The Curiosity rover drilling into the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

There were new results about organic compounds from two places in the Solar System this month: the planet Mars and the dwarf planet Ceres. We discuss what organic compounds are, and why their discovery doesn’t mean we’ve found life, but is still an interesting find.

Further afield, the ALMA telescope has been finding planets orbiting other stars. While we know of over 3000 exoplanets to date, these are the first discovered by ALMA, and were found using an innovative technique.

The end of June also sees the celebration of Asteroid Day – Edward explains how to get involved with observing asteroids through Las Cumbres Observatory.

Finally, we have an excerpt from a much longer interview with Prof Barry Barish, recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the detection of gravitational waves. This interview was in partnership with Jeni Millard from Awesome Astronomy, and if you want to hear more of what Barry had to say, then check out the full interview in our Special Bonus Episode!

An extended edition of an original broadcast on 28th June 2018 as part of Pythagoras’ Trousers on Radio Cardiff.

Don’t forget you can now subscribe to the podcast. For an archive of Pythagorean Astronomy, visit pythagastro.uk.