AstrotalkUK

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

Episode 107 – SETI’s new tool – Technosignatures

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Episode 107 – Dr Hector Socas-Navarro

The Great Wall of China can be seen from space. Actually, it can’t but the idea that a civilisation could build something large on a planetary scale that could be detected from interstellar distances was articulated first by author Olaf Stapledon in 1937 and popularised by Freeman Dyson in the 1960s. Known today as a Dyson Sphere, it is a megastructure built by an alien intelligence that captures almost all the energy emitted by its star. In this episode, Dr Hector Socas-Navarro explains we humans are not there yet but the increasing density of the Earth’s geosynchronous orbit will become detectable in a couple of centuries.

So not yet a Dyson sphere but a ring or a belt, he calls the Clarke-Exobelt may allow alien civilisations to detect humanity’s presence over interstellar distances. In this episode, we discuss the opportunities for SETI to detect artificial structures like this at interstellar distances using the JWST and very large Earth-based telescopes coming online soon.

Links to the resources we discuss are on the episode webpage

Podcast – Museum of Science and the Cosmos of Tenerife
NASA Technosignatures: “Moderately advanced” technologies in transit. Youtube video
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Museum of Tenerife

Scientific papers

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Episode 106 – ESA’s new science missions

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Pau McNamara

European Space Agency’s Dr Paul McNamara was studying low-frequency gravitational waves just before they were discovered in 2015. Now he is the astronomy and astrophysics coordinator for the European Space Agency. In this interview, recorded in Athens during Cospar2022, he speaks about some of the exciting science missions that ESA will be launching later this decade.

These missions include

  • Juice – JUpiter ICy moons Explorer
  • Euclid – To explore dark matter and dark energy
  • Plato – The next-generation planet-hunting mission
  • Ariel – A UK-led mission to explore the atmospheres of exoplanets

He also talks about ESA’s publicly available resources especially useful to science educators. Planetary Science Archive and ESA Sky. They are available to anyone, in or outside Europe and without charge. Links are available on this episode’s web page.

Dr Paul McNamara

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WEA Online Courses starting in September 2021

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The two introductory courses below are organised by The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in England and Scotland. I will be delivering thee courses via Zoom in September. There is a cost but if you qualify that could be nil.

The New Space Age

The New Space Age

Introductory online course via Zoom. No prerequisite. Fee £64.00 or Nil.

Course dates 07/09/2021 – 09/11/2021
Ten sessions for 2 hrs per session every Tuesday starting at 7pm

Over the ten interactive sessions this course will provide an overview on:

Evolution of the space age from the beginnings with Sputnik to today
Outline the rich sources of services from space that shape society on Earth
The emergence of the private space sector in countries around the world
Space activities in India, China and Africa
Explore the concern of congestion in space from the growing number of spacecraft and the hazards of space debris.
The potential for the militarisation of space.
Humans living and working in Earth orbit. Returning to the Moon and beyond to Mars

Enrol Here

Explorers of the Cosmos

Explorers of the Cosmos

Introductory online course via Zoom. No prerequisite. Fee £64.00 or Nil.

Course dates 09/09/2021 – 11/11/2021.
Ten sessions for 2 hrs per session on Thursdays starting at 5pm

Over ten weeks the course will look at the life and work of the life and work of the following individuals

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543)
Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) 
Isaac Newton (1643–1727)
Henrietta Swann Leavitt (1868–1921)
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
Edwin Hubble (1899–1953)
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910-1995)
Vera Rubin (1928-2016)
Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) 
Jocelyn Bell (1943 – )

Enrol here

Explorers of the Cosmos – 6 Week Course starting 20 May 2020 online via Zoom

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By popular demand – its back! Organised by the Workers Educational Association, 2 hours every Thursday between 5pm-7pm over 6 weeks starting on 20/05/2021. The course will examine the lives and contributions of six individuals who have made significant contribution to our understanding of the cosmos. In sequence they are

Henrietta Swan Leavitt 1868-1921
Albert Einstein 1879-1955
Edwin Hubble 1889-1953
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar 1910-1995
Stephen Hawking 1942-2018
Jocelyn Bell-Burnell 1943-

There are no prerequisites and no end of course eassessment. As before the course will be run as a Zoom meeting – so lots of interaction in addition to the Q&A at the end. Cost is £38.40 or free – check and signup here