#89 – November 2019 Part 1
The Discussion: Before we start the show proper, we discuss Jeni’s encounter with Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne, her new research paper undergoing a painfully slow peer review and we take a look at Chris Lintott’s book, The Crowd and the Cosmos: Adventures in the Zooniverse. Then it’s over to the listeners for a few emails suggesting cooler names for the phenomenon of the Pair Instability Supernova.
The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have:
- An enigmatic radio burst opens up a new method of probing the universe
- Hubble takes a look at interstellar comet
- Hygiea becomes the latest candidate to be recategorized as a dwarf planet
- Spiral galaxies give more clues to discredit the MOND theory of dark matter
- Venus going pop and perhaps a 2 billion window of habitability
- More confusion over the age of Saturn’s rings
The big news story: perhaps heavier elements in the Universe are not only forged in supernovae, but also from neutron star mergers.
The Sky Guide: Covering the solar system and deep sky objects on offer to amateur astronomers in November:
- Paul: A round up of the planets available to northern hemisphere observers in November, a tour of the comets currently in our skies and Vest at opposition. In the deep sky, Paul recommends a few overlooked objects in Cetus and Sculptor.
- Jen: The upcoming Transit of Mercury on 11/12th November.
- Ralph: 3 lunar/planetary conjunctions and a couple of meteor showers. Then further afield, the Orion Nebula
Main Object: The innermost planet, Mercury
Q&A: What actually is the solar wind? From our good friend Andrew Osborne.
Awesome Astronomy
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