AstrotalkUK

Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Episode 116: Exploring Cosmic Events with Professor Rene Breton at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

By Leave a Comment

Professor Rene Breton. Deputy head of the Department of Astronomy and Physics at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Some of the most energetic events in the cosmos are associated with the products left after a star’s violent end. These products are always smaller and denser: a white dwarf (the size of a planet), a Neutron star (the size of a city), or a Black Hole (an object without a size). The bigger the initial mass of a star, the sooner and more energetic its end will be. Our Sun is not all that massive; it will end up as a white dwarf in and out 4.5 billion years from now.

Professor Rene Breton, originally from Quebec, has been working at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics for over a decade. We discuss only a small part of his current research, including how Pulsars may one day be used as a GPS for interstellar travel. Other topics include

Credit McGill University
  • Why and how he ended up in Manchester
  • His first impressions of Manchester and comparisons with Quebec in Canada
  • The key role of a high-school teacher, Mr. Gaudreault, setting him on his career in science
  • Stellar evolution – how stars are born and the process by which they end up as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes
  • Event Horizon Telescope – imaging the black hole in the centre of our galaxy
  • The ultimate fate of our Sun
  • Quasars are distant galaxies with a Black Hole in the centre,  so distant that they look like stars. 
  • FAST Radio bursts, including Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), are from extragalactic distances. Events that last a few seconds or less – a sign of merging neutron stars or evidence of Hypernovae (not novae or supernovae)!
  • Neutron Stars in Binary Systems, accretion discs and “spiders”
  • Neutron Stars as a cosmic GPS for future space travellers
  • Detect Gravitational Waves using neutron stars. Gravitational Wave detectors are not very sensitive, so they can only detect high-energy events, such as the collision of two neutron stars or the formation of black holes. 
  • Space-borne Gravity Wave detectors, such as the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, which NASA plans to launch in the 2030s, will be able to detect a wider range of cosmological phenomena.
  • Square Kilometer Array’s role in detecting more neutron stars, pulsars and even pulsars orbiting black holes
  • Pulsar Timing Array – a GPS for interstellar travel
Professor Rene Breton. University of Manchester. Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Episode 115 – Professor Michael Garrett & Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

By Leave a Comment

Prof. Mike Garrett FRS

In this episode with Professor Mike Garrett FRS, we discuss some of the many research activities conducted by him, his colleagues and students at the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JCBA) University of Manchester. Many of these activities involve international collaboration and are thus conducted elsewhere around the world and not just in Manchester. One of the big takeaways for me was the work of Mancunian Dennis Walsh who made the very first Gravitational Lensing observation from Jodrell Bank. He was also Professor Garrett’s PhD supervisor.

A shorter version of this interview was broadcast on Allfm.org 11th June 2024.

Some of the topics we discussed include:

Episode 114 – Chris Riley and The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks

By Leave a Comment

Dr Christopher Riley

Christopher Riley was trained as a geologist, but his greatest skill is his imagination. He is known for his books and as a filmmaker, specialising in documentaries including In the Shadow of the Moon, First Orbit (on Youtube) and  Director’s Cut of Moonwalk One (Amazon DVD) 

His latest work, a 50-minute show, The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks is an immersive audio-visual experience in a unique venue in the centre of London. The visuals are provided by 26 high-res Panasonic laser projectors that produce giant videos and still images that wraps around multiple walls. The exceptional audio is powered by the German-made Holoplot speaker system comprising 1600 speakers. If you ever wondered what comes after Imax – this is it.

The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks

The script was written by Tom Hanks and Christopher Riley. This unique audio-visual experience of the Apollo story is available only in London and only until 13th October 2024. More images and clips here.

The Space Race, that started with Gagarin’s spaceflight on April 1961 and arguably ended in July 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the Moon. It is perhaps the most astonishing episode of human progress. It was an epic leap because it was more than just a technological advance. It may have been borne out of national rivalries but its legacy touched our individual perceptions of each other on earth and beyond. .

In this conversation, recorded in London he talks about his writing, filmmaking and how the idea of The Moonwalkers came about. Parts of this interview were transmitted in my bi-weekly radio program on allfm.org on 28th May 2024.

Episode 113 – Rocket Pioneer Hermann Oberth

By Leave a Comment

Hermann Oberth around 1950s. Public Domain
Hermann Ober Around 1950s

The idea of using rockets for transport had been well-established before the first flights of heavier-than-air aeroplanes in 1903. When it comes to turning that idea into reality, three names are considered as fathers of rocketry: Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth.

For this episode, I visited the Hermann Oberth Space Travel Museum in the German Town of Feucht, near Nurnberg and spoke with its director Karl-Heinz Rohrwild. A summary of the interview is below along with some pictures from the museum.

The museum is run entirely by volunteers in the interest of science. The exhibits on display are a tiny amount of the exhibits that exist. Museum expansion planned the for 100th of the publication of his second book in 1929. With plans to make lots of the documents available online.I found Karl-Heinz very helpful, opening the museum for my visit during a public holiday. He and his colleagues extend that welcome to anyone wishing to visit. Contact details here.

Listen here or click the three dots to download
Hermann Oberth Spaceflight Museum

Summary

  • His father had been a surgeon. He wanted Hermann to have a career in Medicine.
  • Brilliant at maths but likely he was autistic at some level.
  • Lost his brother Adolf in WW1 and became anit-war.
  • Considered using a massive bomb delivered by rocket to destroy the senior people who decided to start and maintain the war.
  • Wrote two key books in rocketry in the 1920s
  • Fritz Lang director of the early sci-fi Metropolis followed by Frau im Mond. Oberth worked on that film as an advisor.
  • 1929: Winner of the International Award for Astronautics (Robert Esnault-Pelterie-Hirsch-Award)
  • Envisaged the use of solar energy in orbit and designed the first gyroscopes.
  • Also envisaged a huge space-based mirror that would beam power down to Earth for terrestrial use.
  • 1927 A member of the first and most successful space/rocketry society – Verien for Rsumshifffhart (Society of Space Travel)
  • Oberth championed the use of rocket staging, liquid engine propulsion and the use of rocket engines in the near vicinity of space (not in the atmosphere)
  • The RAF bombing raid on August 26, 1943, nearly killed both Oberth and Wernher von Oberth were working there.
  • Post WW2 interrogated by Theodore von Karman and it was decided Oberth was not taken to the USA. In part, Oberth did not want to go.
  • 1951 lived through tough times. He was making his living in part as a farmer.