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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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Pythagorean Astronomy: Einstein’s Revolution

Posted on 28 November 2015 by Chris North

November 2015 marks the centenary of the publication of one of the most important theories in physics: Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. On this month’s episode I chatted to Prof Mark Hannam and Dr Patrick Sutton. As part of the Gravitational Physics group here in Cardiff, Mark and Patrick try to understand the implications
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Evening Reception: Einstein’s Revolution and Public talks (Wednesday 9th December)

Posted on 24 November 2015 by Chris North

On Wednesday 9th December, join Cardiff astronomers and physicists to celebrate the centenary of Albert Einstein’s most famous work, his “General Theory of Relativity”. Book your place In November 1915 Einstein revolutionised how we understand the Universe with his General Theory of Relativity. It was General Relativity that made Einstein famous, and the reason he
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Communication award for Matthew Allen

Posted on 11 November 2015 by Chris North

Matthew Allen, a PhD student here at the School of Physics and Astronomy has been recognised by world-leading company Elsevier for his creative and personal approach to communicating astrophysics research to the public. Mat, who is studying the evolution of galaxies, picked up the inaugural Researchers’ Choice Communication Award at an awards dinner in London (5
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Cosmos: the Infographic Book of Space

Posted on 13 October 2015 by Chris North

The human race has always revealed an insatiable hunger to search “to infinity and beyond”. On Sunday 18th October, as part of Penarth Book Festival, Cardiff astrophysicist Chris North and colleague Stuart Lowe will use cutting-edge infographics to illustrate – in a new and unique way – the most amazing places and objects that modern
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Rosetta: To Catch A Comet

Posted on 31 July 2015 by Chris North

On Monday 24th August Prof Mark McCaughrean will be giving a public talk about the Europan Space Agency’s Rosetta mission. As a Senior Science Advisor at ESA, Mark is heavily involved in all ESA missions, and will be giving fascinating insights into the discoveries made by this remarkable mission. A synopsis of the talk is below. Date and Time:
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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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