The Cosmic Savannah

We are joined by Dr Rob Yates, from the University of Surrey, who chats with us about how to recreate the formation of galaxies inside a supercomputer! The post Episode 41: How to Train Your Galaxy appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

This episode we speak with Dr Marisa Geyer. She is a pulsar astronomer and Commissioning Scientist at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, South Africa. MeerKAT telescope. She also explains her research on pulsars and mysterious Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). We don't yet know what causes FRBs, but Marisa reveals some enticing clues! The post Episode 40: The mystery of th...

In this week's episode, we are joined by Dr Miriam Nyamai who studies thermonuclear eruptions on the surface of white dwarf stars! Miriam explains how these "novae" eruptions occur and what we can learn from them. She also describes her role as a postdoctoral researcher hunting for transient events in the sky using radio telescopes such as MeerKAT. The post Episode 39: Erupting novae appeared firs...

We are joined by Dr Michelle Lochner who is a senior lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. Michelle is developing new machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyse the massive astronomical datasets of next- generation telescopes. The post Episode 38: Rise of the machines appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

Welcome to Season Four! We start with a bang and speak with the Director General of the Square Kilometre Array Telescope, Prof Phil Diamond! Phil tells us how it feels to finally have the green light for construction of this giant telescope, after nearly 30 years of preparation. The post Episode 37: Square Kilometre Array telescope is go for construction! appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

Episode 36 marks the second anniversary of The Cosmic Savannah. We take the opportunity to reflect on what has been a very different year, but not without some great fun and highlights. Jacinta and Dan talk through some of their favourite moments from the past year. The post Episode 36: Another Year in Review appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

This week we feature some rising stars in African Astronomy! We're joined by high school learners Indiphile Madletyana and Thabo Maliea who both show great promise as aspiring astronomers, as well as Masters students Sumari Hattingh and Reikantseone Diretse who discuss studies of galaxy clusters using the Hubble Space Telescope. Check out the show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for related lin...

This episode we hear from a familiar voice! SALT Astronomer Dr Moses Mogotsi was our first ever guest on The Cosmic Savannah. He joins us again to explain what it's like to observe in the time of COVID and to tell us more about his research on galaxies. We learn about how observing galaxies in different wavelengths and with different telescopes can add to our overall understanding of how galaxies...

with Tiaan Strydom February 18 2021 will see NASA’s latest Mars Rover, Perseverance, land on the red planet. We are joined by Tiaan Strydom, the Business Development Manager at the […] The post Episode 33: Mars Rovers and the South African National Space Agency appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

In this episode we will be discussing some more exciting work being conducted with the MeerKAT radio telescope. We're joined by Dr Paola Serra from the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory in Italy. He chats with us about the MeerKAT Fornax Survey and the search for the missing gas in the Fornax galaxy cluster. The post Episode 32: The MeerKAT Fornax Survey appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

This year we get off with a bang as our very own Jacinta has a new paper out and takes her turn in the hot seat to tell us all about it! Along with her colleagues, she has been part of the discovery of two giant radio galaxies using South Africa's powerful MeerKAT telescope. These galaxies are amongst the largest single objects in the Universe and are thought to be quite rare. The fact that MeerKA...

This holiday bonus episode is a re-run of Episode 5 from Season 1. We chat about about supermassive black holes, the Event Horizon Telescope and the African Millimetre Telescope. This bonus episode is in celebration of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics which was awarded to three astrophysicists for their black hole-related research. The post Bonus: Rerun – Event Horizon Telescope appeared first on T...

Kelebogile Bonokwane talks with us about her MSc project investigating potential binary stars hiding in the centres of magnificent planetary nebulae. Her work utilises the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) as well as NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The post Episode 30: Pretty Planetary Nebulae appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

This week we learn all about neutron stars and pulsars, which can be thought of as the "corpses" of dead giant stars. We are firstly joined by Prof Matthew Bailes who tells us all about using the MeerKAT telescope to study pulsars. We then hear from award-winning science journalist Katia Moskvitch about her new book "Neutron stars: The Quest to Understand the Zombies of the Cosmos." The post Episo...

Join us this week as we explore the 'Intimate Cosmology' of the indigenous people of South Africa, and the importance of preserving these stories for future generations. Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for more info, pictures, related links and the full transcript. The post Episode 28: Under a Shared Sky appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

This week's episode sees us celebrate SAAO's 200th anniversary, Dan premiering a full-length planetarium show, and the inspiring work being done by The Travelling Telescope in Kenya. Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for more info, pictures, related links and the full transcript. The post Episode 27: A Bamboo Planetarium appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

Welcome to Season 3 of The Cosmic Savannah! This week we get up to speed with all the activities over the break, hear from Assoc Prof Vanessa McBride joins about the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and her role as Head of Research at the SAAO, and her own research in the field of compact binary stars. We also discuss the objectives of the OAD, acknowledging South Africa's difficult past,...

In this mini episode, we chat to Andrew “Andy” Firth, a Masters students at the South African Astronomical Observatory and the University of Cape Town. Andrew tries to detect the faint signals of hydrogen gas in distant galaxies. He is creating an algorithm for stacking data cubes of these galaxies. This clever new technique will be used alongside high-quality MeerKAT radio telescope data. Check o...

Today we chat with Sambatriniaina Rajohnson about her work on the Galactic Plane Survey and the Zone of Avoidance. Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah for more info, pictures, related links and the full transcript. The post Mini Episode 7: Beyond the zone of avoidance appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .

In this week’s mini-episode, we chat with Liantsoa Finaritra Randrianjanahary who is a PhD candidate at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Liantsoa works in the field of cosmology which means he is researching the whole universe as one entity rather than focusing on the individual contents of the universe such as stars and galaxies. Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com...

In this mini-episode, we talk with Bret Yotti a student and teaching assistant from the University of Cape Town (UCT) as well as a presenter at the Iziko Planetarium in Cape Town. We look at Bret's journey in astronomy and why he chose this path. We also find out about his life as a teaching assistant whilst being a student as well at UCT and the work he is doing for the planetarium. Check out the...

In this mini-episode we talk with PhD candidate Tshiamiso Makwela from the University of Cape Town. She shared with us some interesting results from studies answering pressing questions in the field of Astronomy Education Research. Why do students struggle with Astronomy? How can Astronomy be beneficial to society at large? Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for more info,...

In this mini episode we talk with Reikantseone Diretse. Reika is a Master's student from the University of Cape Town. He talks about his involvement with the ThunderKAT project to spot mysterious "transient" objects. Reika also tells us about his work with the most powerful gamma-ray burst that has ever been recorded! Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for more info, pictur...

In this mini-episode we talk with PhD student Brandon Engelbrecht from the University of Western Cape (UWC). We discuss his current work in removing radio frequency interference (RFI) from MeerKAT and how he came to work with one of the largest radio telescope in the world. Check out the full show notes at www.thecosmicsavannah.com for more info, pictures, transcript and related links. The post Mi...

In this special mini episode of the Cosmic Savannah, we are joined by Timothy Roelf who is a Masters student at the University of Cape Town. Tim talks about his project which is going to contribute a lot to improving the performance of astronomical telescopes such as MeerLICHT and BlackGEM. The post Mini Episode 1: Watching the Watchers appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah .