Pythagorean Astronomy

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 (spoi...

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...

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...

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 an...

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 it...

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 Nort...

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 c...

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 dire...

This month we don’t just look back at a few news stories, but also ahead to what’s happening over the coming months for one of the most successful space missions ever: Cassini. Having orbited Saturn for 13 years, Cassini’s fuel is running out and the mission has embarked on a “Grand Finale” before its final plunge into the planet’s atmosphere. Dr Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the Univer...

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 chall...

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...

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...

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 h...

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 o...

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 d...

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...

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...

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 ans...

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 ca...

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-functi...

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 Break...

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...

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 th...

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 Princi...

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...