Pythagorean Astronomy: Vulcans, dust storms, and water on Mars

Posted on 27 September 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Icy Moons and Ice Cubes

Posted on 25 July 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Organics, asteroids and Nobel Prize winners

Posted on 28 June 2018 by Chris North

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
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In conversation with a Nobel Prize Winner

Posted on 26 June 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Missions to Mars and plumes from Europa

Posted on 31 May 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Exoplanet Missions and EWASS roundup

Posted on 25 April 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: Stephen Hawking Remembered

Posted on 28 March 2018 by Chris North

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
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Pythagorean Astronomy: BONUS – Stephen Hawking’s Theories

Posted on 28 March 2018 by Chris North

To accompany the March episode of Pythagorean Astronomy remembering Professor Stephen Hawking, we’re also releasing the uncut(!) version of the interview with Professor Peter Coles, in which he discusses the theories for which Stephen Hawking is famous – in particular Hawking radiation. Don’t forget to listen to the full March 2018 episode. An added bonus
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Summer Internships

Posted on 28 March 2018 by Chris North

The School of Physics and Astronomy invites applications from motivated undergraduates for Summer Internship positions. Successful applicants will spend 6-8 weeks in Cardiff working with researchers, staff and students within the school. We are currently offering the following projects: Gravitational Waves Outreach Internship (any undergraduate) Gravitational Waves Research Internship (any undergraduate) *deadline1st April 2018* Ogden Trust Internship (Cardiff Undergraduates only)
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Astronomy Data in Maths & Physics

Posted on 27 March 2018 by Victoria Ayley

Overview Three lesson plans at three different levels designed to help students develop their maths and physics skills via application, as well as hoping to inspire an interest in astronomy in the process. During the lessons students will learn how to classify galaxies, determine the age of galaxies, and calculate the age of the Universe
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