Looking Up: Recent Episodes
Fine Music Radio
Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
Kathryn Rosie, Mechanical Engineer at SAAO describes the building of Hera, a radio telescope.
Dr Danièl Groenwald, Astronomy Operations Manager at SALT, talks Kechil through the future of the Southern African Large Telescope.
The Southern African Large Telescope marks its 20yr anniversary. Dr Encarni Romero Colmanero describes the highlights of its discoveries.
A private remote observatory in South Africa: Prof Peter Dunsby talks about his astrotourism project.
Looking Up 1,000! Prof Jessica Dempsey is the upcoming Director General of the Square Kilometer Array, one of the biggest science projects in the world. She talks to Kechil about her new role.
A terrible description of molecular hydrogen in the early universe. Plus a lunar eclipse on 7th September.
A few years ago scientists went hunting for stars made from anti-matter. What did they find?
Australia and South Africa are the locations of the massive Square Kilometre Array radio telescope. Karen Lee-Waddell, the director of the Australian SKA Regional Centre talks to Kechil about it.
Dr Anna Bosman, computer scientist at the University of Pretoria, talks to Kechil about using machine learning in astronomy
Where is all the matter in the universe? How are Fast Radio Bursts being used to find where it is?
What about Uranus? That cold, distant planet. New research intimates we should send another probe.
FMR's John Woodland is putting on a series of stellar choral concerts called 'The Place of the Stars' with Vox in the Observatory McClean dome and talks to Kechil about it in the dome itself.
Australia and South Africa are set to collaborate closely for decades to come in radio astronomy and here to tell us about it is Dr Karen Lee-Waddell, Director of the AusSRC.
The amazing Vera C Rubin telescope has switched on! South Africa is involved, find out about the biggest camera in the world and what it's going to do.
FMR's John Woodland is putting on a series of stellar choral concerts called 'The Place of the Stars' with Vox in the Observatory McClean dome and talks to Kechil about it in the dome itself.
Professor Oleg Smirnov at Rhodes University and SARAO talks some more to Kechil about the PARROT pulsar.
Distinguished Prof. Oleg Smirnov talks to Kechil about taking radio videos of transients.
The Blue Danube in space! Take a look at https://space.vienna.info/en-US. The European Space Agency is blasting Strauss into the Universe.
What is an AGN? What is an inactive black hole? UCT Phd student Tombo Fitahiana Rarivoarinoro explains.
What's up now that winter's here? There's a nova in Corona Borealis which could go nova soon!
In anticipation of the IAA Planetary Defence conference in Stellenbosch 5-9 May, Kechil talks some more about NEOs and how the public can enjoy related events.
Would you like to hear the sound of star clusters? They sing a song about the history of our galaxy.
Kechil talks to Sam Wilson, author of The First Murder on Mars about some of the practicalities of living on Mars
Kechil talks to Sam Wilson, author of The First Murder on Mars about how societies and humans may evolve on Mars
What are the differences between the northern and southern hemispheres? Barry Linton from the south of England and a member of our local astronomy society, explains.
"The Moon belongs to everyone, the best things in life are free" says the song, but what about Saturn's 128 newly discovered moons? Do we name them all?
Dr Rosalind Skelton is the new Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory, here in Observatory. She talks to Kechil about her plans for the next few years.
How does an astronomer become an ambassador? Prof Paul Groot describes his task ahead in Chile.
Samples returned from the asteroid Bennu have revealed astonishing news about the potential origins of life of Earth.
Who would've thought that the Graeco-Roman Goddess of Hinges would be revived: she's back now, squeaking away on a quasi-moon. Hear about this, and many other naming conventions.
How do you look at black holes? Kechil talks about the latest plans to launch a cluster of radio telescopes into space to study these monster-gobblers.
Roundup of currently visible planets and the comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) still visible with the naked eye to the right of the Sun as it sets. Also the latest of what's happening with Mars.
New Year on Mars: what might it look like? Plus a roundup of what you can see in the night sky.
Kechil talks to Shamin Doman about one of the exhibits at the new Visitor Centre, which you too can see by booking at www.saao.ac.za
What is time? We only know how to measure it. Kechil canters through the technologies used to do this, including the most accurate clocks associated with local radio telescopes MeerKAT and the SKA.
Visit the Observatory for a tour! Pran Govender tells us about the new Visitor Centre and tours at the Observatory. See www.saao.ac.za
In August this year Kechil caught up with Prof Phil Charles at the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly. Here he talks about his passion for White Dwarf stars.
When Kechil was in Perth in October she talked to Ramesh Bhat about Australian indigenous astronomy.
Kechil reports on the latest plans by the European Space Agency to launch a gravitational wave detector into space, LISA.
The 2025 Sky Guide Southern Africa is out now. Gayle Andrews, the librarian of the Cape Centre tells us about it. If you're interested in joining us: https://assa.saao.ac.za/centres/cape-centre/
and the Sky Guide can be obtained from:
https://struiknature.co.za/product/sky-guide-2025/
Distinguished radio astronomer Ron Ekers talks to Kechil in Perth about his career highlight
Kechil is back in South Africa after visiting astronomers in Perth, Australia and gives a roundup of local celestial news. If you'd like to look at some stunning images of the recent comet visit https://www.facebook.com/Astrosocsa/
Kechil interviews Dr Rajan Chhetri in Perth, Australia about inter-planetary scintillation and twinkling black holes.
These days, for every astronomer, there are a bunch of computer scientists, software developers and engineers behind them, creating the telescopes and software that allow them to process their data. Jordan Collier is such a person who facilitates astronomers producing science. He works in Perth, Australia which is where Kechil caught up with him.
Dr Knicole Colon of the James Webb Space Telescope tells us about the mysterious rogue planets following recent research in the Orion Nebula.
Dr Knicole Colon of the James Webb Space Telescope tells us about the mysterious rogue planets following recent research in the Orion Nebula.
There was a partial lunar eclipse early this morning but not worth staying up for. Kechil gives a round-up of upcoming eclipses, and gives the latest space news.
A candy floss planet! The universe is weirder than we thought. A telescope in Sutherland has found something odd.
Ranpal Gil works on the engineering side of a new massive survey telescope, the Vera C Rubin, in Chile. She talked to Kechil about this extraordinary telescope when she was here at the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly in Cape Town, early August.
Liquid water has been found on Mars, but not where we'd want it. It's 10-20kms underground, at least at the place where the Mars Insight lander was testing. Interesting though, and baby steps in terms of any colonisation programme.
Professor Phil Charles was the director of the Southern African Astronomical Observatory here in Cape Town and retired many years ago. What has he been up to since? Kechil catches up with him at the IAU's General Assembly on August 13th.
What is dark matter and what is dark energy? Do they exist? Well, we've sent up a spacecraft which has left a space telescope, Euclid, to map billions of galaxies and detect their movement. To tell us more about this mysterious and fascinating endeavor is Sandor Kruk of the European Space Agency, here at the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly in Cape Town.
It's the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly happening now in Cape Town from 6-15th August. This is great news for Africa, as it's the first time the annual General Assembly has taken place in this continent.
More information about public events and booking can be found here:
https://astronomy2024.org/public/
The number of the Observatory if you'd like to book a daytime tour or listen to an evening talk:
021 447 0025
Waterfront website: www.waterfront.co.za/events/celebrating astronomy
More about asteroids, other threats in space and how the Chinese are dealing with them, plus advance notice of the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly taking place in Cape Town 6-15 August.
Last Sunday was International Asteroid Day. This was celebrated mainly on Monday when people were back at work, when Kechil attended a talk given by Marco Micheli of the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness Planetary Defence Office. Here he is talking to Kechil about why it is important to devote attention to asteroids. Here in South Africa, we have a telescope which is part of the international ATLAS consortium which surveys the sky tracking and looking for asteroids.
Why do stars spin? What sets them off? Recent observations from the James Webb Space Telescope may tell us something about this phenomenon and what happens in the early phase of a star's life.
Even NASA slips up in its communications from time to time. Recently they broadcast a medical emergency drill to their public livestream channel about the International Space Station by mistake. Kechil here attempts to recreate the drama.
What do things in the universe taste like? Kechil explores this with recent experiments and theory.
Voyager1 continues to deliver! An amazing piece of software engineering has fixed a problem. You too can track the two Voyagers here:
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/
How can the Sun affect our weather, aside from its obvious heat. Given the spate of solar storms earlier in the month, Kechil has brought back Jacques van Delft to talk about how our Sun may affect our rainfall, with predictions about what we may expect this winter. If you would like to follow Jacques van Delft, here is his Facebook page on solar activities https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555679784685v
Recently there has been a spate of solar storms. Kechil talks to the Director of the Solar Section of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, Jacques van Delft, about our nearest star and what it has been up to. If you would like to follow Jacques van Delft, here is his Facebook page on solar activities https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61555679784685
We are finding out more about planets outside of our solar system. 55 Cancri e is an odd one: it orbits its sun once every 17 Earth hours, and is only 2.3 kms away - can you imagine that? I wonder what it sounds like there. You would definitely not want to visit. It has a molton lava surface and is possibly made out of diamond!
Two items: the recently postponed launch of the new Boeing Starliner capsule and what will those astronauts wear? Plus, a new find: a very massive stellar black hole in our galaxy, 33 times the mass of our Sun.
K2-18 b may be the location for our first detection of alien life. We will have to wait a few months for results of recent observations to become available. Spoiler alert: probably not life you could enjoy a cup of tea and a cosy fireside chat with.
Dr Marcin Glowacki shares his brand new research, in which he has detected 49 new galaxies while he was looking for something else! Marcin and Kechil discuss star-forming galaxies.
Fast Radio Bursts: can we ever see them? What are they? Masters student Kira Hanmer is among the first in the world ever to go looking for these unexplained phenomena in the optical realm.
Fast Radio Bursts: can we ever see them? What are they? Masters student Kira Hanmer is among the first in the world ever to go looking for these unexplained phenomena in the optical realm.
There will be a solar eclipse on 8 April visible over Mexico, the southern and eastern United States, and part of Canada. It will not be visible over this continent. There are all manner of nutty things being said about it on the Internet. Enjoy!
So many satellites: how do we stop them colliding with each other? space.com reveals the data.
Kechil spent a blissful weekend recently at a star-gazing event at Leeuwenboschfontein Observatory, and you can too! Here are some links which will take you there:
https://www.leeuwenboschfontein.co.za/pages/lbf-astronomical-observatory/
https://www.facebook.com/LeeuwenboschfonteinObservatory/
The children of Bellville North Primary School joined for a few hours of observing, and you can hear their reactions. Eddy Nijeboer manned his telescope and demonstrated a few stunning celestial treasures.
Landing on the Moon is tricky - you try it! Kechil unpacks the latest in a crop of difficult endeavours, this time from a private company.
Professor Matthew Bailes from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia talks about pulsars and working with the MeerKAT telescope in the Northern Cape
Kellie Devos is a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, UK, studying the evolution of galaxies in clusters. It sounds rather like living in cities, in that you have a different way of being in different suburbs. She wishes she could visit them in a spaceship, but unfortunately even if you could visit far away galaxies, you might not see as much as we can using radio telescopes here on Earth.
There are many missions to the Moon launching this year, including the Peregrine mission, which was launched recently and has unfortunately already malfunctioned. This show outlines a few of these, some of which are commercial enterprises or collaborations between industry and government space agencies. The Chinese, Japanese, US and private concerns are all in on the act this year.
What have selective hearing aids got to do with astronomy? Why might you wish to listen to what your partner is saying to someone else at a Cocktail Party? What is the Cocktail Party problem and do they have these problems in space?
Fun facts about the Moon. This month we have the Mantis Moon. To find out more about southern hemisphere moons appropriate for us in South Africa, take a look at http://cfah.org.za/fullmoon/
It's Full Moon today. What all about the Moon? Today is the turn of the Springbok Moon, and if you want to know more about southern hemisphere names of Moons go to the Centre for Astronomical Heritage’s website cfah.org.za and look up Heritage Moons.
How do we know about the geology of planets outside of our solar system? Professor John Compton describes what we know about the geology of planets other than our own, and how we can determine the behaviour and composition of other planets. Did you know what a dead planets is? Find out, all in 5 minutes!
Professor John S Compton talks to Kechil about some of the fascinating characters connected to the history of astronomy in Cape Town. You can find out more from his book: Interpreting Earth, A History of Geology through Encounters with Table Mountain. It is obtainable by visiting the website https://www.johnscompton.com/ and from independent bookshops.
Matter does escape from black holes, in million-light-year-long Jedi lightsaber type structures called relativistic jets, which stretch up to 10 times longer than our Milky Way galaxy. These things continue to amaze scientists.
Professor John Compton talks to Kechil about his latest book: Interpreting Earth, A History of Geology through Encounters with Table Mountain. It is full of the history of astronomy and geological exploration in The Cape, and contains many lovely illustrations. It is obtainable by visiting the website https://www.johnscompton.com/ and from independent bookshops.
The worthy and wonderful Sky Guide Southern Africa 2024 is now available in bookshops. You can see a review here: https://assa.saao.ac.za/ and if you scroll down a bit, on the facebook site here: https://www.facebook.com/Astrosocsa. How to buy it, you can find here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/sky-guide-2024/9781775848677
Also, something about SpaceX's Starship test flight this last weekend. Worth taking a look at the extraordinary footage: https://www.youtube.com/live/uOI35G7cP7o?feature=shared
Nano-particle accelerators, women in space, and Chinese space endeavour. It's all happening!
Two unrelated stories: historical records of the Sun's cycles, and luxurious space toilets.
There is a new documentary film doing its rounds on the festival circuit called !Aitsa about the people and the place where the big radio telescopes are being operated and built in the northern cape. Kechil interviews the director, Dane Dodds, who is from that area himself, about the film. The scope of the film is enormous and cosmic, and you can find out more at: https://www.aitsafilm.com/
Migratory bird vagrancy is not a phrase you may ponder often, but it happens, and especially during solar storms which disrupt the Earth's magnetosphere. What else does space weather get up to?
Sounds in space! The Perseverance Mars rover is the only one to record human audible sounds and return it back to Earth. It looks like in future we may send microphones on other space missions. Odd to think of other planets and moons sounding very different to Earth.
Have we detected a sign of life on an exoplanet? The chemical signature of DMS has been possibly found by the James Webb Space Telescope. In a year's time we'll have more robust data on this, but it suggests that phytoplankton may exist - that is, life! - on a planet which is not Earth.
What is a Silent Barker? Good pub quiz question. It's a special space mission designed to keep an eye on the behaviour of satellites not belonging to the United States, in geosynchronous orbit. Silent Barker was launched last Sunday, Kechil gives us the lowdown.
Kechil talks to astronomer Itumeleng Monageng about his interests in astronomy, and covers some basic astronomy.
Kechil talks to astronomer Itumeleng Monageng about his interests in astronomy, and covers some basic astronomy.
Kechil talks to astronomer Itumeleng Monageng about his interests in astronomy, and covers some basic astronomy.
Kechil talks to astronomer Itumeleng Monageng about his interests in astronomy, and covers some basic astronomy.
Kechil talks to astronomer Itumeleng Monageng about his interests in astronomy, and covers some basic astronomy.
You too can be a scientist and help discover new exploding stars! Follow this link:
https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/alex-andersson/bursts-from-space-meerkat
It's not difficult, there are just some things computers don't do well at, and one of them is recognising patterns in pictures. Alex Andersson explains all in today's show.
Will South Africa send astronauts to the International Space Station in the next couple of years? The CEO of the South Africa National Space Agency has indicated they would like to do this. Ani Vermeulen, a space scientist and space engineer walks us through what it would take to achieve this ambitious target.
cfah.org.za is the website about Heritage Moons, detailing moons which are appropriate for the southern hemisphere.
The Ariane-5 rocket is launching for the last time tonight, hopefully. This is a true workhorse and has launched into space 116 times since 1996.
Do you know what Mars Dune Alpha is? Kechil describes a new lockdown-style activity.
Why is space engineering boring and what has this got to do with the Titan submersible disaster?
China has plans to send people to the Moon before the end of the decade. NASA will send astronauts back to the Moon possibly as early as next year. What are the laws surrounding appropriation of materials gleaned from celestial bodies?
The Voyager missions are hurtling into interstellar space, but are running out of energy. Like us, they are having to ration what little they have left. One by one, their instruments will be shut down, but the engineers have some tricks to try to eek out the precious remaining electricity for a few more years.
Space-X's Starlink programme, which is sending thousands of satellites into low earth orbit, is coming in for some criticism. Another hazard has been detected and researched by SETI intern Ramiro Saide: aliens! Kechil unpacks the problem.
You too can be a scientist, and participate in a sonification experiment. Human ears are very good at detecting patterns, and NASA needs volunteers to help find patterns in data, representing the magnetic dance between the Sun and the Earth.
Go to this site:
https://listen.spacescience.org/
Sara de la Fuente is the Science Operations Manager for a very interesting mission that was launched on 14th April to visit the icy moons of Jupiter. The mission will involve many different science instruments. For example, it will take detailed images and measure the magnetic fields around Jupiter's moons.
Two important rockets to talk about. Firstly the launch of the JUICE mission last Friday to the moons of Jupiter, and secondly Space-X's gigantic Starship.
The Earth, and every other object we know in space, could be bobbing around on an ocean of low frequency gravity waves. Kechil explains something about what this means.
More NEOs, or Near Earth Objects. An asteroid passed by at 175,000 kms. A close shave! What can we do about these threatening lumps of rock?
How is your cosmological coupling? What has this to do with Dark Energy? What are black holes up to? What is Cold Death and when might it occur? These and other questions may have nothing to do with your daily life, but they are fascinating. Kechil talks to Dr Chris Pearson who has the answers, or, as a true scientist, knows more of what we don't know.
Dr Chris Pearson tells Kechil about the scary Event Horizon, the point of no return when you get near a black hole. Hear it from the expert!
Black holes! What are they? How many are out there? How do we know they are there? Kechil talks to Dr Chris Pearson who was in Cape Town with the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project.
There is a big meeting happening right now in Cape Town at the South African Astronomical Observatory, where engineers, technologists and scientists have flown in from the four corners. Kechil talks to Louisa Quartermaine from Perth about the Australian component of the Square Kilometre Array, the biggest telescope being built in the world, in South Africa and Australia.
There is a pretty conjunction of Venus and Jupiter you might like to take a look at in the evening or just before sunrise, if you have a clear western aspect. Kechil motors through conjunctions, alignments and other geometric features of our position in the solar system.
A reminder that the observatory has open nights on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at 8pm. You need to book which you can do from their website saao.ac.za.
The Very Large Telescope and the European Space Agency's space telescopes have combined strengths and produced images of an exoplanet orbiting around a star in the constellation of Lepus. You can see this for yourself either on space.com or on the European Southern Observatory's website eso.org.
There is a pretty chain of planets to be seen after sunset at this time, if you have a clear western horizon. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has been visible in the southern hemisphere - a green blob that won't be back here, if at all, for a very very long time. And three more objects have been shot down by the US militia.
Last Sunday the US shot down a Chinese balloon which had made its way across US territory. What is special about balloons? What sort of balloon was it? Are we all living in a spy novel?
Kechil unpacks the Skittles image from the James Webb Space Telescope which she and astronomer Pamala Klassen were chatting about last week.
Pamela Kassen, an astronomer from Edinburgh, is here in Cape Town and talks to Kechil about the latest from the James Webb Space Telescope, a telescope up in space whose data she works with. Here she describes that the universe has far more galaxies than originally thought, and it is a colourful place.
A satellite launch recently failed from the UK on 9th January. Satellites were to be released from a rocket fired from a jumbo jet which took off from Cornwall, a southern county in England. This was the first ever satellite launch from the UK, but they will try again. Learn about some other failures, and how bad space can be for your teeth!
There is a comet arriving in our neighbourhood, listen out for announcements in early February. There are new lunar landers created by private industry, on their way to the Moon. These pave the way for more ambitious undertakings.
How is it that the Earth is not the center of the solar system? It does look like the Sun, Moon and planets move around us. Retrograde motion, epicycles, these are explained in 5-minutes, with some history thrown in.
The Orion capsule splashed down last Sunday, as part of NASA's Artemis programme, which will send humans back to the Moon. Find out how it's going.
Sumari Barocci-Faul, a Masters student at the University of Cape Town, tells Kechil about her research in cataclysmic variable stars: exploding stars - more great balls of fire.
Great balls of fire! A fireball, or bolide, was seen by many above Kirstenbosch Gardens at the concert last weekend. And other fiery topics: the eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii and volcanism on other planets in, and out of, our solar system.
Chris Forder has spent a lifetime building telescopes, a very worthy hobby. He tells Kechil about the changes that have occurred in telescope design and materials over the last 60 years.
South Africa is to host a ground station for NASA to communicate with the Artemis lunar exploration programme at Matjiesfontein. This is great news for SANSA. Also a plug for the 2023 Sky Guide Southern Africa published by Penguin Random House / Struik Nature.
Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
Kechil mentions a couple of new space engineering endeavours: how to get heavy objects through tricky atmospheres on other planets, and launching hypersonic planes from other massive planes. Also something scary for Halloween: a large asteroid missed us. Phew!
An ancient text has been found and accurately dated, to the Greek astronomer Hipparchus in 129 BCE. This is a major historical breakthrough as it shows that people were accurately measuring the stars at that time, and using charts to predict their positions and movements.
Out in the Karoo in the middle of the Northern Cape is the site of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, consisting of 64 MeerKAT radio dishes and other strange instruments, designed to capture radio waves from the universe. Turning them into something astronomers can work with requires the biggest super computer in Africa, massive power generation, and all sorts of high tech equipment. Here to tell us about this is Andre Walker who is in charge of the Data Centre.
A round up of recent astronomical news: the effect of hurricane Ian on space launches, Citizen Science and the search for exoplanets has a new SETI project, and no eclipse for us down in South Africa.
NASA's DART project could save the entire planet! Last Monday NASA successfully hit a small lump of rock in space, knocking it very slightly off orbit. This is a demonstration of a method that could be used to deal with a real threat to Earth from space.
Professor Paul Groote talks to Kechil about multiwavelength astronomy and how it is that we know so much about the stars.
Want to see the biggest single-mirror telescope in the hemisphere? Want to look at the stars through powerful instruments? Claudine Jasmine is a tour guide in Sutherland at the South African Astronomical Observatory and here tells Kechil what you need to do. Go to www.saao.ac.za to book for a day or night tour. It's fabulous. SAAO
The James Webb Space Telescope has been at it again, and has found something odd - a star with concentric rings.
What has the James Webb Space Telescope been up to? It's found carbon dioxide on a far away planet, WASP-39b, and also taken a peek at Jupiter's auroras and rings.
Gamma-Ray Bursts: Simon de Wet gives us the low-down. Do not get in the beam of a Gamma Ray Burst. Sadly, the only way to avoid this is to leave planet Earth.
Latest from space: what is the impact on the invasion of Ukraine on the Russian space agency, Roscosmos? What's the latest on the NASA Mars rover? And how is the James Webb Space Telescope doing?
What does statistics have to do with astronomy? Sydil Kupa of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory tells us what the link is.
Kechil's colleague at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, Sydil Kupa, enjoys statistics. She tells us why
The James Webb Space Telescope's early images are superb. Kehil gives the lowdown on what this magnificent instrument will be up to in the coming years.
What was it like being an astronomy back in the day? Dr Robin Catchpole gives a personal account of life at the observatory in Sutherland. Why should astronomers wear a hat? Because it's cold? Well, not quite.
Continuing the theme of the history of astronomy in South Africa, Dr Robin Catchpole of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge talks to Kechil about the opening of the observatory in Sutherland, and how things (almost) went awry!
Dr Robin Catchpole, an astronomer with the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, started working in local astronomy in 1966, and gives us some background to the foundation of the observatory in Sutherland
100 years ago today the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa was formed, and here to tell us about it is Chris de Coning, Director of the History section. If you'd like more information please go to https://assa.saao.ac.za/centres/cape-centre/
Rotating liquid mirrors of mercury - bet you've never heard of that! There is a new telescope in India with such a mirror being commissioned at the moment. Also some news of a hypergiant, dying star.
What's up with our space telescopes? The James Webb has been hit by a meteorite (not serious) and the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope has found some interesting things hanging out in our galaxy. One of them is the James Webb.
Some listeners may have heard the term 'machine learning'. This is highly critical for modern astronomy, where computers take vast amounts of data from astronomical observations and sift through it to detect patterns or find anomalies. To put it in context for us is Dr Jasper Horrell who works at the University of Cape Town at the Inter-university Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and also runs a company, Deep Data, using machine learning for security applications. You can find out more at www.deepdata.works. Astronomers these days must also be data scientists and computer geeks - it's a good thing we're living longer, that's a lot of learning to do.
Would you like to live on Mars? A recent report suggests that solar technology may be feasible for establishing a small colony.
NASA has created a wonderful sonification (sound picture) of planets outside of our solar system. This comes with pretty visuals. It's lovely to listen to, and to get a feel for how many exoplanets we've detected and their characteristics.
The Orion spacecraft will sit atop a rocket and will take humans to the Moon and beyond in the not-too-distant future. Hear all about it!
NASA has created a wonderful sonification (sound picture) of planets outside of our solar system. This comes with pretty visuals. It's lovely to listen to, and to get a feel for how many exoplanets we've detected and their characteristics.
Not every student who studies astronomy will go on to be an astronomer. In fact only a minority will do so. What do they do when they've completed a PhD or Masters? The EU-funded SKIES project is designed to help students navigate the world out there, and here are Michelle Willebrand from Leiden University in The Netherlands, and Lucia Marchetti, a lecturer in astronomy from the University of Cape Town, talking about training that's taken place this week at the UCT Graduate School of Business.
It is true that I had lunch with the head of NASA (as in, sitting next to him in a small room with just 4 of us), and that he told me that the entire budget of NASA was one slice of pizza per US citizen in 2011. In fact the only untruth in that Looking Up is that my idea to have premier league footballers forego their salaries for a year is actually going to happen (and that Richard Branson is behind it - I'll deal with Sir Richard if he comes baying for FMR's blood)!
Dr Elias Aydi is a research associate at Michigan State University, and has been involved in research under Cape Town's Professor Shazrene Mohammed. Their research has simulated what happens when our star dies. It's quite wild. Thankfully this isn't going to happen for a long long time
Astronomy Picture of the Day https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ has been at it again, inspiring us with extraordinary images from nature. A recent image shows us what we can see in what is known as 'the observable universe'. What are the limits of this universe, and what lies beyond?
Imagine if there were two Suns. This is the case for Kepler-16b which is an exoplanet detected using a relatively modest ground based telescope. There is a lot to learn about how planets were formed and looking at systems with more than one star may teach us something.
Where does all the water come from? Recent research suggests that the Earth was born with it.
Comets causing damage! There is historical evidence for a comet having wreaked havoc on an ancient North American culture. Also the International Astronomical Union has set up a group to look at the problems being caused by, predominantly the Starlink satellites.
9,200 years ago a massive solar storm hit Earth, as detected in ice cores. This happened during a period of solar quiescence, which is thought to be unusual. Why is this important? Because a solar storm of the magnitude of that ancient storm would knock out satellites, which means no Internet and no mobile phones, and chaos on a global scale.
Have scientists found evidence of Life On Mars? Kechil walks through the latest finding, and hypotheses about carbon-rich samples found by Curiosity rover.
Willie Koorts, a technician at the South African Astronomical Observatory, talks about the construction of the ATLAS dome and telescope, and how they had to mak 'n plan.
A new telescope is being commissioned in Sutherland, which is part of the ATLAS project. This is a worldwide survey looking out for Near Earth Objects, or asteroids, which could threaten Earth. A recent move, Don't Look Up, treats this subject with dark humour.
Finally the James Webb Space Telescope has launched into space, on Christmas Day itself, and is now on its way to its destination. Find out about what it's going to do when it gets there, and why this is a very important and exciting space mission.
The James Webb Space Telescope should have launched a couple of hours ago. Let's hope so. It's an extraordinary instrument and here Kechil describes some of its finer points.
The Andromeda Galaxy was first seen through a telescope 500 years ago. It is famous for not only being the nearest full-on galaxy to our own, but because it was used to determine the distance between us. This marked it out not as a cloud, as was thought at the time, but an entirely separate galaxy. Suddenly in 1924 we knew for sure that the Milky Way was not the entire universe.
How do astronomers make sense of vast amounts of data? There's too much from the new large instruments to represent on a piece of paper. Here to tell us about new methods is Professor Tom Jarrett at the Visualisation Lab at the University of Cape Town.
A round-up of what's in the night sky plus news of the partial solar eclipse on Saturday morning.
Invisibility: could it be made a reality? Well not unless you want to be turned into a gas and cooled down to absolute zero. But recent experiments have inched towards this, and could solve problems of information leakage in quantum computers
Who was Vera C Rubin and why does she have a major telescope named after her? Here to tell us is the author of a recent biography of this important astronomer, Jacqueline Mitton. She herself is an astronomer from Cambridge, UK and her book is available from loot and is called Vera Rubin: A life by Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton. It is published by Belknap Press, an imprint of Harvard University Press, ISBN 9780674919198
She is giving a talk via zoom at the local astronomy society on 24th November at 19:30 which you are welcome to join. Here are the joining instructions: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89645785875?pwd=SW5jamxjT3dNaHFpY2FVbDlSaTZQUT09 Meeting ID: 896 4578 5875 Passcode: 006588
One of the delights of living in this part of the world is the Karoo night skies. Enjoy them at their best by visiting the Leeuwenboschfontein Observatory and you can find details of where it is and when the observatory is open to the public on https://www.leeuwenboschfontein.co.za/pages/lbf-astronomical-observatory/
Tourists have been getting in the way of a Mars simulation project. Why would they do that?
The Sky Guide Africa South 2022 is now available at bookshops. Published by Struik Nature it is a terrific little book for anyone wishing to know what's up. It's conference season, but many of the usual conference goers are staying at home, and it's not just because of covid. Sending things into the atmosphere is bad.
The European and Japanese space agencies have sent craft Bepicolombo to investigate Mercury, and after 3 years it's arrived. Kechil describes something of this interesting mission. Also, fun in space! Star Trek's Captain Kirk has finally actually gone into space, plus the Russians are making a film aboard the International Space Station.
NASA is to soon launch a new mission called Lucy to examine the Trojan asteroids which circle around Jupiter. It's a 12-year mission, and will find out about the formation of the outer planets, amongst other things we don't know about yet.
Dr Sudanshu Barway, formerly of the South African Astronomical Observatory and now at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, talks about an extraordinary observation of 3 merging galaxies each with supermassive black holes. These will eventually collide, but thankfully not for a very long time.
A new gravitational wave detector has observed a couple of wobbles. Is this some new exotic phenomenon in deep space or is it something going on in the instrument? We don't know. Even if we could discount discrepancies inside the detector we still wouldn't know for sure! Mysteries abound.
What is SpaceX up to now? Well at this moment a crew of 4 is hurtling around planet Earth to raise money for a children's hospital, among other things. And they are all wearing SpaceX spacesuits. I want one!
Following our series of controversial topics in space, Kechil now faces extra-terrestrial mining. Coming soon at an asteroid near you!
Advertising in space! Continuing with the theme of controversial projects in space, Kechil interviews Dr Francois Malan about one particular project. Don't worry, you aren't going to be looking up into the night skies above Cape Town and seeing flashing lights.
In this series on controversial topics, Kechil talks to Being Green's John Richards about energy from space. It is theoretically possible to beam energy from the Sun down to Earth. How close are we to developing this technology and how green is it?
Controversy in space! Over the next few weeks Kechil will explore a variety of projects which may not be for the benefit of all Earth-bound citizens.
What does it actually sound like on another planet? Kechil plays 3 recordings taken from the surface of Mars and explains why they sound low and muffled. Amazing that we can hear what it sounds like on Mars.
Nothing is still in the universe, everything is spinning, hurtling through space. But what would happen if the Earth suddenly stopped?
A balloon the size of a football stadium! That's pretty big. Beneath it will dangle SuperBIT, an almost-space telescope which could reveal the secrets of dark matter. This is a far cheaper and more environmentally-friendly way of peering into space and getting round the problem of our restless atmosphere.
All sorts of new discoveries are being made using the new MeerKAT radio telescope in the Northern Cape. Here to tell us about them is Dr Sarah White, an astronomer affiliated to Rhodes University and the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory. If you'd like to find out more, follow this link: https://www.sarao.ac.za/media-releases/meerkats-stunning-image-reveals-cosmic-threads-ribbons-and-rings/
Space tourism is launched! Virgin Galactic successfully completed their fourth test flight and next, in a week's time, we have Blue Origins taking tourists into space. Kechil explores the consequences of these private endeavours.
The new South African MeerKAT telescope has been revealing the secrets of the universe. Here to tell us about the latest revelations is Shilpa Ranchod, a PhD student at Wits. Her research has shown how groups of galaxies are connected by examining the gas around them.
There is alcohol in space! Yes, plenty of alcohol floating about in clouds if you know where to look. Kechil gives the lowdown on booze in space
Recently the US military released footage of UFOs. Kechil explores the arguments with the help of Anders Sandberg. What are they? Angels, fairies, intrusions from the fifth dimension, swamp gas, Chinese drones, sapient octopuses, or a prank or what? And if aliens then why are they so shy?
Yesterday was the Sister Moon, a Full Moon named according to locally meaningful traditions by the Centre for Astronomical Heritage. See https://cfah.org.za/fullmoon/
There's a lot we don't know about our own solar system. Signs are there could be a very large planet about a million light years from Earth, but still orbiting our star.
The latest trend is to send thousands of very small satellites into low earth orbit, which have a short life. These then burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after a few months of operation. There is predicted to be a couple of tons of satellite debris entering the atmosphere every day. As they are made of aluminium, in sufficient quantities this could cause serious environmental problems.
Lots going on in space flight at the moment: the Chinese space station is being constructed in space with the second robotic cargo launch having been successfully completed; something made a hole in the International Space Station's robotic arm; SpaceX made a 10th launch and re-landing of its reusable booster rocket, and the Mars rover Perseverance's helicopter survived what could have been a serious problem.
Professor David Buckley of the South African Astronomical Observatory talks to Kechil about the latest weird findings from outer space. Periodic X-ray flares from the centre of far away galaxies is having scientists wondering what is causing them - perhaps two black holes whizzing around each other? We just don't know.
Associate Professor Emeritus John S Compton has produced a new book about the West Coast called "The West Coast, A Natural History" and his particular view of the ecology of this area has been influenced and inspired by his life as a geologist. Geology is interesting to some branches of astronomers, particularly those who study exoplanets and astrobiologists, who study the possibilities of life on other planets. You can obtain his book and others from his website http://www.johnscompton.com/ or small bookshops such as The Book Lounge or from Kirstenbosch Gardens. He is giving a talk to the local astronomy society about geology which the public is welcome to join via zoom at 19:30 on Wednesday 26 May. This is the code for those interested: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84770804350?pwd=K3hRaVdEei9vL3p3dHNBTFV5MjRkdz09
Anti-matter is a strange concept and apparently exists in space somewhere. Scientists are looking for it, and if it is detected it could offer clues as to how the Universe was born.
Would you like to swing on a star? Space tourism is finally taking off. Place your bids with Blue Origins and you too could spend a lot of money to peer out at space from a capsule, for a few minutes, before parachuting down to Earth.
Satellites are used to detect fires, and here to tell us about the South African Advanced Fire Information System is engineer from the CSIR, Riaan van den Dool.
This last week Table Mountain went up in flames, causing terrible damage, displacing people and destroying the lives of countless creatures and plants. But what is fire and how is terrestrial fire different to what we see in our Sun? Here to talk us through the physics (gently) is Dr Richard Armstrong, an astronomer at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory.
It's 60 years since Yuri Gagarin orbited planet Earth, and in that time we have learnt how to examine the atmospheres around exoplanets orbiting distant stars. What about our closest star and the planets around that? And what will the next 60 years of space exploration bring?
The Mars rover Perseverance is sending back astonishing high resolution images from the surface, and soon its helicopter will be launched. Kechil walks us through the journey the signals have to take to reach NASA
It's a long time since we visited Uranus and Neptune: the 80's in fact. Scientists are proposing launching a mission to these planets in 2030. Not only that, but they are proposing that a mission to the ice giants could be used to measure gravitational waves.
Keith Gottscalk has a lifelong passion for space flight and some FMR listeners may have caught him speaking at a UCT Summer School on South Africa's history in space. Recently he has published a poetry book called 'Cosmonauts do it in heaven' and talks to Kechil about it. It is available now via www.modjajibooks.co.za, also available at Kindle.
Zodiacal light: what is it? Have you seen it? What has Mars got to do with it? Latest research from the Juno mission suggests that most of this dust originates from the Red Planet.
PhD student Erik Osinga in Leiden in The Netherlands tells us about his citizen science project Lofar Galaxy Zoo. You too can participate and help the astronomers to identify galaxies in outer space. The link to the project is: http://lofargalaxyzoo.nl/ There is also a tutorial video that helps people get started https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPmUcRYzSrc Have fun!
February is the month of Mars this year with not one, not two, but three missions arriving at the Red Planet. Two represent the first interplanetary missions for the United Arab Emirates and China, the third being the US NASA Perseverance rover.
The latest from outer space: unusual star systems and a Japanese sample-return mission to an asteroid.
Dragonfly Aerospace is a new space technology company based in Stellenbosch. The CEO, Bryan Dean, tells Kechil all about it.
Research Fellow Dr Mpati Ramatsoku of Rhodes University tells Kechil about mysterious strings around distant galaxies which only powerful radio telescopes can see. In fact, only the local MeerKAT radio telescope has detected them. These connect massive 'lobes' emanating from one particular galaxy. Are there more of these? Does every galaxy have them? What are they? This is brand new research from the brand new MeerKAT telescope in the Northern Cape. Things to be proud about!
Super-massive enormous galaxies - they exist out there with super massive black holes at their centres spewing out great long jets of plasma and who knows what. This is the latest finding from our local MeerKAT telescope, the biggest telescope in the world in the Northern Cape. Dr Jacinta Delhaize is here telling us about them and if that's not enough for you she has a longer podcast on The Cosmic Savannah. You can find the link to it here.
We've heard of gravitational waves, which are being detected by laser interferometers in different parts of the world. But these are detecting high-frequency waves caused by dramatic events such as the collision of supermassive black holes. There is an experiment going on to show that the universe is bathed in a sea of low-frequency gravitational waves.
We start off the year with a mystery. What are ORCs? Odd Radio Circles a million light years across and far, far away. Now with more powerful telescopes coming online like MeerKAT in South Africa and ASKAP in Australia we are finding new things in the cosmos. Here to tell us about ORCs is Ray Norris, a Professor at Western Sydney University.
Here's a round-up of what's going on in space in 2021 - looks set to be a very busy year. For astronomy and scientific discoveries - who knows?
Finally the James Webb Space Telescope has launched into space, on Christmas Day itself, and is now on its way to its destination. Find out about what it's going to do when it gets there, and why this is a very important and exciting space mission.
Just what was the Star of Bethlehem? Was it a star at all? To talk through the possibilities Kechil chats to Christian Hettlage of the South African Astronomical Observatory.
What is a syzygy and why isn't it a good word for Scrabble? There is a 'great conjunction' happening on 21 December. This is the first time such a close conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter has happened since the 13th century.
Simon Ratcliffe has been at the beating heart of the Square Kilometre Array project since the outset - and has in the last 15 years helped to build the biggest telescope in the world. Listen to his highlights and how we beat the Australians with the power of Min. Naledi Pandor, a humble powerpoint presentation, and a great deal of preparation.
The Zone of Avoidance: is this the distance we are supposed to be keeping from each other in these times of Covid? Or is it something to do with that great foreground light polluter, our galaxy? Professor Renée Kraan-Kortweg from UCT tells us what it is.
A strange metal monolith has been found in the Utah desert. What is it? What is its purpose? Who put it there? And why can you not hide anything on the surface of planet Earth for long?
Space news! The world of space chugs on: we recently had the first commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station, the rover Perseverance is well on its way to Mars, the radio antenna in Australia used to communicate with the Voyager 2 craft has been repaired and it seems all is well, the Aricebo radio telescope is not well at all and could collapse at any moment, and finally, there has been a mockup of a potential lunar habitation
Today Kechil tells us about the latest research on moons in our solar system: a glowing Jovian moon and an unexpected organic chemical in one of Saturn's moon's upper atmosphere. It's all happening out there.
The Iziko Planetarium in Cape Town has been busy with the South African Astronomical Observatory, together creating a planetarium show to tell the world, and the South African public, about the wonders of local astronomy. If you ever wanted to visit Sutherland and all the telescopes, or see what the MeerKAT radio telescope dishes look like - go watch Rising Star. Dr Sally MacFarlane was one of the people behind this show and here talks to Kechil about it. https://www.iziko.org.za/shows/
This month is a Blue Moon - two Full Moons in one calendar month. Each Full Moon has a particular name but these names were created in the northern hemisphere and don't relate to us down here very well. The Centre for Astronomical Heritage has created new Full Moon names and here to talk about it is Auke Slotegraaf. If you would like to find out more, visit https://cfah.org.za/fullmoon/ and there's even a calendar there you can download for free.
If you fancy a trip out into the Karoo where you can look through telescopes, visit the Leeuwenboschfontein Observatory. To find out when it's open to the public see https://www.facebook.com/LeeuwenboschfonteinObservatory/. The festival of astronomy to mark the 200 year anniversary of the founding of the Observatory in Cape Town continues. See https://www.saao.ac.za/saao200/ for details. Also see https://www.scifest.org.za/astrophotography-and-astro-art-competition/ for details of the competition mentioned in the podcast. Lastly asteroids! Kechil mentions a Near Earth Object which came close to Earth last week plus the success of NASA's sample return mission to the asteroid Bennu.
Now is the 200 year anniversary of the establishment of the Observatory in Cape Town, which is the first modern scientific establishment in Africa! Dr Daniel Cunama talks to Kechil about what the South African Astronomical Observatory is doing to mark this special occasion, and you can join in. See www.saao.ac.za for details.
The Cape Town planetarium is open to the public! Ofentse Letebele explains their covid-safety procedures and how you can find out what's going on. It's World Space Week this week, and throughout the continent we are celebrating mobile planetaria, which are taken to rural areas to entertain and educate children on astronomy. Here in Cape Town we have a digital dome at the Iziko Museum which gives a very exciting immersive experience.
There may or may not be life on Venus but what about the geyser-spewing moon Enceladus? It's pretty active and new ice sheets have been detected, Also the International Space Station avoided a piece of space junk last week.
Life on Venus! Could it be possible? A chemical normally only associated in any quantity as a by-product of living processes has been detected in the clouds of Venus. But does this mean there is life on the fiery and inhospitable Goddess of Love?
Space is big. It's a long way to the nearest planet (over 4 light years) which means an 8.5 year round-trip just to send a message and get a response. How do we get round the speed of light? People are working on this. There is a thing called a MEGA drive which theoretically could propel a spacecraft close to the speed of light. This involves a controversial interpretation of Einstein's E=MC2.
Prof Tom Jarrett talks about Virtual Reality and how we deal with the problem of astronomical amounts of astronomical data
On the day before the US election due to be held on 3 November, an asteroid could hit the Earth. This asteroid has a name, and a known trajectory. What are the odds? And what do these odds mean?
Onto lighter topics: your local astronomy society is holding great talks that the public can attend on Zoom. Look out for them on https://www.facebook.com/capecentre/ and there is also a youtube channel also called Cape Centre of ASSA.
It was believed that the early universe was chaotic, but, using a nifty technique called gravitational lensing, researchers have detected a very young galaxy - only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, that appears to have structure, including a central bulge with closely packed stars in it.
How are satellites helping us during lockdown? What are they detecting and how is this useful to people on the ground?
Kechil is, as is often the case, worrying about being in space: how to carry out surgery and what to eat? Well it's more fun than worrying about what's going on here.
A medley of space and astronomy news including the three Martian missions launched in July, Juno has had a stay of execution and continues on its mission around Jupiter, plus salt and hot water - who'd have thought! That's what may be needed to make a big star. Lastly comet NeoWise - a washout for us down south.
Two news items here: July is the Month of Mars! There are 3 missions going to Mars this month as Earth and Mars are close to each other. The NASA mission will deliver a new rover which will gather samples to be returned at a later date - the first sample return mission to Mars. Secondly backpacks to help with your balance, inspired by space technology.
How far do you want to go to socially isolate? Find out about space tourists to the International Space Station and the future of space travel.
3 snippets of science news: a new particle has been found, there are probably a lot more Earth-like planets in the Milky Way than previously thought, and some likely candidates have been found around a nearby star.
How do we justify spending on science and technology at a time like this? Well here to tell us about a very justifiable project is Willem Esterhuyse, an engineer on the Square Kilometre Array radio astronomy project. He is in charge of a project designing and manufacturing ventilators for use in hospitals for COVID-19 patients. It seems the skills for engineering the world's largest telescope are transferable to many other useful ventures.
Astronomical discoveries continue. Two recent stories here: a new type of object has been discovered - a grey hole? Plus a beautiful new X-ray image of the universe. If you want a look try this website: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/erosita-x-ray-universe-08555.html
A host of telescopes and astronomers, including importantly, SALT up in Sutherland, have contributed a little more to our understanding of how a particular class of neutron stars go about their business of sucking the living daylights out of their companion stars. Here Dr David Buckley, and astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory here in Cape Town, describes recent observations.
Scientists are continuing with their strange experiments, trying to understand our weird universe. Here Kechil mentions a couple of recent experiments with entanglement and quantum states, one taking place on the International Space Station.
I'll give you seconds after the start so you have a decent idea where the cuts should be made.
Erase after she says "nice and hot and sunny now" (0:47) until I say "now tell us about this project" Erase after she says "that was supposed to be in 2020" (2:29) to (2:41) when she says "the idea was to have" Erase after I say "in this current situation" (3:30) to when she says "well it was actually an idea of .." (4:03)
If this isn't enough please let me know and I'll give you some more you can erase.
Let us not worry about the South Atlantic Anomaly, but it's true that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening and that this gigantic area of low magnetic activity between Africa and South America may be splitting into two. What the implications are for us mere mortals is unclear, but nothing will happen very quickly.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Music of the Spheres, well there's more music to be had in space. Recently astroseismologists have started understanding two types of special star - Delta Scuti stars, which pulsate in complex ways. Modelling the behaviour of these types of stars helps to unravel their mysteries.
There's plenty going on in the space industry. China is testing its new rocket which will be used to construct its third crewed space station. The UAE is building a Mars orbiter, and Space-X is testing rockets and components to service and take astronauts the International Space Station. If you have a spare $500M you too can be part of the thrill of space travel as Virgin Galactic is being partly sold off to provide funds for other ailing tourist businesses
Many people of science through the ages have tried to come up with a general theory of everything. In ancient times it was thought that a creator would have made everything according to common laws and patters. The Harmony of the Spheres is a term you may have heard of, as many musicians have borrowed this term for their compositions, but you may not have known where it came from. This brief show will reveal the connection.
Not all satellites get in the way of astronomy. Some are in fact telescopes themselves, pointing outwards towards the heavens, taking images right up until the dawn of light. The Hubble Space Telescope turned 30 this last week, and earlier this year the Spitzer Space Telescope was decommissioned. What happens to space telescopes when they are no longer functioning?
Last Wednesday a further 60 satellites were launched as part of SpaceX's Starlink project. Eventually many thousands of these small satellites will ring the Earth, providing Internet access to almost the entire globe. This is however problematic, as they interfere with astronomy given their light pollution. Willie Koorts shows us how to image the 'String of Pearls' in his youtube videos which you can find on https://www.youtube.com/user/SterremanWillie/videos.
How is the current pandemic affecting astronomers and space missions? Are astronomers still able to work? How are the astronomical establishments responding to the crisis? Are rockets being launched into space? Fear not, this is not about the C-word and mentions no graphs or statistics, but describes how the scientists and engineers are affected - or not.
NASA has discovered gas emanating from Uranus. Trawling through 30-year old data from Voyager-2, scientists have found a large bubble of gas was flung out of Uranus's atmosphere and believe this could occur daily: a Uranian day being a mere 17 hours. Find out more about this gassy planet, and about the end of the solar system, universe and all.
How do astronomers know how far away things are? We need to know this to achieve a sense of proper perspective, something we all need right now.
Where is everybody? Kechil runs through Fermi's Paradox, a list of a dozen or so reasons why we haven't heard from the aliens yet. Since it's Friday 13th let's add another one: they haven't visited Earth yet because they just can't be bothered.
How do we know anything for sure? Some folk need proof, personal tangible proof, before believing in anything. Astronomy some would say isn't a true science, since astronomical observations are so remote and there is nothing tangible about it. Robbie Lees, a Masters student at the University of Cape Town, discusses some finer points of philosophy and people jumping out of balloons and crash landing on Earth.
Most of the stars we see are in fact more than one star, and typically they are binary systems where one star orbits another. In some cases one star begins to gobble up its companion and it can turn into what is known as a cataclysmic variable where the star system brightens and dims as it gobbles, burps, and the rests a while. Or something like that - Dr Valerio Ribeiro from the University of Aveiro in Portugal tells us how.
What to do if a star goes supernova? This may well happen to Betelgeuse in Orion, as this red giant has been dimming more than expected, and could be in a 'pre-supernova' phase. Thankfully it's a long way away, as you wouldn't want to be anywhere near the formation of a black hole or neutron star. Pronounce Betelgeuse however you like - astronomers are all over the map on this one.
It's 30 years since Voyager-1 turned its camera back to Earth and took the iconic photograph called 'Pale Blue Dot. You may think we've photographed everything in our solar system but we have never explored the poles of the Sun. This is due to change as last Monday a probe was launched to do just that. You can come take a look for yourself at what is visible in our solar system and beyond at Moonstruck on Saturday 15 February at Clifton 4 beach where astronomers will be waiting with telescopes, in amongst the party.
The President of the International Astronomical Union, Professor Ewine van Dishoeck, has been visiting South Africa for two weeks, which is a long time out of her schedule. Here she describes how it is that some of the water on Earth originated before Earth was made. So next time you take a sip of water, think that it may be older than the Earth itself! This puts an extra spin on the term fresh water. Some of it is billions of years old. If you'd like to hear more from the person at the top, go to the cosmic savannah podcast where you can find a longer programme about her visit.
Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
How old is the dust in your house? Possibly not as old as the oldest material found on planet Earth to date: grains of dust analysed from the Murchison meteorite which fell in Australia in 1969. It was recently found that this dust is 7 billion years old! This is thought to relate to a period of stellar evolution some 7 billion years ago in our galaxy, which produced star dust some 2 billion years or so later. More fascinating is how smelly this material is. Yes, astronomers sometimes have to deal with rotten peanut butter, boiled brussels sprouts and methylated spirits. So it's not all sugar and spice and all things nice out there.
Dr Kerry Patterson began as a keen undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, coming along to star gazing events with her telescope. That telescope is now with her in Chicago as she is now a fully-fledged astronomer doing a post-doctorate, following up gravitational wave detections with optical observations. This last two days in Cape Town we have enjoyed a celebration of Professor Brian Warner's 80th birthday with a retrospective of his career. Perhaps in 50-odd years' time it will be Kerry's life as an astronomer we celebrate!
Kechil gives a round up of what to expect this year and in January, celestially speaking. Also a description of tonight's partial penumbral lunar eclipse. Look out for details of Leeuwenboschfontein's new observatory. If you're lucky enough to visit at a weekend you could get a tour of the night sky and a peek through the telescopes there.
Dr Ian Glass, a retired astronomer and author, is giving summer school lectures at the University of Cape Town on the history and development of astronomy. Find out more here: http://www.summerschool.uct.ac.za/The_development_of_astronomy_in_southern_africa
The dates are 6, 7, and 8 January in the Kramer Building at 5pm All are welcome.
The International Astronomical Union is the body which creates official names for celestial bodies. Recently it ran a campaign to name 122 stars and their planets from many different countries. The results are astonishing!
The new MeerKAT radio astronomy observatory is already kicking out science. A recent image showing galaxies in the 'cosmic noon' - a time when most of the stars in the universe were formed - reveals that more stars were formed than previously thought in this epoch.
NASA's Parker solar probe has been sending us unprecedented detail about our nearest star, as it flies within the corona of the Sun, a mere 7 million kms from its centre. Switchbacks, intense magnetic flips, and erratic solar winds are some of the new phenomena observed by the spacecraft. It's good to know more about the Sun, as extreme solar weather can affect instruments and astronauts close to the Earth and can cause power outages - and we know about those don't we!
Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
Things that go BANG! in the night ... Kechil interviews Masters student Reikantseone Diretse from the University of Cape Town about his remarkable coup co-authoring a paper in the most prestigious journal, Nature. This is about his work examining the data from our local MeerKAT telescope concerning a massive Gamma Ray Burst, which, don't worry, happened 4 billion years ago
Things that go BANG! in the night ... Kechil interviews Masters student Reikantseone Diretse from the University of Cape Town about his remarkable coup co-authoring a paper in the most prestigious journal, Nature. This is about his work examining the data from our local MeerKAT telescope concerning a massive Gamma Ray Burst, which, don't worry, happened 4 billion years ago.
Professor Miller Goss is a giant in the history of radio astronomy and is a former director of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, USA, where Kechil interviewed him about the extraordinary telescopes of the VLA. He now writes books about the history of radio astronomy, which is relatively short as science goes.
Those striking images you see, many from the Hubble Space Telescope, of swirling colours and bright stars, are not simply taken with a camera. There is a highly involved process leading from the initial instrument (which only actually sees in black and white) to our eyes, which are very poor detectors compared to the instruments we have built. Here to talk us through some of the enormous complexity is world expert and astrophysicist Professor Jayanne English from the University of Manitoba. You can hear a longer discussion on http://thecosmicsavannah.com/ Astronomical Imaging
The Sky Guide Africa South 2020 is out! Find yours online or at a bookshop. Come along to watch the Transit of Mercury to the Eden Cafe at Bloubergstrand on 11 November from 2:30 onwards until sunset. Lastly - why is Neptune hotter than expected? And don't complain ever again about Cape Town winds. On Neptune they're 2,500 km/h. Hang on to your hat.
Kechil recently visited the Very Large Array - a radio observatory - in New Mexico, USA. Here she talks to David Finlay and Summer Ash about this extraordinary observatory and its links to South Africa.
Satellite images can be used to monitor whales and perhaps even avert mass strandings. Find out how. Also participate in witnessing the Transit of Mercury on 11 November at Eden Cafe in Bloubergstrand from 14:30 to sunset.
Satellites do wonderful things for us, keeping telephony and entertainment going as well as navigation, power station timing, weather reporting - in short we would be hard-pressed to run the modern world without them now. But how many do we really need? Recently SpaceX gained US approval to launch 12,000 into space and have applied to launch a further 30,000 into orbit. Aside from problems associated with space junk, these satellites interfere with astronomy.
Can you believe it here in Cape Town Apollo 11 - The Ballet. This will be a luscious spectacle with 250 performers and of course 3 fully suited astronauts. The Director of the Cape Ballet Centre, Evelyne Aregger, chats to Kechil about its astronomical inspiration. Tickets are on sale now at Webmaster and Pick n Pay. The dates are 9&10 November with performances at 2 & 6pm and it will be performed at the newly revamped Joseph Stone auditorium.
Flaring black holes - black holes gobbling up stars - all happening silently in space, far far away. Dr Itumeleng Monageng describes his latest research, revealing a greedy black hole with an accretion disc that regularly brightens every 9 hours and we don't know why. But we are thankful that this dramatic stuff is not going on in our neighbourhood.
Not your every day job: Professor Roger Deane of the University of Pretoria studies far away objects in the universe using an extraordinary technique in astronomy called gravitational lensing. This is where a massive object such as a black hole distorts light coming from objects far, far behind it, acting as a kind of cosmic telescope in space. Things get weird.
Astronomers face many technical challenges observing, but you may not have thought volcanoes were one of them. If you build your observatory on top of a volcano however, you can expect some problems. Here Dr Grazia Umana from the Catania Observatory in Sicily talks to Kechil about how they manage being on the slopes of Mount Etna, one of the most active volcanos in the world.
What all about space telescopes: Kechil runs through some facts about the Hubble Space Telescope and its 2021 successor, the James Webb, which has recently passed a major engineering milestone. It's a big complicated project so it can be forgiven for being 12 years late, so if your projects are running a tad behind the times take heart. This one has a budget of 10 billion USD - a lot at stake on the launchpad.
The latest from the Chang'e mission to the Moon where they've found unexplained gel-like substances on the surface. Plus name a planet! The South African Astronomical Observatory is running a competition. Go to www.saao.ac.za for more details.
Prof Christo Venter tells Kechil about Gamma Rays, what they are and how they are detected
These are a few of my favourite things: the Voyager 2 mission, and that Tesla roadster in orbit around the Sun. Kechil describes why she likes the Voyager mission and what is so special about it. (Warning: Nudity).
Sutherland is where the South African Astronomical Observatory has its telescopes, and many international ones besides. Dr David Buckley talks to Kechil about what's happening and about the latest telescopes coming online. You can pay a visit! See www.saao.ac.za for tour details. The South African Astronomical Observatory
As it's Women's Day today Kechil is talking to Carla Sharpe, African Programme Manager at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, about women in space. Carla and Kechil are both space enthusiasts and have met a number of astronauts. Here they talk about the qualities needed and about the changing requirements for becoming an astronaut.
Dr Lee Townsend, an astronomer at UCT, tells us about the merry dance going on in the universe revealing the strange and extreme physics of binary systems, where one dense neutron star sucks the living daylights out of its companion. Sometimes these binaries end up as black holes, and other strange couplings, outputting unimaginable energies when they merge, collapse, explode, and all the other violent things that can go bump in the night.
What is observational cosmology? Dr Kurt van der Heyden of the University of Cape Town's Astronomy Department tells Kechil about his interests. He asks big questions ...
More on that fabulous lunar eclipse, and a clip of what it was like at the Observatory last Tuesday. If you'd like to enjoy the Moon some more, go along to the Cape Town Science Centre and gasp in awe at the Soyuz capsule there. Visit www.ctssc.org.za for details of the Cape Town Science Centre programmes and www.saao.ac.za for details about Open Nights.
The Moon! We landed on it almost 50 years ago and on Tuesday 16 July there will be a partial eclipse of the Moon. The Observatory is having a special public viewing starting at 8pm at the Observatory with a talk, proceeding with telescope observing.
Last week there was a total eclipse of the Sun! Sadly not for us but for those lucky souls in South America. If you write esoteric pub quizzes you can't beat a question about saros cycles. These are sequences of time used to predict eclipses. Eclipses are a form of transits - a body moving in-between the observer and a distant object, which is a method used to find exoplanets. We're up to 4,096 now, and recently quite a small interesting one was found.
There are many interesting parts to NASA's Artemis program to send humans back to the Moon. One of them is checking out the possibilities for habitation, and to do this they want robots to scuttle about the surface investigating sinkholes. These may protect people from radiation, though I can't think the view will be so great.
This is to clarify Trump's recent confusing tweet: For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!
NASA is going back to the moon, constructing a small space station and we will have our first female moonwalker in 2024.
Did exploding stars result in humans walking upright? Latest research from astronomers suggests that a supernovae explosion increased lightening strikes, burning forests to the ground to be replaced by long grasses and shrubs. It was advantageous to walk upright in the savannah, hence bipedalism.
More exoplanets. Astronomers are detectives, using tiny amounts of data to infer what's going on up there. The South African Astronomical Observatory has helped to detect yet another rather exotic planet.
Astronomy Professor Paul Groote talks to Kechil about exploding stars and why there will be more and more of them as time goes on
We're all DOOMED! But how doomed? What if a large asteroid lands on Earth smashing it to bits? Can life be carried off in rocks, to land back down on Earth aeons later and re-seed the planet? The computers say Yes.
You may be tired of politics with this recent election, but space and satellite technology have a lot to do with politics and civic society. Here to tell us about it is Prof Rene Laufer from Baylor University in Texas.
The observatory is constantly upgrading its equipment, and a current project is setting out to make the telescopes at Sutherland operational remotely, so astronomers don't have to trek up to Sutherland to operate them. This has many benefits, and one of them is that astronomers can order pizza if they are in Cape Town carrying out observations! More importantly, they don't have to schedule their observations to be in Sutherland at a particular time when they have booked an observing slot on the telescopes. Scheduling can be much more flexible when it's done remotely. This is good news all round. Dr Stephen Potter talks to Kechil about these new developments, and we can look forward to more exciting related projects over the next year or so.
The hunt is on - astronomy as it happens! Kechil dropped in on astronomer Dr Stephen Potter at the observatory in Observatory, whilst he happened to be receiving alerts about a new gravitational wave event. Astronomers receive alerts from telescopes around the world when something happens. In this case a gravitational wave was detected, and so telescopes around the world, including in up in Sutherland, slew round to see if they can detect an optical component. He will now join his colleagues in setting up observations during the night in Sutherland to hunt down any huge cataclysmic event which happened recently and which could have caused the gravitational wave.
Twice a year the astronomical community gets together for a Star Party. This is where we spend a few days camping in a dark spot in the Karoo with our telescopes, enjoy talks and events as well as, most importantly, nights looking at the sky. Some are new to the subject and others old-hands. You can find out more at https://southernstarparty.org/ To tell us about it is Dr Sally MacFarlane who gave a talk at the recent star party.
Galaxies don't just sit there in space. They get up to all sorts of tricks. They clump together and they collide in interesting ways. Here to tell us something about them and how we know what we know about them is Dr Nathan Deg, post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Astronomy at the University of Cape Town.
The astronomical image of the year, if not the decade, is that of the black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, about 55 million light years away. This is the first time an image has been taken of a black hole and this is a major engineering feat. It took 10 telescopes around the world and about 400 researchers to create this extraordinary image. To lend some context to this image is Professor Jeff Murugan, a gravitational physicist at the Mathematics Dept at the University of Cape Town.
If you thirst for more after listening to Looking Up move along to www.thecosmicsavannah.com for a lengthier podcast of astronomical things happening in Africa. Plus more about asteroids - what happens when they die? The Cosmic Savannah
All water on Earth is alien. In other words, water arrived on our planet from outer space, we believe carried by asteroids. Recent exploration by the OSIRIS-Rex mission to the asteroid Bennu confirms that asteroids can harbour a lot of water. Could water in asteroids be used as refuelling stations for space missions?