Podcast
Pythagorean Astronomy
Hosted by Chris North and Edward Gomez · EN
Astronomy news and interviews with scientists involved in the discoveries. Hosted by Dr Chris North (Cardiff University) and Dr Edward Gomez (Las Cumbres Observatory).
10episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Northern Lights, New Camera, Cosmological Action
May 25, 202400:53:57Tap to summarizeEdward and Chris discuss the recent Northern Lights show seen across the UK, the discovery of new free-floating planets, massive black holes and the completion of the largest camera ever built. Ian Harrison joins us to report on the latest tensions in cosmology, and the potential solutions to a problem that has been concerning cosmologists for the last few years.
Transcribe →Dust to dust
Apr 19, 202400:42:25Tap to summarizeEdward Gomez and Chris North discuss names going to Jupiter on the Europa Clipper mission, which is currently being assembled. Then there is a new cannibal star, suspected of eating its own planets, and the detection of new "Galactic Streams" of stars that all formed together but have since spread out through the Galaxy. Finally, we move onto planet formation and the detection of ices in forming planetary systems. But where does all that planet-forming material come from originally? Haley Gomez and Cosimo Inserra tell us about a new object that's changing our view of where all the dust in the Universe originates.
Transcribe →XRISM and Matter's Final Screams
Feb 13, 202400:49:15Tap to summarizeThis month Edward and Chris talk the recent lunar missions - Astrobotic's Peregrine and Japan's SLIM. There's also the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars on what turned out post-recording to be it's final flight! Further afield we talk mega-structures on a galactic scale and asteroids crashing to Earth. January also saw the first light from the XRISM satellite, the latest X-ray satellite. We hear from Prof Chris Done (University of Durham and University of Tokyo) about the mission and the future of x-ray astronomy.
Transcribe →2023 Review and 2024 look-ahead
Jan 2, 202400:23:41Tap to summarizeChris North and Edward Gomez review some stories from 2023, with asteroid missions, lunar rovers and aurora sightings. Plus a look forward to 2024, including launches of missions to asteroids and Jupiter's moons, and more commercial missions to the moon.
Transcribe →The "What the Heck" Particle
Dec 20, 202300:21:41Tap to summarizeChris and Edward discuss the announcement of the detection of a highly energetic cosmic ray, dubbed "Amerterasu" or the "What the Heck" particle. Elsewhere, there is a new study of star formation in "pristine" dwarf galaxies, and the first every discovery of a disc around a star in another galaxy!
Transcribe →Planet Bashing and Dipsticks of the Universe
Nov 21, 202300:46:20Tap to summarizeRecorded in late October, Chris and Edward discuss recent proposals for an all-British mission to space, the launch of Psyche to...erm...Psyche, and Edward's involvement with the detection of something called a Synestia - planets bashing together. Cardiff University also hosted Prof Duncan Lorimer, who was jointly awarded the 2023 Shaw Prize for the detection of "Fast Radio Bursts". These mysterious cosmic events seemingly come form nowhere, but provide an intersting way of investigating energetic processes in the Universe. They also make a nice "dipstick of the Universe". Prof Lorimer spoke to Chris about their detection, what we're learning about them, and his career to date Contents: 00:00 British space mission 05:20 Psyche mission 10:15 Synestia and planet bashing 16:50 Prof Duncan Lorimer and Fast Radio Bursts
Transcribe →Life, but not as we know it?
Oct 4, 202300:20:01Tap to summarizeChris and Edward discuss some recent stories, such as tantalising possible (emphasis on the possible) detections by JWST of interesting molecules on an exoplanet which coul (emphasis on the could) indicate signs of life. There's also new data on Europa, also from JWST, showing carbon dioxide on its surface - what does this mean? And further afield, astronomers have used ALMA to measure magnetic fields in incredibly distant galaxies, opening a potential new way to study the early Universe.
Transcribe →National Astronomy Meeting - part 2
Aug 21, 202300:30:10Tap to summarizeDr Ian Harrisonreports from the National Astronomy meeting, which we held in Cardiff back in July. You can hear a couple of interviews we conducted on the previous episode, but in this episode we have a bit of a deep dive into machine learning with Ashley Spindler, what we mean by a modelling in astrophysics with Niall Jeffrey, and what we're learning from the cosmic microwave background with Dr Susanna Azzoni.
Transcribe →NAM 2023
Jul 19, 202301:00:40Tap to summarizeJuly marked the UK's annual National Astronomy Meeting, which this year took place in Cardiff. Chris North, Edward Gomez and Ian Harrison discuss a few recent stories from this month and at the conference, including the Euclid space telescope launch, India's Chandrayaan 3 moon mission, gravitational waves from supermassive black holes, feeding black holes and exoplanets with metal rain. We also have interviews with University of Manchester's Dr Emma Alexander and University of Bristol's Dr Hannah Wakeford.
Transcribe →Tidal Transients
Jun 1, 202300:44:37Tap to summarizeIn 2020 astronomers spotted an object slowly getting brighter, but it wasn't until 2021 tha they quite understood how unusual it was. In 2021, they studied it in more detail, and found that it was something we don't think has ever been seen before. It was also the most energetic single event ever witnessed. Going by the catchy name of AT2021lwx, or simply "lwx" to its friends, this month we learn more about it. Dr Phil Wiseman, from University of Southampton, and Dr Cosimo Inserra, from Cardiff University, explain more. Elsewhere in the news, Chris North and Edward Gomez discuss how the JUICE mission has been jolting one of its antennas, the retirement of NASA's long-serving astronaut Peggy Whitson, and of course more from JWST.
Transcribe →