Dr Chris North is the Ogden Science Lecturer in Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy. He also holds an STFC Public Engagement Fellowship entitled "The Dawn of Gravitational Wave Astronomy". Chris is also an astronomy researcher by training, focusing most recently on the Herschel Space Observatory.
Chris North, Sarah Roberts and Mat Allen discuss the launch of Bepi Colombo, which is on its way to study the planet Mercury. Meanwhile, the Hayabusa 2 mission continues its exploration of the asteroid Ryugu, while the Hubble Space Telescope has experienced a problem with its gyros – we discuss what that means for the Read more
Chris North, Sarah Roberts and Mat Allen discuss a number of recent news stories. One of the latest planets to be discovered, “40 Eridani A a”, seems to be a lot like the fictional planet Vulcan, home to Spock in Star Trek. The RemoveDEBRIS mission has test-fired its net, and the Hyabusa 2 mission has Read more
Earlier this month it was announced that an entrepreneur would like to launch an “artificial star” into orbit, adding to the mass of space junk. Chris North and Edward Gomez give their views on the matter, and how missions such as RemoveDEBRIS might help. Further afield, there’s more water on Mars – or in this Read more
The School of Physics and Astronomy hosted the Ogden Trust School Physicist of the Year event on Wednesday 18th July to celebrate young regional physicists. The School Physicist of the Year (SPotY) programme recognises outstanding efforts and achievements of secondary school students in physics. Seven physics students from local schools were awarded prizes at the Read more
It was announced this month that Jupiter has got even more moons than previously thought, with its total haul now coming in at 79! We discuss why the new moons are odd. The Very Large Telescope in Chile also made a new discovery – a very young planet forming in the dusty disk of material Read more
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 Read more
This is a bonus edition of Pythagorean Astronomy – the regular June 2018 episode will be published on Thursday 28th June. In May 2018 we welcomed to Cardiff a Nobel Prize winner: Professor Barry Barish, who was one of the scientists who founded the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, As regular listeners will remember, LIGO made the Read more
This month has seen missions large and small launch towards Mars, and new results from the Gaia satellite. What gets astronomers so excited about such datasets? Meanwhile, astronomers have been using machine learning to address a number of problems – we discuss a couple of examples which have been published recently, one about exoplanets and Read more
April saw Liverpool host the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, from which there were a many new developments and discoveries, a few of which we discuss this month. The conference came just days after the NASA and ESA made the announcement that the largest astronomy project in recent times, the James Webb Space Read more
Earlier this month the world was saddened to hear of the death of Professor Stephen Hawking, arguably one of the most famous physicists of recent times. He died peacefully at the age of 76, having lived with the debilitating condition of motor neurone disease which he was diagnosed with in his early 20s. Despite that Read more
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