Astronomy

Pythagorean Astronomy: New Horizons at Pluto

Posted on 30 July 2015 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Radio astronomy close-up

Posted on 28 June 2015 by Chris North

Radio telescopes are normally used for looking at very distant objects thousands, millions, or possibly even billions of light years away. But to do that, they have to look through the Earth’s atmosphere. For some radio astronomers the distorting effects of our atmosphere are an annoyance, but earlier this year Australian astronomers using the Murchison
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Student Prize winners for outstanding contribution to Outreach

Posted on 12 June 2015 by Haley Gomez

This year, the School of Physics and Astronomy awarded their inaugural prizes for outstanding contribution to outreach and public engagement to students at a prize-giving ceremony at the annual Chaos Student Ball. The winners of the prizes were Jenifer Millard (undergraduate) and Peri Jones (postgraduate). Postgraduate student Matthew Allen was also highly commended for his
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Solar System round-up

Posted on 28 May 2015 by Chris North

It’s a busy year in the Solar System for robotic explorers, with New Horizons on the way to distant Pluto, Dawn orbiting Ceres in the outer asteroid belt, and Rosetta and Philae accompanying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it makes its closets approach to the Sun. This month Dr Edward Gomez and I chat about these missions,
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Pythagorean Astronomy: End of the Messenger

Posted on 30 April 2015 by Chris North

The Messenger probe arrived in orbit around Mercury in March 2011, after a 7 year journey to the innermost planet in our Solar System. It mapped the entire surface of this tiny planet, of which we’d seen less than half from the previous mission back in the 1970s. Far from being a dry, inert ball
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Pythagoras’ Trousers: Making the Invisible, Visible

Posted on 2 April 2015 by Chris North

In this special documentary as part of the Pythagoras Trousers radio series, Rhys Phillips visits his alma mater, Cardiff University’s School of Physics & Astronomy, to find out about a new generation of detectors being developed to help see things in the far infra-red part of the spectrum. With contributions from Chris North, Peter Hargave,
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Dr Haley Gomez at TEDxCardiff

Posted on 31 March 2015 by Haley Gomez

The School of Physics and Astronomy’s very own Dr Haley Gomez was invited to speak at this year’s incredibly popular TEDxCardiff. The event held at the Wales Millienium Centre in Cardiff was sold out within a minute! For more details see here. Dr Gomez works on using the most sensitive infrared cameras in space to
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