AWESOMEASTRO (Page 8)

#93 – March 2020 Part 2 (Warning: please skip this episode if you’re offended by occasional Tesla-based puerile humour) The Discussion: Balancing the argument between love and hate of SpaceX and drawing a line under the argument over when the current decade starts and what constitutes a decade. The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: SpaceX is cleared for a crewed launch in April Further problems for Boeing Christina Koch takes the female spaceflight record. The dullest space news story ever (involving biscuits/cookies) A Japanese mission to return samples from Phobos! ESA’s launch & deployment of the Solar Orbiter. MainRead More →

#93 – March 2020 Part 1 The Discussion: Paul’s favourite bit of the coronavirus, the Cradle of Aviation Museum’s upcoming Apollo 13 anniversary event, a @CunningCosmos space art exhibition and a talk from Jen in Bromsgrove for British Space Week, from the sublime to the ridiculous with the passing of Katherine Johnson and Mad Mike Hughes, and listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: Finding the remnants of the progenitor star after a Type 2b supernova Solving the puzzle of giant planets orbiting low mass stars More clues to Mercury’s oversized iron core A galaxy that has stopped producingRead More →

#92 – February 2020 Part 2 The Discussion: The reason we have leap years; a look at Ad Astra, Lucy in the Sky and Picard; and the history of the Stonewall Riots (don’t think it’s just astronomy here – you get a fully rounded education, dear listener); and a look at your reviews and emails.   The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: Direct TV’s ticking timebomb in space DARPA’s XS-1 reusable spaceplane gets cancelled ESA’s Solar Obiter heads off to the sun NASA ask you to vote for the official name of their Mars 2020 rover (www.mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/) NASA’s costsRead More →

#92 – February 2020 Part 1 The Discussion: Ralph visits and records from The Cradle of Aviation Museum in Long Island, New York, we enjoyed some great skies with good weather in the UK, Betelgeuse still hasn’t gone pop – though we’re still watching, and NASA have an open day that you can attend. The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: An evidence based look at Starlink Tracking molecules from birth to arrival in our solar system An enigmatic Type 1a supernova An interesting 14 millisecond gravitational wave detection Goodbye Spitzer Space telescope The Sky Guide: This month we’re taking aRead More →

From the Cradle to the Stars This is the history of flight told from the perspective of the amateurs and hobbyists who allowed humankind to slip the surly bonds of Earth and set out towards the stars. To tell this story Ralph journeyed to the Cradle of Aviation museum in Garden City, New York, to get a tour of the early flight and exhibits from the museum’s curator and speak with an engineer who worked on the lunar modules before they flew. Our thanks in making this episode goes to the wonderful people at https://www.cradleofaviation.org/. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →

#91 – January 2020 Part 2 The Discussion: New Year resolutions, veganism, a little spoiler-free chat about the latest/last Skywalker movie and the new series of Dr Who, before some listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: Christina Koch racks up a flight time record on the ISS China’s moon rover breaks a lunar endurance record Ethiopia becomes the 10th African nation to send a satellite into orbit ESA launches their CHEOPS Exoplanet characterising spacecraft Space Force is go – and the world joins in NASA’s new (22nd!) intake and what skills are needed to become an astronautRead More →

#91 – January 2020 Part 1 The Discussion: As we begin the new decade we struggle to find a consensus on whether it actually is a new decade. We discuss the busy Xmas period and thank any listeners who helped Dartmoor Skies reach their funding target for a new telescope. Then we take a look at a few listeners’ emails and tweets. The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: An old galaxy containing as much dust as one third the amount of its stars Mapping the magnetic fields around the Whale Galaxy An interstellar comet makes its way back out ofRead More →

The 2019 Xmas Special A pantomime look back at the biggest and most exciting news and events from 2019; a look forward to the best astronomy and space exploration events of 2020; the science of Santa’s deliveries and the traditional outtakes. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →

#90 – December 2019 Part 2 The News: Sharing our news picks from the space exploration and astronomy world this month we have: A late risk of Exomars being cancelled Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft abort test and cost controversies Sierra Nevada’s Dreamchaser shuttle gets a trailer Main news story: Far from being unlikely, Tatooine worlds turn out to be very common   The Interview: This month Jeni has a sit down chat about the discovery of the collapsed neutron star from supernova 1987a with Dr Phil Sutton of Cardiff University. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →

#90 – December 2019 Part 1 The Discussion: A look at the BBC’s new Martian invasion documentary, The War of the Worlds; the recent transit of Mercury; Celestron’s new phone adapter; Jen’s upcoming talks in Wales, an update on Jen’s research paper, a new research project and a debate over the start and end of a decade. Then we take a look at a couple of listeners’ emails.   The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: Water vapour geysers on Europa Ultima Thule loses its Nazi moniker Locating the stellar remnant from the closest supernova to Earth Are Axions dark matterRead More →

#89 – November 2019 Part 2 The Discussion: Ralph’s been in Washington – which, of course, means a visit to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, we say goodbye to Russian cosmonaut, Alexi Leonov, and take a look at listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: James Webb Space Telescope inches ever closer The USAF’s autonomous space plane sets a new record SpaceX are back on the right path with its crew capsule NASA are sending a viper to the moon and an orbiter to Pluto Plans are revealed about Scotland’s new spaceport. Project Artemis technologies being fundedRead More →

#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 HygieaRead More →

#88 – October 2019 Part 2 The Discussion: As a reward for good behavior, we’ve dispensed with wittering on about us and gone straight into the news.   The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: The last of the Delta IV mediums India’s Vikram lunar lander failure ESA move a satellite to avoid crashing with a SpaceX satellite NASA award funding for a Lunar Gateway pathfinding cubesat Australia & Japan commit to supporting NASA’s moonshot, Project Artemis NASA place orders for the first of possibly 12 Orion moon capsules. Main news stories: A roundup of Elon Musk’s Herculean benevolent/malevolent effortsRead More →

#88 – October 2019 Part 1 The Discussion: A look back at our 50th anniversary of the moon landings-themed dark sky star party, AstroCamp, and some wonderful suggestions as an alternative name for a ‘pair instability supernova’. The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: Discovery of an exoplanet stripped of its atmosphere Understanding more about the features you can observe in Jupiter’s storms Gaia tells us more about the evolution of open clusters Chandra probes black hole clusters Planet 9 (groan…) could be a tiny black hole (it couldn’t) Amateur astronomer discovery of an interstellar comet Understanding the evolution of globularRead More →

#87 – September 2019 Part 2 The Discussion: Nuking hurricanes and the lessons of Chernobyl.   The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: A new adaptor on the ISS making two emergency exits Russia sends a gunslinging robot into space (no, really!) ESA’s ExoMars mission is in hot water again NASA’s Europa Clipper on track to meet its mid-2020s launch window The companies being funded to develop tech for NASA’s moonshot Ramping up of commercial assistance to Project Artemis Main news stories: A NASA astronaut accused of a crime in space, issues of jurisdiction and what happens to sock dustRead More →

#87 – September 2019 Part 1 The Discussion: A good old British whinge about the weather and looking forward to our biannual dark sky star party, AstoCamp.   The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: An experiment in an underground lab in London to understand dark energy Eight new repeating fast radio burst source Help us come up with a cooler name than a pair-instability supernova The late accretion phase of the formation of the solar system The discovery of interstellar radioactive iron in the Antarctica Spitzer reveals surprising exoplanetary details. A new exoplanet discovery of three rocky worlds in theRead More →

#86 – August 2019 Part 2 The Discussion: Following on from last month’s 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, we take a look at the recent movies and documentaries & social media: High Life, 8 Days to the Moon and Back, Apollo 50th, ApolloinRealTime.org. The ongoing inspiration of Apollo, the build-up of Project Artemis, saying farewell to Flight Director Chris Kraft and Mandla Maseko, and an email from our good friend Lee Stevens.     The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: Japan’s Hyabusa 2 mission to return asteroid samples to Earth Toyota and JAXA prototype a pressurized lunarRead More →

#86 – August 2019 Part 1 The Discussion: Space education at science fairs, sweating in space suits, the public attitude towards space exploration while there are so many relevant shows on TV. A correction from a listener and a lesson in Dutch.   The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have: A young stellar system showing us moons being formed around exoplanets Pinpointing a Fast Radio Burst to understand what it actually is An update on the Hubble Constant Neptune-like exoplanets How do stars merge in a stable manner? A planetary nebula formed from a star in that missing 3-8 solar masses.Read More →

The Hubble Tuning Fork and Citizen Science In this podcast extra episode we talk to Karen Masters, Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Haverford College, Pennsylvania about The Hubble Tuning Fork and Galaxy classification. But it’s not only about that canonised galaxy classification system; it’s also about how citizen science, astronomy done by absolutely anybody from their homes, can and do change the accepted wisdom and advance science. Awesome Astronomy Go to SourceRead More →

#85 – July 2019 Part 2 The Discussion: An Apollo-fact filled episode to commemorate the 50th anniversary of humanity venturing onto the surface of another body. Paul works on an Oscar performance; we congratulate Jess Wade on receiving a BEM award and we take a look at the latest movie to lionise the efforts of Apollo 11. The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have: NASA plan to open up the International Space Station to commercial uses & ownership NASA fund two concepts to explore moon craters and asteroids ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter kills the excitement over methane on Mars. NASA’sRead More →