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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.
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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.
Second year PhD student Venu Prayag shares his interest in technosignatures: a method of detecting alien activity emanating from planets outside of our solar system. He's optimistic we will find these soon, and with the South African instrument, MeerKAT, in the Northern Cape!
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
Raoul Coetzee, creator of the Carina image you see above, talks about astrophotography
Raoul Coetzee's striking image of the Carina nebula, now on the podcast page
About JAXA's recent Moon mission
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/
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