Astronomy

Pythagorean Astronomy: Star Attractions

Posted on 30 January 2017 by Chris North

Join Chris North and Edward Gomez as they discuss the month’s astronomy news. Not only were there two new NASA missions announced this month, but Space-X successfully returned to flight with their Falcon 9 rocket. Further afield, there are predictions of a pair of stars that are set to explode in a few years. Being
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Centaurus A

New Physics Educational Resources

Posted on 16 January 2017 by Sophie Bartlett

Cardiff University’s school of Physics and Astronomy, working with Faulkes Telescope and Down2Earth Projects have developed two new resources for Key Stage 4 students. Using astronomy and space science these new resources aim to provide an innovative context for students to experience the GCSE physics syllabus. The first resource uses observations of supernovae (taken using
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Assassin Supernova

Posted on 19 December 2016 by Chris North

When is a supernova not a supernova? The brightest supernova on record was discovered in 2015 by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). Named ASASSN-15lh, this remarkable event – what looked like a huge brightening of a star in a distant galaxy – was observed by many other telescopes, including the Hubble Space
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Pythagorean Astronomy: the GLEAM Survey

Posted on 28 November 2016 by Chris North

We’ve got a lot of news items to discuss this month. In the outer Solar System, Edward Gomez and I discuss the Cassini spacecraft, which has made its final major orbital manoeuvre, and the Juno spacecraft, which has had a few issues getting into its main science orbit. Further from home, we’ve got the first “official”
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New artwork inspired by gravitational wave discovery

Posted on 25 November 2016 by Chris North

We just witnessed the unveiling of a large oil painting here in the School of Physics and Astronomy, inspired by the first ever detection of gravitational waves. Penelope Cowley, a local artist who specialises in bringing art and science together, presented her work at an unveiling ceremony, along with a video showcasing a unique artistic spin
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Pythagorean-Astronomy: ExoMars and Galaxies

Posted on 27 October 2016 by Chris North

A lot has happened this month – ESA got a spacecraft into orbit around Mars, but sadly lost the Schiaparelli lander, China launched two new taikonauts to their space station, and the Swarm mission uncovered details from Earth depths. Edward Gomez and I discussed these, and more, this month (though before the full nature of
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Rosetta & OSIRIS-Rex

Posted on 26 September 2016 by Chris North

This month sees the start of one mission and the end of another. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission launched at the start of the month to go and study asteroid Bennu, and even bring back a sample to Earth. Meanwhile, the end of the month sees the finale of ESA’s Rosetta mission, which has spent two years studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. With
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Perseid Meteor by Pete Lawrence

Perseid Meteor Shower

Posted on 9 August 2016 by Chris North

Meteors, or shooting stars, are bright streaks of light originating from tiny grains of debris — often only the size of a grain of sand — whizzing through our atmosphere at speeds of tens of thousands of km per hour. Most of them originate from the trails of debris left by comets as they move
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