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As the most energetic photons, gamma rays are rare, difficult to observe, require special telescopes & detectors, and not many of them make it to the surface of the earth anyway. So why is gamma ray astronomy important?

Its not an area of astronomy that amateurs usually dip even their big toe in and something entirely new for me. Talking jointly with a Dr Stella Bradbury and Dr Joachim Rose at the department of Physics was a little scary, but turned out to be extremely informative. They spoke about their work at many observatories, including Veritas Array. I spoke to them a couple of weeks ago and you will hear the reference to the launch of Gamma Ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST). That launch has been delayed to June 3rd.

For realtime GRB alerts see here.

 

 episode17 [26:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can’t think of Darwin without Wallace, Laurel without Hardy. In UK astronomy there is no more an enduring and familiar partnership than Henbest and Couper. Nigel and Heather have been writing, broadcasting, supporting and publicising astronomy for decades.

Their most recent project is a series of daily radio programs for BBC Radio4 called Cosmic Quest and an associated book History of Astronomy which together chart the story of how human societies through history and around the globe have attempted to understand the universe and their place within it.

 

 episode16 [31:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Astrobiology is the study of life outside the earth. Paradoxically, it is advanced by understanding how life started here on earth. More about Astrobiology in the UK at the Astrobiology Society’s website.

In the famous Miller Urey experiment to discover the origin of life, the experiment did not result in primitive life but succeeded in creating organic molecules from inorganic constituents. The starting point of the Miller and Urey experiments was the chemical composition of the early Earth’s atmosphere. Could meteorites also have given life a helping hand?

In today’s episode, Dr Terry Kee from the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds talks about the key processes involving Phosphorus that may have been critical in kick-starting life on earth. The type of Phosphorus required for these processes is not found on the surface of the Earth today but is found in Iron meteorites. In a new collaborative project funded by £500,000 grant University of Leeds will investigate the beginning of life on Earth 3.8 billion years ago.

Sorry about the quality of the audio - the recording was made in Dr Kee’s office which apparently was much noisier than I remember:(

 

 episode15 [27:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

After a 7 year journey, Cassini/ Huygens arrived at Saturn in 2004 and Huygens landed on the surface of Titan on January 14th 2005. The only moon within the solar system known to have a substantial atmosphere.

On Monday 3rd of July 1989 it was possible to study the atmosphere of Titan from here on Earth when it occulted a 5.8mag star 28 Sagittarius. Ken Irving from Salford Astronomical Society describes the observation he made and video recording of the unexpected central flash. Available below.

Using data from the onboard Acoustic Sensor Unit, the Planetary Society compressed Huygens two and half hour descent into a 10 second audio clip. 

After landing, Huygens continued to transmit data including those incredible pictures of the surface for another 70 minutes until the communication link to Earth - Cassini disappeared over the horizon. It would not come in range again for 40 days by when Huygens’ batteries were dead. There in its dark cold -180C deep freeze it remains. Probably intact. Professor John Zarnecki from the Open University who lead the Surface Science Package team talk a little about the achievements f the Cassini/Huygens mission.

 

 Titan occultation 28 sgr: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 episode14 [27:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You may have seen the report from the British UK Space Exploration Working Group suggesting that Britain can get two British Astronauts to the Space station costing less than £75m over 5 years by commercially engaging the Russian Soyuz program rather than the annual £60m cost of going with ESA, or indeed developing a British launch capability.

The Astronomer Royal on the other hand insists that unmanned space research is the way to go. You get a heck of a lot more science for your money

Dave and Leslie Wright from the British Rocketry Oral History program (BROHP) reminisce about the early days when Britain had its own launch capability and the UK Space conference that they host each year.

Want to be a rocket Scientist? Well a new book from a rocket scientist Lucy Rogers may be a good start. Lucy is also the chairman of the Vectis Astronomical Society on the isle of Wight. Their website must be one of the most elaborate. Check it out but .. turn down the volume on your PC first.

 

 Episode13: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing in the Sea of Tranquillity on the moon. In today’s episode – assistant director & co-producer Chris Riley talks about the recent film “In the Shadow of the Moon” which recounts that period and someone who was a part of it - astronaut Buzz Aldrin on his interest in Astronomy.

 

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Its that time of year. Summer time has arrived but not yet.. the summer. Local astronomical societies all over the country are winding down from the previous season and preparing for the next. In today’s episode a little more about two individuals who have been on the speaker list for many astronomical societies. Martin Lunn from Aurora Books and Andy Lound from Odyssey Class Dramatic lectures.

 

 episode11: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The 24 hour downtime wasn’t planned. A  loss of some config files on Sunday evening at my webshost (IXwebhost) took much longer to recover than I had expected. Infact I am still waiting for them to contact me! I now know much more about cgi-bin folder, .htaccess file and hsphere than is healthy. Thanks to regular automated backups that no data was lost. Nice to be back.

The veteran BBC aerospace correspondent Reg Turnill recalls some of the key moments that he personally covered during the height of the space race. Reg has recorded his eye witness account in his book The Moonlandings.

Chris Lintott one of the authors of Bang! and a co-presenters on Sky at Night far too young to have experienced the Apollo program personally, looks forward to the next manned mission to the moon. You have probably heard of Galaxy Zoo but did you know Galaxy Zoo 2 is in the pipeline too.

 

 Standard Podcast [25:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

About 20 years after Galileo used the telescope for astronomy, William Crabtree and Jeremiah Horrocks used it to observe a transit of Venus in 1639. Carl Barry and Lilian Fletcher researched and documented this unique event. If you missed it a 19mb video here.
Former executive Paul Allen (Allen Telescope Array) from Microsoft and Wayne Rosing (LSST Observatory) from Google are modern examples of private investors in space research. Emerging from the the industrial revolution in the 19th century Lancashire were two similar individuals who contributed to making large mirrors and large telescopes. James Naysmith and William Lassell.

 

 episode9: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Venus Transit June 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download