On 14th July 2015 the New Horizons probe whizzed past Pluto, providing our first ever close-ups of this tiny world at the edge of our Solar System. This month, Edward Gomez and I discuss why Pluto is so fascinating, and what the first few images have told us. We also chatted about this month’s other big story, the discovery of another Earth-like planet, and why it’s a bit early to get too excited about future holiday plans! And Hugh Lang tells us about August’s Perseid meteor shower.
To get a feel for why New Horizons has proved so fascinating, and why we want to know more about Pluto, we also hear from a number of other people at this year’s National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno:
- Jane Greaves (University of St Andrews)
- Jen Gupta (University of Portsmouth)
- Megan Argo (University of Manchester)
- Steve Serjeant (Open University)
- Simon Green (Open University)
- Manuel Grande (Aberystwyth University)
- Charles Barclay (Blackett Observatory, Marlborough College)
- David Southwood (Imperial College London, Ret’d Director of Science, ESA)
Originally broadcast (in edited form) on 30th July 2015 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.
And don’t forget the upcoming talk about Rosetta on 24th August by Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at ESA.
