Pythagorean Astronomy: Water on Mars – Again!

Posted on 29 October 2015 by Chris North

In October 2015 we had news of the discovery of water on Mars – again! Almost a perennial story now, but is this discovery any different to previous discoveries, some of which stretch back to the 1970s? To find out more about this particular story, I spoke to UCL planetary scientist Peter Grindrod. Originally broadcast
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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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Pythagorean Astronomy: AstroCamp and Galaxies

Posted on 28 September 2015 by Chris North

The arrival of Autumn means one thing to astronomers: darker skies. Every spring an autumn, astronomers gather along with their telescopes, campervans and tents for “star parties”. One such meet-up is AstroCamp, held near Cwmdu in the Brecon Beacons. At just an hour or so north of Cardiff it’s not too far, and I’ve been going along to
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Pythagorean Astronomy: In conversation with Mark McCaughrean

Posted on 27 August 2015 by Chris North

On Monday 24th August, Cardiff was treated to a public talk by Prof Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor in the European Space Agency’s Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. Mark spoke about the Rosetta mission, which has been studying comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the past year, including the landing of Philae on the comet’s surface amid huge media attention.
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Sell out talk by Cardiff astronomer on the science of Doctor Who

Posted on 4 August 2015 by Haley Gomez

Last week, Cardiff University partnered with the Institute of Physics in Wales and the National Museum to deliver their first “Science Of” Lecture based on the hit TV show Doctor Who. More than 250 people went to the Museum on Friday evening to hear Dr Edward Gomez from the School of Physics and Astronomy.  During
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Cosmic Dust on the Curriculum for New Postgraduate Students

Posted on 31 July 2015 by Haley Gomez

As part of the pre-sessional term for new postgraduate students at Cardiff University, Professor Haley Gomez gave three special lectures on her favourite topic Cosmic Dust.  Over 831 students turned up to find out more about where dust is made and why the violent explosions of stars is important for polluting our universe full of
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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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Primary School Students Use Telescopes to Explore New Horizons

Posted on 17 July 2015 by Sarah Roberts

The New Horizons spacecraft has been all over the news this week as it finally reached Pluto after travelling through space for nine years. Nine years is a long time in the darkness of space, but how long do you think New Horizons would take to travel to the nearest star beyond our Solar System?
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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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