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Britain’s First Astronaut This podcast extra is our full length interview with Dr Helen Sharman, Britain’s First astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Wet Moons and Tippy landers This month our intrepid crew of the good ship Awesome investigate sub surface oceans on the moons of the solar system, smoking stars, distant blackholes, oversized structures and of course tippy over lunar landers. There is also the monthly skyguide and a look at the astro history of March! Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Blasting Soil – Interview with Dr Phil Metzger This month Dr Jen talks to Dr Phil! Dr Phil Metzger, 30 years at NASA where he has worked on various missions and programmes including the ISS snd Space Shuttle, while more recently he has been investigating how rocket efflux interacts with soil and what this will mean for future landings on the Moon and Mars… Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Awesome Astronomy Episode #140 This month we explore the exciting announcements from the European Space Agency as they outline their new missions for the 2030s. LISA, a space based gravitational wave detector and EnVision, a Venus mission that will map the surface and under-surface of that planet in unprecedented detail. We have the usual skyguide, chat about recent lunar missions and emails from the listeners. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#139 Awesome Astronomy January 2024 This episode, it’s Jen and a special guest exploring the inexplicable Big Ring, the first proof connecting supernovae to black holes and neutron stars, cyclones on a far-away world, dazzling images of Io, and the true colour of Neptune. We also take a deep dive into humanity’s efforts to explore the Moon – the failing Peregrine lander and Artemis pushbacks. There’s also a sky guide for the second half of January, and our discussion topic this time involves a most impossible restaurant. Produced by Paul, Jen, Dustin, John & Damien. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Awesome Astronomy Panto and Review of the Year 2023! Festive silliness (bit naughty!), a review of the Space and astronomy year and a look ahead to what 2024 has in store for us. Not forgetting the outakes! Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#138 Awesome Astronomy December 2023 Pt1 This month we explore what might have happened to the Planet Theia after it hit the Earth, what Lucy saw on its first asteroid encounter, the mystery of a new double crater on the Moon and what the first images from the Elucid telescope show. We have our monthly skyguide, launch round up and emails and questions from listeners. Produced by Paul, Jen, John, Damien & Dustin Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomy Mythology of Wales This month Jeni talks to Paul. No not our Paul Paul Cornish, planetarium and science outreach extraordinaire at Bristols We the Curious. They chat about one of our favourite topics on Awesome, constellation Mythology and this time it has a very Welsh flavour…enjoy! Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#137 November 2023 Awesome Astronomy This month we talk about what might have been in the Arthur C Clarke Awards, the latest weird discovery from JWST, the most detailed simulation of the Universe yet, British space plans, giggle at a Space Force painting, and have a look at what you can see in the sky this month. Produced by Paul, Jen, John, Damien & Dustin Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
The AstroCamp Panel! This month we give you a recording of our live panel show from AstroCamp, held in September. The team answer questions and comments from the public about a range of space and astronomy topics. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#136 – October 2023 Awesome Astronomy This month Paul and Dr Jen talk about the recent astrocamp where yet more Aurora was seen. Later there is a guide to seeing Aurora at lower latitudes. JWST is at it again with a possible detection of biological signals on an exoplanet, AND breaking and rewriting galaxy morphology history. There is an autumnal sky guide and the low down on the Bennu return mission OSIRIS-REx. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
JWST looks at the Ring – Interview with Dr Robert Wessen This months interview looks at that stunning imagery that JWST took of the Ring Nebula – that familiar Messier planterary nebula in Lyra and favourite of star parties. This new study has revealed new and unexpected details and once again demonstrated the brilliant science of our golden wonder telescope in space. Dr Jeni talks to Dr Robert Wessen, Research Associate at Cardiff University who has worked on the Ring Nebula data, about what astronomers have revealed as well as talking about his career and life astronomy. He also exclusively reveals what is going toRead More →
#135 – September 2023 Awesome Astronomy This month we are joined by special guest Neill Sanders from Go Stargazing who is making a special announcement about astronomy cruise Holidays. We have news of a new type of star, mud on Mars and JWST breaking cosmology once again. After our skyguide we chat about the recent Indian and Russian moon missions. In our discussion topic we have a Battle of the Planets as we decide which should get in the bin, Saturn or Jupiter. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#134 August 2023 Pt2 Awesome Astronomy For this podcast extra, we return to NAM 2023, this year held at Cardiff University. We’re delighted to bring you the conversational style of Dr Stephen Wilkins, public engagement extraordinaire. Dr Stephen is an STFC Public Engagement Fellow (so you know this talk will be just brilliant) and serves as a Director of Outreach and Public Engagement for the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex. This episode, we have the Tale of Two Telescopes, exploring NASA’s new flagship James Webb Space Telescope, and ESA’s pioneering Euclid, set to uncover the Dark Universe. Enjoy! ProducedRead More →
#134 – August 2023 Awesome Astronomy This month we have a packed show, with stories about the European space agency launching a new space telescope to study The Dark Universe. India going to the moon with Chandrayaan-3, astereroid boulders, a key ingredient for life just 1 billion years into the Universe’s history, measuring a crater with highway seismology, hot lava piles on the moon, and a farewell to Ariane 5. We discuss observing meteor showers in our monthly skyguide and we ask the important question- where would you let superman take you in the solar system? Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
How to grow a supermassive black hole with Dr Becky Smethurst Once a year, astronomers descend upon an unsuspecting UK city in the greatest gathering of astronomically curious minds: the National Astronomy Meeting, otherwise known as NAM (no, not that ‘Nam, though it is quite the battle of the minds). Jen was lucky enough to attend this year and this episode is the first in a series of talks recorded at NAM 2023. We’re delighted to bring you the expertise of none other than Dr Becky Smethurst of Oxford University (you may know her as Dr Becky on Youtube). In this talk, Dr Becky teachesRead More →
#133 Awesome Astronomy July 2023 It’s a summer vacation special with Jeni in the mountains of South America astronomising at altitude and visiting the Vera C Rubin telescope as well as obstech. We have an interview with a Vera Rubin Observatory astronomer as well as a skyguide and an astronomy news round up. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
Interview with Dr Kathy Thornton We chat to Dr Kathy Thornton, nuclear physicist turned NASA astronaut who went on to fly on four Space Shuttle missions. Dr Thornton flew for over 40 days and completed over 21 hours of EVA, including the famous operation to fix the blurry Hubble Space Telescope. We talk about her life as an astronaut, the Hubble fix and that fateful day in mission-control on Columbia’s last re-entry. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →
#132 – June 2023 Awesome Astronomy This month Jeni and Paul talk about the recent supernova in galaxy M101; volcanic exoplanets; the growing observational evidence putting the current Big Bang theory under strain and the history of water on both Earth and Mars. There is discussions on alien contact; exoplanet detection and how long it would take to accelerate to the speed of light. Paul does a summer reading book review with three space books to keep you entertained on the beach this summer. Jeni has a look at the Juice mission, Axiom 2, future space station plans and a round up of launches. ThisRead More →
Skylab 50 – Interview with Astronaut Jack Lousma To celebrate the Skylab 50th anniversary here is one our favourite astronaut chats from 2012 where we caught up with Skylab 3 and STS-3 astronaut, Jack Lousma. Jack was also capcom during Apollo 13 and he tells us about taking that ominous ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’ call and how they solved each life-threatening issue in sequence to get the astronauts back alive. He talks about missing out on flying Apollo 20 to the moon, being a crew member on the Skylab space station and taking one of the first space shuttles out for a test drive.Read More →
