Naked Astronomy, from the Naked Scientists

This month I've taken to the seaside to bring you a special episode of Naked Astronomy from the National Astronomy Meeting, which was held in St Andrews in the first week of July. I find out about the sparkles that can help us to understand solar flares, plans to let school children loose on a new research-grade telescope, and a technique that could produce the first high-resolution images of quas...

Space Boffins Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson go to a comet, Mars and into space. This month's podcast is from the Open University's Rosetta mission room and includes NASA's Curiosity rover mission specialist Daniel Limonadi, British space scientist Maggie Aderin Pocock and Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian woman in space. Meanwhile studio guests Dr Dan Andrews and Professor Ian Wright explain...

How much detail can amateur astronomers see on Jupiter, and how can space scientists use this to probe the Solar System's largest storms? Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

A full, frank and funny interview with Tim Peake, Richard goes inside NASA's 'crazy ideas', and Sue meets with 'astrogirls'. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

We talk to astronomers who study the environments around black holes, ask what we can learn from a meteor which hit the Moon in March, and find out how spacecraft can navigate their way through the solar system. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Space Boffins Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham dodge space harpoons, discuss whether Mars One will encourage Big Brother in space and report from the Mojave desert on why risk is encouraged at its spaceport. Recorded on location at Astrium, Europe's largest space company, engineer Katherine Bennell and space scientist Ralph Cordey join the Space Boffins to demonstrate how to remove space junk wit...

We talk to Planck Scientists at the Kavli Institute in Cambridge, and Nick James, an amateur astronomer who has set up a security camera on the side of his house to observe shooting stars. Plus we answer more of your space science questions. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Space Boffins Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham are reduced to tears of laughter by Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, enlightened by studio guest and space scientist Dr Lucie Green, and XCOR's Jeff Greason meets Richard in the Mojave Desert to discuss the risks of flying in their new space plane. Kate Arkless-Gray also discusses her progress on securing a seat on XCOR's space plane in the Lynx Space...

The SKA will soon be the world's most sensitive radio telescope, able to view some of the most distant objects ever seen. In a special edition of Naked Astronomy this month, we follow Perth-based astronomer Kirsten Gottschalk on a visit to one of the two sites where it will be built, hundreds of kilometres from civilisation in the Western Australian outback. Kirsten also catches up with progress o...

Comets, Mars and the first phone in space are featured in the latest Space Boffins podcast. Recorded at the Royal Astronomical Society in London, Richard and Sue are joined by Rosetta mission scientist Andy Morse and astronomer Robert Massey. They also talk to one of the engineers behind the first smartphone in orbit and to senior scientists from NASA about future missions to the Red Planet. Like...

2013 looks like a good year for comets! We find out where these balls of dust and ice come from and what to expect from Pan-STARRS and ISON. Plus, the close fly-by of Asteroid 2012 DA14, the fireball that exploded over Russia and your space science questions. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists

Space Boffins Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham meet British astronaut Tim Peake at the British Interplanetary Society. They are joined by space scientist Jane MacArthur, whose methane experiment is currently being tested on a Mars simulation in Morocco, and Ralph Timberlake on the future of the British Interplanetary Society as it celebrates its 80th year. Add on a report on Kicksat and sprites f...

This month in Space Boffins: why space can seriously damage your health, the cameras being installed on the Space Station to give live views of Earth and crisis management tips from an Apollo 13 Flight Director. Richard and Sue are joined by long duration spaceflight expert Kevin Fong and blogger Kate Arkless Gray (SpaceKate), who looks ahead to an exciting year in space exploration. Like this pod...

How can we solve the space debris problem? What will we learn from LOFAR? This edition of Naked Astronomy comes from the RAL Space Conference at the STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratories. We'll explore the crossover between space science and medicine, catch up with Curiosity and find out how a new satellite helps to test the latest tech. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked...

This month in the Space Boffins podcast: a tour of the International Space Station, an Apollo astronaut and the mission to the edge of the Solar System. Space Boffins Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson are joined by comedian Helen Keen and writer David Baker to discuss living in space, one way trips to Mars and a return to the Moon. Also featuring a mystery sound, the noises of Earth and the politi...

This time the award winning Space Boffins podcast comes from Houston to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the last man on the Moon. Richard visits the Apollo 17 capsule and talks to an Apollo veteran, while Sue hears why we should go back to the Moon. Also, flying a phone in space - the competition hots up - and how Gemini astronauts became good at housekeeping. Like this podcast? Please help us b...

How can we measure some of the most energetic events in the universe? This month, we're exploring the new science being carried out by NuSTAR, a space-based high-energy x-ray telescope. Plus, we'll find out why being outside the goldilocks zone might not mean there's no chance of life, as it seems other sources of heat may make even more planets and moons good places to look for biochemistry... Li...

The Space Boffins Podcast comes to you this month from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) in Silicon Valley California and features the search for life and Earth 2.0. Richard talks to SETI's Senior Astronomer, Sue reports from the recent ESA Tweetup in Berlin and hears about a new mission to the Moon. Also this time, Richard lands the Space Shuttle and listen out for the remixed S...

How can we see stars as they first come into being? This month, we're looking at ALMA - the Atacama Large Millimetre Array - possibly the most complicated telescope to date, that promises to peer into star forming regions. Plus, we chat to some of the winners of the 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition, and find out what it takes to start taking pictures of the heavens. Like this po...

Curiosity had barely scratched the surface of Mars when NASA announced another new mission to the red planet. It's called InSight and Dr Tom Pike, from Imperial College London, will be part of the team. He joins Space Boffins Sue Nelson and Kate Arkless-Gray, along with Mapping Mars author Oliver Morton, to discuss the future of planetary exploration on one of our nearest neighbours. Also this mon...

Why are we still curious about Mars? This month on Naked Astronomy, we're looking into Martian matters to find out how we got to where we are today, ushering in a new era of Martian discoveries from the Mars Science Laboratory. Also, we'll examine the evidence for liquid lakes below the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, find out how supermassive stars can form and why the Google Lunar X-Prize is enc...

This month on the Space Boffins Podcast, we will be exploring strange new worlds, discovering a Swedish spaceport, and celebrating the first American space walk. Richard Hollingham and Sue Nelson meet the team sending a mobile phone-based satellite into orbit, explore Kepler the man and Kepler the mission, and delve into the archives of Gemini 4 mission control... Like this podcast? Please help us...

When does the impossible become possible? Researchers have found Red Dwarf stars that simply shouldn't exist, so in this month's Naked Astronomy we find out how theory needs to catch up with observations. Also, how do citizen scientists advance astronomical research, and why isn't the Earth a watery world? Plus, we take on your space science questions, and find out what to look out for in the nigh...

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission lands on Mars next month after a nine-month journey across our Solar System. On arrival the most advanced suite of instruments ever sent to the red planet will get to work. In this edition of the podcast, geologist and MSL scientist Professor Sanjeev Gupta, from Imperial College London, discusses the excitement and science behind the mission with Spacef...

What can farmers learn from physicists? This month in Naked Astronomy we'll find out how satellite imaging can help to understand and control crop diseases, as well as how precisely timed pulsars point to gravitational waves. Plus, a roundup of space science news and the answers to your astronomy and cosmology questions. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists