Pythagorean Astronomy

Stellar Explosions and Interstellar Visitors

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 wate...

Interstellar Comets, black holes and gravitational waves

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 U...

Habitable zones, Lunar landers and Interstellar interlopers

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 land...

Lunar Gateways, Belching Black Holes and Warped Galaxies

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 carb...

Robotic Explorers

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...

The slowly spinning Sun, Starlink and Spiral Surprises

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 ...

Biomarkers, near-misses and anniversaries

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 ca...

Bonus: Herschel 10 years on

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 ...

Engine failures to event horizons

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...

Flying space-shrapnel and a misbehaving Universe

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. Meanw...

Hopping spacecraft and Rosalind the Rover

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...

Cartwheeling snowmen and raining rings

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 - a...

2018: a year in space

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 ...

Kepler's Legacy

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...

Changing with the times

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 ...

Vulcans, dust storms, and Water on Mars

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. Wit...

Parking near the Sun

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 mis...

Icy Moons and Ice Cubes

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...

Organics, asteroids and Nobel Prize winners

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. ...

Bonus: In conversation with a Nobel Prize Winner

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 tow...

Missions to Mars and plumes from Europa

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.

Exoplanet Missions and EWASS roundup

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, ...

Remembering Stephen Hawking

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, a...

March Bonus: Stephen Hawking's Theories

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.

Tumbling Space Cucumbers and 5000 sols on Mars

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...

Glitterballs, habitable exoplanets and supermassive stars

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 als...

Planetary Response Network and 2017 Review

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 de...

The Star That Would Not Die

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...

Gravity and Light

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 sate...

Cassini’s Grand Finale

Cassini’s Grand Finale

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. Sept...

Totally Eclipsed

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 ...

Stars, Supernovae and Geysers

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...

Gravitational Waves and Life from Venus?

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 to...

The Astronomer Royal and Potatoes on Mars

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 R...

TRAPPIST-1 and other stories

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 u...

Backyard Worlds

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 stage...

Star Attractions

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 sh...

Assassin Supernova

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. W...

the GLEAM Survey

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...

Rosetta & OSIRIS-Rex

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 m...

Proxima b

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 ...

Mission Juno

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 care...

The Origins of Black Holes

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...

New worlds

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 e...

Interplanetary explorers

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 ...

to Mars – and Beyond!

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 ...

the Voice of Einstein

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 broadc...

2015 round-up and Tim Peake

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 cele...

Einstein’s Revolution

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 Card...