With a goal of characterising the atmospheres of exoplanets, Ariel will revolutionise our understanding of these alien worlds. To find our more about TESS, Ariel and other current and future exoplanet missions, I spoke to Dr Subi Sarkar, based here in Cardiff University.

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 as what he was like as a person to work with and to interact with. I'm joined by Professors Peter Coles, Mike Edmunds and Bernard Schutz, all of whom met and/or worked with Stephen. In addition, a number of members of the Cardiff Gravitational Physics Group describe what got them into physics, and the effect that role models like Stephen Hawking had on their path.

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.

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. Who better to speak to to find out what this plucky little rover has been up to for the last 5000 sols? There's also an update from on 'Oumuamua, the interstellar asteroid that came whizzing through the Solar System in late 2017. Dr Wes Fraser, from Queen's University Belfast, explains what we know, what we don't know, and what we'll probably never find out about our fleeting visitor. Oh, and why it's called the Space Cucumber...

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 a slight anomaly during a launch the normally-reputable Ariane 5 rocket, and some new results about the seven-planet system TRAPPIST-1 (which we covered back in March last year) An interesting result published earlier this month was the discovery that may be more massive stars than we previously thought. With impacts on the expected number of supernovae, neutron stars and black holes there might be out there to find, the effects could be far-reaching. Find out from University of Oxford’s Dr Fabian Schneider what this result means.

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 for studying supernovae, Dr Brooke Simmons worked with astronomers and developers at the Zooniverse to create the Planetary Response Network, an online portal that allows people all over the world to guide the disaster recovery teams, particularly in regions with poor infrastructure. This month, Chris North spoke to Brooke about the development of the Planetary Response Network and its impact on the rescue efforts. But first, since this is the last episode of 2017, Chris and Edward Gomez reviewed progress in astronomy throughout 2017, from exoplanets to colliding neutron stars.

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 perhaps comet) 1I/2017 U1, or ‘Oumuamua to its friends. There was a new earth-sized planet discovered around the nearby Ross 128, and a ring of dust found around the Sun’s closest neighbour, Proxima Centauri. And, of course, how would we forget another pair of merging black holes discovered by the LIGO collaboration – this time the lightest yet. For our take on all of these stories, have a listen to this week’s Pythagorean Astronomy. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 29th November 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

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 satellite. Neither of those initial detections pinpointed the location particularly well, but astronomers from over 70 observatories, including Edward’s Las Cumbres Observatory, went on the hunt. A matter of hours later a new object was spotted in galaxy NGC 4993 – the afterglow of the collision. Follow-up observations told us a huge amount more about this extremely violent event, which is thought to have created huge quantities of heavy elements such as gold and platinum. The concepts involved in this are complex, and can be hard to articulate. Chris North and Edward Gomez are joined by Sarah Roberts. As well as working in the outreach team here in Cardiff Physics, Sarah writes “Space Scoop“, explaining astronomical stories to those with very little background, such as young children. Sarah is therefore the ideal person to help us explain this event, and how one goes about describing it to a 9 year old. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 25th October 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

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 also marked “Herschel week“, in which ESA celebrated the legacy of the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel launched in May 2009, and operated until April 2013. Even though the spacecraft is no longer functional, the science must go on. Some of that science involves the study of distant galaxies, and our own Professor Steve Eales leads one of the teams doing just that. With some new results in the process of being published, Steve explains why galaxies may not be behaving quite as astronomers have thought. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 27th September 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

The Total Eclipse of 2017. Copyright: Martin Ratcliffe August marked one of the most publicised astronomical events of 2017 – a total eclipse of the Sun which was visible the US. Totality, where the Moon completely covered the Sun, was visible from a narrow strip stretching from Oregon in the northwest to South Carolina in the southeast, while the partial eclipse was visible from the whole of North America – and beyond – making this the most viewed eclipse in history. As well as those living in the US travelling to see it, many other people travelled thousands of miles to see this event. I spoke to US-based astronomer Martin Ratcliffe, former Cardiff Physics student Peri Jones, and UK-based astronomer Will Gater, about their experiences of this eclipse. Here in Cardiff we’ve had a few interns working over the summer on a number of projects, in collaboration with Las Cumbres Observatory and the Ogden Trust. From building 3D printers, to designing robots, and from playing with Lego to translating educational resources. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 30th August 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

Artist’s illustration of Supernova 1987A. Image credit: Credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF It’s been a busy month for Cardiff astronomers (and their colleagues). From gravity’s role in star formation to molecules found in a supernovae explosion, and from debris around neutron stars to organic molecules emitted from one of Saturn’s moons, there’s a lot to talk about. I took the opportunity to chat to Emily Drabek-Maunder, Mikako Matsuura and Gwen Williams about their work. As usual, Edward Gomez and I also talk about stories from around the world. Astronomers from the US travelled to Argentina to witness the occultation of 2014 MU69 – the next icy world to be visited by the New Horizons spacecraft. Finally, July saw the end of the very successful LISA Pathfinder mission. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 26th July 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

At the start of June the LIGO team announced that they had made the third firm detection of gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes. This latest detection, from the second observing run, adds to the collection of massive binary black holes detected by LIGO. One of the things that can be determined from LIGO’s measurements is the speed and spin of the black holes relative to the direction in which they orbit around each other. That can imply how the two black holes came to be together. To learn more I spoke to Dr Laura Nuttall, a researcher here in the Gravitational Physics group here in Cardiff. I also spoke to Dr Annabel Cartwright, a lecturer here in Cardiff, who has developed a hypothesis relating to the evolution of life on Earth. Specifically, Annabel’s “Venus Hypothesis” relates to the Cambrian Explosion, a period around 500 million years ago when the number and variety of species present on Earth expanded in a way never seen before or since. Annabel hypothesises that life may have come to Earth from Venus following a period of intense volcanic activity on our sister planet. It’s an interesting hypothesis, and one which may well develop further over coming months and years. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 28th June 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

This month we don’t just look back at a few news stories, but also ahead to what’s happening over the coming months for one of the most successful space missions ever: Cassini. Having orbited Saturn for 13 years, Cassini’s fuel is running out and the mission has embarked on a “Grand Finale” before its final plunge into the planet’s atmosphere. Dr Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester, gives us a personal viewpoint of this groundbreaking mission to the ringed planet. We find out about a few of the highlights of the mission, as well as what’s in store for the spacecraft on its last few terrifying orbits. There’s also a look to the future, for whatever missions may come next to the outer Solar System. In other news, Edward and Chris discuss renegade black holes, newly discovered (potential) dwarf planets, possible future missions to the Moon, and how humanity is altering the Earth’s radiation belts. An extended edition of an original broadcast on 31st May 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

April’s edition of our monthly astronomy podcast, presented by Chris North and Edward Gomez. Earlier this month we were treated to a talk in Cardiff by Lord Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal and Professor of Astrophysics at University of Cambridge. This afforded us the opportunity to speak to Professor Rees about the subject of his talk: “The World in 2015 – and beyond”. After discussing the challenges facing the long-term survival of humanity, and possible solutions, we also discussed Lord Rees’ role in the House of Lords, and recent developments in astronomy and cosmology. There have been (yet) more exoplanet stories recently as well, so we also discussed atmospheres of exoplanets. And not wanting to limit ourselves to the biggest issues, we also discussed growing potatoes on Mars (well, the Andes, but that’s pretty close)… An extended edition of an original broadcast on 26th April 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk. [Update 25 April: You can also listen to an audio recording of Lord Rees’ lecture.]

At the end of last month, there was a lot of interest in the discovery of seven roughly Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. One month on, Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss the implications of this discovery. We also get an update from the Amaury Triaud, of the University of Cambridge, about TRAPPIST and its successor, SPECULOOS. Here in our own Solar System, there’s the discovery of a cometary landslide from Rosetta, a milestone in wheel-wear on the Mars Curiosity Rover, and an update on some of Saturn’s darker rings from Japan. Further afield, a study of the rotation of galaxies in the distant Universe came under some scrutiny, shedding a bit of light on the process of scientific discovery. An extended edition of the an original broadcast on 27th March 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

Artist’s impression of the proposed Planet Nine. Image Credit: Caltech/R,. Hurt (IPAC) February saw the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Rocket from Launchpad 39A – the same launchpad used by the Apollo missions and the Space Shuttle. In this month’s Pythagorean Astronomy, Edward Gomez and Chris North discuss these impressive structures along with the study of a supernova (the explosive death of a massive star) just hours after it exploded, providing crucial insights into the very early stages of these extreme events. A new Zooniverse project, Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, was also announced designed to let “citizen scientists” (i.e. you!) help track down Planet Nine – whose existence was seriously proposed a year ago. Project leader Marc Kuchner told us about that project. For those wondering, we recorded this before the announcement of both TRAPPIST-1 and the SpaceX announcement of their planned lunar missions – but they’re pretty safe bets for discussion next month! An extended edition of the an original broadcast on 27th January 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.

Image courtesy of National Museum Cardiff Join Chris North and Edward Gomez as they discuss the month’s astronomy news. Not only were there two new NASA missions announced this month, but Space-X successfully returned to flight with their Falcon 9 rocket. Further afield, there are predictions of a pair of stars that are set to explode in a few years. Being January, the National Museum in Cardiff hosted its annual public event celebrating all things space. With exhibits, demonstrations and shows for all ages, several thousand people attended “Star Attractions” and get to learn a bit more about astronomy and space. While we were there with a stand from the School of Physics and Astronomy, Chris spoke to a few people who were there to find out what they got out of it. Originally broadcast on 30th January 2017 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Close-up of star near a supermassive black hole (artist’s impression) Image credit: ESO, ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser When is a supernova not a supernova? The brightest supernova on record was discovered in 2015 by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). Named ASASSN-15lh, this remarkable event – what looked like a huge brightening of a star in a distant galaxy – was observed by many other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Las Cumbres Observatory network. With careful study, it became apparent that ASASSN-15lh was not quite what it seemed. Rather than being the explosion of a massive star, it is now thought that it was the final flash as a star was swallowed by a supermassive black hole. This month, Morgan Fraser, from University College Dublin, and Las Cumbres Observatory’s Edward Gomez explain the story of this discovery – and rediscovery! We finish with a brief recap of 2016, and a look forward to 2017. Originally broadcast on 19th December 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The GLEAM Survey We’ve got a lot of news items to discuss this month. In the outer Solar System, Edward Gomez and I discuss the Cassini spacecraft, which has made its final major orbital manoeuvre, and the Juno spacecraft, which has had a few issues getting into its main science orbit. Further from home, we’ve got the first “official” star names from the International Astronomical Union, and the discovery of the roundest known star. Our main guest this month is Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at Curtin University. Natasha works on the Murchison Widefield Array, and has produced GLEAM: an all-sky image of the sky at radio wavelengths at very high resolution and in a wide range of radio “colours”, or wavelengths. This gives us a better understanding of some of the most energetic processed taking place in the centres of nearby galaxies, but the end goal is somewhat further afield. Natasha tells me all about the MWA, the GLEAM project, and even how you can view it – on the interactive GLEAMoscope site (or using the GLEAM Android app) Originally broadcast on 28th November 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

This month sees the start of one mission and the end of another. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched at the start of the month to go and study asteroid Bennu, and even bring back a sample to Earth. Meanwhile, the end of the month sees the finale of ESA’s Rosetta mission, which has spent two years studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. With stunning images accompanied by fascinating results from other instruments, not to mention the plucky little Philae lander, Rossetta has been one of the most exciting missions of recent years. This month, the Open University’s Professor Monica Grady tells me about comets, asteroids, and these two exciting missions. Originally broadcast on 26th September 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Artist’s impression of the view from Proxima b. Image credit: ESA/M/ Kornmesser After a few weeks of rumours, the announcement of the discovery of an Earth-size (maybe!) planet around the Sun’s nearest neighbour has caused quite a stir. The planet is more massive than the Earth, but probably not by much, and sits in a location where liquid water could (at least in principle), exist on it’s surface. The detection was made by an international team using data, and relied on observations from a number of telescopes around the world. One of those was the Las Cumbres Observatory‘s network of telescopes, working as part of the Pale Red Dot campaign, as Edward Gomez explains in this month’s episode. Proxima b isn’t the only story. There’s also the happy news of the re-awakening of STEREO-B, a solar observatory that dropped offline a couple of years ago and has finally responded to NASA’s hails (more on that from Sounds Like Science). And there’s also the discovery of a Niku, a small object out beyond Neptune which is orbiting the Sun in the wrong direction. Originally broadcast on 25th August 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Artist’s Impression of a Juno and Jupiter. Credit: NASA In July 2016 NASA’s Juno spacecraft completed its five year journey to the planet Jupiter. On board is a suite of instruments and experiments that will provide exquisite insight into the history of our Solar System’s largest planet. The process of Jupiter’s formation is a long-standing mystery that planetary scientists have been trying to answer for decades. As the University of Leicester’s Dr Leigh Fletcher explains, Juno will make careful measurements of Jupiter’s gravitational field and yield crucial information about its interior. Originally broadcast on 28th July 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Artist’s Impression of a black hole in a binary star system. Credit: ESA/Hubble On 15th June 2016 the LIGO collaboration released more detections of gravitational waves. As with the first detection, announced back in February, these gravitational waves were emitted by pairs of black holes, spiralling together and merging, But of course, those black holes need to come from somewhere, and in this case it’s thought to be the deaths of some of the most massive stars in the Universe. To understand more about the deaths of massive stars, and the formation of black holes, I talked to Professor Stephen Smartt, from Queen’s University Belfast, who’s been on the hunt for black holes. Originally broadcast on 30th June 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Artist impression of the Kepler spacecraft This month’s focus is on two different stories, but both involving the same spacecraft: Kepler. Edward Gomez and I discuss a result from the outer edge of our Solar System, regarding the icy world that goes by the catchy name of “2007 OR10”. By combining information from the Kepler Spacecraft, now in the second phase of its mission with a partially-functioning spacecraft, with results from the Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have made a new estimate of its size. But Kepler’s main mission was to search for planets around other stars, and that’s what the other notable result this month involves. Through a careful analysis of data, the Kepler team have identified over 1000 objects that are probably planets. I spoke to Professor Don Pollacco from the University of Warwick, about what this result means, and its impact on future space missions such as ESA’s Plato spacecraft. Originally broadcast on 26th May 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In this month’s instalment, Edward Gomez and I chat about interplanetary explorers to the icy worlds of Pluto and Ceres, and Cassini’s capture of interstellar dust as it passed through the Saturn system. And, of course, we look ahead to May’s Transit of Mercury, which we’ll be viewing with members of the public and school groups here in Cardiff. Further afield, in both time and space, is the Breakthough Starshot initiative, which aims to send a fleet of tiny spacecraft to another star system – if they can pull it off, that is! Originally broadcast on 28th April 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

March 2016 saw the launch of the first part of Europe’s two-part mission to Mars. The mission, called ExoMars, comprises the “Trace Gas Orbiter” – the part that’s just launched – and a large rover, which launches in 2018. The orbiter will sniff the atmosphere to test for evidence of past  – or maybe even present – life. Elsewhere in the world of astronomy, this month has also seen the discovery a cluster of “monster stars”, and the most distant galaxy ever seen. I chatted to Edward Gomez and Tim Davis, a relatively new arrival here in Cardiff, about these discoveries. Originally broadcast on 31st March 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Unless you’ve been under a bush for the past month, you can’t have missed what could be described the news of the Century – the first direct detection of gravitational waves. This month, I speak to Edward Gomez about what this discovery means, and catch up with some of the gravitational physicists here in Cardiff, Andrew Williamson, Frank Ohme and Lionel London. They tell me quite how sensitive the LIGO instruments are, and how gravitational waves are the voice of Einstein. Originally broadcast on 25th February 2016 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

It’s been a very exciting year in astronomy and space science, with missions exploring distant reaches of the Solar System. There was a huge media storm about New Horizons passing Pluto back in July, with staggering results still coming back, and continuing revelations from Rosetta. But there was even more excitement about Tim Peake’s launch to the International Space Station as part of his Principia mission. This month Edward Gomez and I discussed the year’s astronomy news, while at the celebrations of Tim Peake’s launch here in Cardiff I spoke to Chris Castelli from UK Space Agency, and Pedro Duque, an ESA astronaut who flew to the International Space Station in 2003. Originally broadcast on 18th December 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

November 2015 marks the centenary of the publication of one of the most important theories in physics: Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. On this month’s episode I chatted to Prof Mark Hannam and Dr Patrick Sutton. As part of the Gravitational Physics group here in Cardiff, Mark and Patrick try to understand the implications of General Relativity, and are leading the search for direct proof one of its last remaining predictions: gravitational waves. On Wednesday 9th December Cardiff University is hosting an evening reception to celebrate the centenary, with free wine and soft drinks, and a selection of talks by Cardiff researchers. The event is free, but don’t forget to book tickets if you’d like to come along. Originally broadcast on 26th November 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. And if you want a quick introduction to General Relativity, the following video was produced for the Science and Technology Facilities Council: [iframe width=”560″ height=”315″  src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/6XSAVqm0XBI” allowfullscreen=”true”]

In October 2015 we had news of the discovery of water on Mars – again! Almost a perennial story now, but is this discovery any different to previous discoveries, some of which stretch back to the 1970s? To find out more about this particular story, I spoke to UCL planetary scientist Peter Grindrod. Originally broadcast on 29th October 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

AstroCamp (credit PhysicistPat@Flickr) The arrival of Autumn means one thing to astronomers: darker skies. Every spring an autumn, astronomers gather along with their telescopes, campervans and tents for “star parties”. One such meet-up is AstroCamp, held near Cwmdu in the Brecon Beacons. At just an hour or so north of Cardiff it’s not too far, and I’ve been going along to these meetings for the last few years. The weather can be unpredictable, and while that can put a stop to observing the skies, it does little to dampen the spirits. Astronomers are a pretty social bunch, and enjoy sharing in the experience. I thought I’d ask a few of the AstroCamp-ers what attracted them to astronomy and AstroCamp, and what got them started in the first place. It’s also been a busy summer for a few Cardiff astronomers, with an analysis of data from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope revealing how galaxies evolve and change over cosmic time. I spoke to two Cardiff members of the international collaboration, Dr Matt Smith and PhD student Matt Allen (aka UKAstroNut), about what they’ve learned. Originally broadcast on 24th September 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (ESA/Rosetta/NavCam) On Monday 24th August, Cardiff was treated to a public talk by Prof Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor in the European Space Agency’s Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. Mark spoke about the Rosetta mission, which has been studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the past year, including the landing of Philae on the comet’s surface amid huge media attention. In this month’s Pythagorean Astronomy, I had a fascinating chat with Mark about his work at ESA, and his role leading the communications department. The public attention around Rosetta helped make it one of the great successes of the modern space age, and that is largely thanks to the efforts of the ESA science communications team – whether that be the press events around key mission milestones, the science fiction movie “Ambition“, or the anthropomorphism of the spacecraft in a series of short cartoons. But it’s not without its adverse effects, as the science teams behind the cameras and other instruments often want to keep their ground-breaking images under their belt. Originally broadcast on 27th August 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

On 14th July 2015 the New Horizons probe whizzed past Pluto, providing our first ever close-ups of this tiny world at the edge of our Solar System. This month, Edward Gomez and I discuss why Pluto is so fascinating, and what the first few images have told us. We also chatted about this month’s other big story, the discovery of another Earth-like planet, and why it’s a bit early to get too excited about future holiday plans! And Hugh Lang tells us about August’s Perseid meteor shower. To get a feel for why New Horizons has proved so fascinating, and why we want to know more about Pluto, we also hear from a number of other people at this year’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno: Jane Greaves (University of St Andrews) Jen Gupta (University of Portsmouth) Megan Argo (University of Manchester) Steve Serjeant (Open University) Simon Green (Open University) Manuel Grande (Aberystwyth University) Charles Barclay (Blackett Observatory, Marlborough College) David Southwood (Imperial College London, Ret’d Director of Science, ESA) Originally broadcast (in edited form) on 30th July 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff. And don’t forget the upcoming talk about Rosetta on 24th August by Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at ESA.

Radio telescopes are normally used for looking at very distant objects thousands, millions, or possibly even billions of light years away. But to do that, they have to look through the Earth’s atmosphere. For some radio astronomers the distorting effects of our atmosphere are an annoyance, but earlier this year Australian astronomers using the Murchison Widefield Array found something theorised to exist but never before seen: tubes of ionised plasma tracing our planet’s magnetic field. I spoke to Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research about the discovery, as well as a few much more local radio phenomena… Originally broadcast (in edited form) on 25th June 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

It’s a busy year in the Solar System for robotic explorers, with New Horizons on the way to distant Pluto, Dawn orbiting Ceres in the outer asteroid belt, and Rosetta and Philae accompanying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it makes its closets approach to the Sun. This month Dr Edward Gomez and I chat about these missions, as well as some recent results about exploding stars way across the cosmos! Originally broadcast (in edited form) on 28th May 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

The Messenger probe arrived in orbit around Mercury in March 2011, after a 7 year journey to the innermost planet in our Solar System. It mapped the entire surface of this tiny planet, of which we’d seen less than half from the previous mission back in the 1970s. Far from being a dry, inert ball of rock, Messenger has showed that the surface of Mercury has been changing in the very recent past (where “recent”, to a planetary scientist, means tens of millions of years). But what goes up, must come down, and on 30th April 2015 the Messenger probe crashed into the surface of Mercury. Professor Dave Rothery is a planetary scientist at the Open University, and a member of the Bepi Columbo mission, which will launch in a few years to arrive at Mercury in a decade’s time. In this month’s programme, Dave describes the mysteries that Messenger has solved, but also those that remain for Bepi Columbo to solve. Originally broadcast (in edited form) on 30th April 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In this special documentary as part of the Pythagoras Trousers radio series, Rhys Phillips visits his alma mater, Cardiff University’s School of Physics & Astronomy, to find out about a new generation of detectors being developed to help see things in the far infra-red part of the spectrum. With contributions from Chris North, Peter Hargave, Simon Doyle and Ken Wood. Originally broadcast on 2nd April 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

In March 2015 there was an eclipse of the Sun. Those who saw the total eclipse from the North Atlantic witnessed one of the most awesome sights imaginable. From more southerly locations we saw a partial eclipse, and in Cardiff we were joined by over 1000 people on the steps of the National Museum of Wales. But eclipses aren’t just a pretty sight, and they can be used for scientific purposes. As well as showing us the outer atmosphere of the Sun, they are also able to tell us about the fabric of the Universe itself. This month, I spoke to Mark Hannam, a researcher here in Cardiff, about what eclipses have taught us about gravity, and what we’re still learning today. You can also read Mark’s blog post about some of the concepts involved. Read more

Chris North In March 2015 there will be an eclipse of the Sun. From the UK (apart from a couple of very tiny northern parts) it will be visible as a partial eclipse. In this month’s episode Edward Gomez and I chatted about eclipses and their historical significance. February 2015 also saw the release of new data from the Planck Satellite. I spoke to Hiranya Peiris, from University College London, about what the results are telling us. Read more

Chris North In January it was announced that images from spacecraft orbiting Mars had probably located signs of Beagle 2, the unfortunate UK mission to the red planet which went missing back in 2003. This month I chatted to LCOGT’s Edward Gomez, who has been following proceedings, about what this means – including that the UK now holds the record for Europe’s first soft landing on another planet! But current and future missions have also been in the news. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is rapidly approaching Ceres, and New Horizons will whizz past Pluto in the Summer. Unprecedented close-ups of these two dwarf planets should tell us much more about how our Solar System formed. Not forgetting, of course, Rosetta and the Philae lander, which are investigating coemt 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Read more

It has been announced that the UK will lead the design and build of Europe’s next rover to Mars. Part of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars programme, this robotic explorer will drill down up two metres to search for signs of microbial life beneath the Martian surface. To find out about the rover, its mission, and the challenges involved I spoke to the ExoMars Systems Engineer Paul Meacham, based at Airbus Defence & Space, about the project and the technical challenges involved. Read more

Chris North On 12th November 2014, the Philae lander separated from its mothership, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, and made history by making the first ever soft landing on a comet. It wasn’t quite as soft as hoped, with Philae experiencing more than its fair share of ups and downs, but it provided an nerve-wracking few days for those of us watching from afar. It must have been far worse in the lander control room, with the teams struggling to get as much science as possible out of the lander. One of the scientific instruments on board was the UK-led Ptolemy instrument – essentially a miniaturised chemistry-lab. I spoke to Ptolemy team member Dr Geraint Morgan, from the Open University, about Philae’s adventures, the science of Ptolemy, and the possible future of the mission. Read more

On of Mars Orbiter Mission’s first images of Mars from orbit In late September, two new missions arrived ion orbit around Mars. One was India’s first mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission, while the other was NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. MAVEN’s goal is not to study the surface of the planet but its atmosphere, with the aim of determining how it is changing and how it may have changed in the past. One of the leading experts in the Martian atmosphere is Professor Peter Read, based at the University of Oxford. For this month’s edition of Pythagoras’ Trousers, I spoke to Peter about what we know – and what we don’t – about the atmosphere of the red planet. Read more

August marked the arrival Loncon 2014, the annual science fiction convention which visits a different city every year. There’s also a lot of science fact presented at such meetings – we were showcasing the results from Herschel and Planck, for example. In fact there are a lot of places where, to a greater or lesser degree, science fiction meets science fact. It’s not just the stories where the two meet, either, but also the people involved in producing them. For this month’s instalment of Pythagoras’ Trousers, I spoke to Alastair Reynolds, a science fiction author who used to be an astronomer. Having worked in St Andrews University and in ESA, Alastair is now based in Wales. Most of his novels, not to mention the many short stories, are set in worlds based on the science we know about today – albeit extrapolated centuries into the future. Our conversation ranged from his astronomical career, how novels are written and the importance of scientific accuracy. We even even touched on some of the latest technological innovations taking place in Africa – where some of the action of his latest trilogy is set. You can listen to the extended version of the astronomy segment below.

Between 23rd and 26th June 2014 over 600 astronomers gathered in Portsmouth for the annual National Astronomy Meeting. This meeting, organised by the Royal Astronomical Society, provides the opportunity for physicists, astronomers, space scientists and cosmologists to discuss the latest developments in their areas of research. It covers a huge range of topics, so cosmologists can find out about what’s happening on the Sun, or planetary scientists can hear about the formation of stars. For this month’s instalment of Pythagoras’ Trousers, I spoke to a few scientists I met while at the conference: Edward Gomez, Helen Fraser, Jane Greaves, and Brooke Simmons. You can listen to the extended version of the astronomy segment below, or listen to the full Pythagoras Trousers episode. Read more

For the 31st March episode of Pythagoras’ Trousers, I reported from the Cambridge Science Festival, specifically at the Institute of Astronomy‘s open afternoon. As well as speaking to a number of the exhibitors (and vistors) at the Institute, I also spoke to a few of the cosmologists about the latest results from the BICEP2 experiment (which Cardiff scientists were involved in – read more about that on The Conversation) .  Read more

Once a month, I take a look at some of the latest news in astronomy as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers, a weekly science show broadcast on Radio Cardiff. The show’s main presenter is Rhys Phillips, a research engineer and musician who graduated from the School of Physics and Astronomy in 2008, but once a month he hands the microphone to me to discuss what’s been occurring in the world of astronomy. Read more