Astrophiz Podcasts

Astrophiz 94: Amanda Wherrett: ANU Siding Spring Observatory This wonderful episode features Amanda Wherrett from the Australian National University and who conducts wonderful tours of the Siding Spring Observatory in remote New South Wales in Australia. Amanda shares with us the absolute best observing tip you will hear in your whole life, and she tells us all about this stunning mountain and it’s remarkable array of observatories, research telescopes and instruments and the astronomers who work there. Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz-94-amanda-wherrett-anu-siding-spring-observatory In the sky for observers and astrophotographers: Our regular feature ‘What’s Up Doc’ is with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave. He previews the excellent planet viewing opportunities over the next two weeks, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent’ he tells us about Asteroid Hygiea, the 4th largest body and possibly soon to be promoted to ‘dwarf planet’ in the asteroid belt. Ian explains our classification criteria for dwarf planets

Astrophiz 93: Dr Jim Palfreyman: The Vela Glitch This episode features astrophysicist Dr Jim Palfreyman, who is a data analyst and casual researcher at the University of Tasmania. Today he tells us about his celebrated Nature paper revealing the way he analyses Vela’s glitches and how that came to tell us about the inner structures of neutron stars/pulsars. In the sky for observers and astrophotographers: Our regular feature ‘What’s Up Doc’ is with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave. He previews the excellent planet viewing opportunities over the next two weeks under moonless skies, how to find Vesta at its brightest, the variable star Mira approaches maximum and he gives us an update on our first interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, reaching maximum brightness in early December In the News: We have news from the grave. Two years ago we all watched sadly and triumphantly as Cassini speared into a fiery death into Saturn, and you might want to listen again to Episode 43 where we were guests at the NASA tracking station at

Astrophiz 92: Dr Ivo Seitenzahl ~ Optical Tomography in Type Ia Supernova remnants. Today’s featured guest is originally from Germany and is now a Future Fellow in the School of Science at the University of New South Wales in Canberra. Ivo introduces us to his new technique using optical telescope integral field spectrograph data to analyse the different elements present in the remnants and the effects of shocks and reverse shocks. Our regular feature “What’s Up Doc” for Astrophotographers and Observers is presented by Dr Ian Musgrave, where he tells us what to look for in the night and morning skies for the next two weeks, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent for this episode, he tells us about cheese and the Moon. In the news: .1. Listen to the Insight Lander Seismograph recording of a Marsquake. .2. Icecube Collaboration traces a single high energy neutrino back to it’s host galaxy where a jet-jet collision produced the neutrino. .3. Dr Jim Palfreyman puts us right on the logic of having our seasons change on the f

Astrophiz 91: Dr Chenoa Tremblay – “Molecules in Space & Dark Magnetism” Listen: Our fabulous featured guest today is Dr Chenoa Tremblay, who is a Postdoctoral fellow in Dark Magnetism with the CSIRO and a member of the Commissioning team for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) facility in remote Western Australia. Chenoa introduces us to Polarisation and Dark Magnetism and Astrochemistry and tell us how she uses the ASKAP array to detect and identify complex molecules in space. We also take a look at some of her earlier research where she provided proof that high-mass stars can form in isolation. Her most recent research as a CSIRO Fellow involves using the SKA precursor ASKAP telescopes to conduct observations of our Galaxy at 724 MHz to detect and characterise the polarimetric properties of carbyne in the Milky Way, and we also hear about her work with the GASKAP Spectral Line Survey Chenoa also does an array of fantastic outreach work in the community and schools and is the contact

Astrophiz 90: Sophia Nasr – Self Interacting Dark Matter and Galaxy Clusters This episode’s featured guest is Sophia Nasr, who is a fabulous graduate physics student at University of California, Irvine who is working on her PhD in cosmology and astroparticle theory with a focus on researching Self-Interacting Dark Matter. She brilliantly explains all forms of dark matter research and her passion for cosmology, equity, diversity and outreach. In the sky: Observation notes for September include Saturn, Jupiter, the Moon and Uranus. For those who enjoy watching Live Rocket launches on the internet put September 25 at 1357GMT into your calendar to watch a Soyuz rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan launch to take the crewed Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft to the International Space Station with members of the next Expedition crew. The capsule will remain at the station for about six months, providing an escape pod for the residents. For citizen scientists there is a nice opportunity to participate in the

Astrophiz 89- Dr Andy Tomkins-Meteorites by Astrophiz

Astrophiz 88: Cate MacQueen – The Dark Photon + ‘What’s Up Doc’ with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave Listen: Today we are speaking with experimental particle physicist Cate MacQueen, who conducts analyses searching for dark matter at particle accelerators. Cate is currently based at The University of Melbourne and is part of the Dark Sector Physics team who are using the Belle II detector, which is attached to the SuperKEKB accelerator in Tsukuba, Japan. In ‘What’s Up Doc’ Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells observers and astrophotographers what to look for in the skies for the next two weeks and in ‘Ian’s tangent’ he tells us about comets captured crashing into Jupiter. In the News ,1. This latest report is assembled from a Nature article 2 days ago and a 9 August ArXiv preprint from Anderson et al available at tinyurlDOTcom/frbrepeaters Astronomers closer to cracking mystery of fast radio bursts Canadian CHIME radio telescope finds another eight repeating blasts These findings mean that there are now en

In Part 3 of an extended three part interview, our featured guest is again Professor Jonti Horner, the Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. With thousands of citations, he is an esteemed Astronomer and Astrobiologist who researches Exoplanets, Exoplanet Habitability and the evolution of our Solar system. Jonti has lead the construction of the newly commissioned MINERVA-Australis exoplanet search and follow-up facility at the USQ Mt. Kent Observatory. In todays episode we hear about how the media needs to stop speculating about Earth II until we actually find one, and how often we can expect meteor impacts on earth cities. Jonti explains the origins and causes of meteor showers Our regular host Dr Ian Musgrave tells us what to look for in the night skies for the next two weeks, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent’ we find out about XXXXXXXX Now our news is truncated today, because I’m pretty determined to keep our podcasts under 60 minutes, so I’ll just give you the summary and

Astrophiz 86: Professor Jonti Horner – Exobiology Part 2 ‘Fingerprinting Exoplanets, NASA, TESS & MINERVA-AUSTRALIS’ + ‘What’s Up Brendan’ because Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave is away at a conference in Hawaii. In Part 2 of an extended three part interview, our featured guest is Professor Jonti Horner,  the Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. With thousands of citations, he is an esteemed Astronomer and Astrobiologist who researches Exoplanets, Exoplanet Habitability and the evolution of our Solar system. Jonti is leading the construction of the MINERVA-Australis exoplanet search and follow-up facility at the USQ Mt. Kent Observatory. In todays episode we hear about not contaminating space with our earthly bacteria as we explore the cosmos with robotic spacecraft, the history of exoplanet discovery, the different techniques used to discover exoplanets and fingerprinting exoplanet atmospheres, and how he is in a team working with NASA to confirm TESS’s exoplanet di

Astrophiz 85: Professor Jonti Horner - Exobiology Part 1 'The Myths of Jupiter, Comet impacts & the search for life elsewhere’ + ‘What’s Up Doc’ with Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave Listen: In Part 1 of an extended three part interview, our featured guest is Professor Jonti Horner, the Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. With thousands of citations, he is an esteemed Astronomer and Astrobiologist who researches Exoplanets, Exoplanet Habitability and the evolution of our Solar system. Jonti is leading the construction of the MINERVA-Australis exoplanet search and follow-up facility at the USQ Mt. Kent Observatory. In today’s episode, we glimpse Jonti's great career trajectory and he introduces us to some of the complex myths and realities surrounding Jupiter, and Jupiter’s role in the development of life on earth. Another highlight to listen for is how astrobiology could have begun with Giordano Bruno being burnt at the stake in 1600 for maintaining that the thousand

Astrophiz 84: “The Dark Energy Science Collaboration and the LSST” In this episode we are speaking with Venezuelan-born astrophysicist and observational cosmologist Dr Anais Möller. Anais is currently based in France and is part of the team who are the science drivers of the Dark Energy Science Collaboration attached to the LSST (the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) which is under construction at Cerro Pachón on the Andes Mountains of Northern Chile. For observers and astrophotographers, in ‘What’s Up Doc’, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look out for in the morning and evening skies. In the News: .1. Press release from the University of Bath, UK Published yesterday on Wednesday 19 June 2019 “Astronomers make first detection of polarized radio waves in Gamma Ray Burst jets” Good fortune and cutting-edge scientific equipment have allowed scientists to observe a Gamma Ray Burst jet with a radio telescope and detect the polarisation of radio waves within it for the first time - moving us closer

Today we’d like to welcome Tommy Marshman, an early stage researcher who is completing his Masters of Research at Macquarie University in Sydney Australia. Tommy explains his research comparing the effectiveness of CPU and GPU pipelines when working with galactic plane surveys using Parkes data. In ‘What’s Up Doc’ for astrophotographers and observers, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look out for in the morning and evening skies. In ‘Ian’s Tangent’ he looks at the controversy surrounding Elon Musk's Starlink 'constellation' of satellites. ere is the Astrophiz news. News: .1. In a paper published today in Nature, another fabulous example of how archival data can be cleverly interrogated to lead to great new discoveries. The paper is titled: A cool accretion disk around the Galactic Centre black hole Lead author, PhD student Lena Murchikova and her colleagues used data gathered in 2015 by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to discover a thin rotating accretion disk of materia

Astrophiz 82: Dr Ashley Ruiter - Supernova scientist Today we are speaking with Dr Ashley Ruiter, ARC Future Fellow and senior lecturer in the School of Science at UNSW Canberra, Australia. She specializes in Type Ia supernovae and other transient phenomena from stars, in particular their origin, evolution history, and birth rates. Basically she researches anything that erupts, explodes, or merges, and also make predictions about which of these sources may be seen with gravitational waves using LISA. Dr Ruiter is currently looking for graduates to work under her supervision. Prospective PhDs can find out about this opportunity at TinyUrl-Dot-Com/ashleyastro In ‘What’s Up Doc’ for astrophotographers and observers, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look out for in the morning and evening skies. In ‘Ian’s Tangent’ he introduces us to a great citizen science project ‘Globe at Night’ which involves us measuring light pollution with our eyes and an app. In the News: .1. Via NASA.gov — NASA’s Fermi Sat

Astrophiz 81: Dr Ivy Wong - 'Star Formation, Galaxy Evolution & Radio Galaxy Zoo" Our feature interview is with Dr Ivy Wong, who researches supermassive black holes, star formation and the evolution of galaxies. Her research is sensational and you will love the questions she asks about galaxy evolution and how she goes about answering those brilliant questions. As one of the initial co-leaders of the Radio Galaxy Zoo project she also gives us the heads-up on this fantastic opportunity for Citizen Scientists all around the globe. Follow Ivy on Twitter: @owning_ivy Then for observers and astrophotographers Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave , in ‘What’s Up Doc’, tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. And then Ian takes us on an astronomical tangent to talk about how other planets in our solar system have meteor showers and how exoplanet discoveries using Kepler and TESS has led to the discovery of exocomets and the likelihood of exoplanet meteor showers. Follow Ian on Twitter: @ianfmusgrave

In this fabulous episode we are speaking with Dr JJ Eldridge, who is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Auckland. Their general research concerns the lives and deaths of stars and particularly the effects of binary interactions on the lives of binary stars and how these change the appearance of galaxies, alter the rates of different types of supernovae and impact on gravitational wave events. Then for observers and astrophotographers Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave , in 'What's Up Doc', tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. And then Ian takes us on an astronomical tangent to talk about a 'stream' of 309 stars discovered by the Gaia spacecraft  arcing out from Omega Centauri, and the tails and material shedding from Asteroid Gault,  In the news: .1. LIGO Observation Run #3 started last week and has already detected a new gravitational wave event, the hunt is on for multi-wavelength counterparts. If it is, as indicated, a NS-NS event, the universe jus

In this episode we are speaking with Dr Stas Shabala, who is an international astrophysicist and a Lecturer in Physics at the University of Tasmania. Stas researches using powerful radio telescopes from all over the world and at the nearby Mt Pleasant facility, he investigates AGN Radio Jets & galactic evolution, and we are going to dive deep into Geodetic VLBI, (Very Long Base Interferometry) and we talk about the Radio Galaxy Zoo Citizen Science Project that Stas has been involved in right from the start. Then for observers and astrophotographers Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave , in 'What's Up Doc', tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. In 'Ian's Tangent' he tells us more about Hyabusa 2 on Ryugu and Osiris Rex on Bennu. In the news: There's can only one item this week. The astonishing image of the first ever silhouette of a Black Hole at the centre of M87* and how Dr Katie Bouman wrote an algorithm and led a team to crunch the data from 8 Event Horizon telescopes spread all over t

Astrophiz 78: High Altitude UV Astronomy ~ Ryan Ridden Today we are speaking with Ryan Ridden, a PhD student at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research investigates cataclysmic events by launching UV telescopes attached to helium balloons high above the atmosphere! For observers and astrophotographers, in ‘What’s Up Doc’, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent’ he tells us about a cool Citizen Science experiment by Terry Lovejoy to use parallax to measure the distance from earth observers to the moon with remarkable accuracy using basic equipment and a little trigonometry. In the News: 1. Name That Moon! 12 Jovian moons were discovered in 2018, and the public have been invited to name five of them. Suggestions can be submitted until April 15, 2019, by sending a tweet to @JupiterLunacy, with written or video recorded reasons for the name chosen. Include the t

In this episode we feature a fabulous interview with Dr Christine Redman, who is an Honorary Fellow with the Melbourne Graduate School for Education at the University of Melbourne. She is going to give us the big picture on the state of Science Education in the Primary (Elementary) Secondary and Tertiary sectors in Australia, and how Science Education is the key to Australia’s ambition to nurture its newly formed Australian Space Agency. For observers and astrophotographers, in ‘What’s Up Doc’, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. In this episode all the action is in the morning sky and in 'Ian's tangent' he tells us about robots snorting asteroid dust with Tantalum bullets. In the news: Academic & Scientific Publishing: A short intro to predatory publishing Observations of Radio Magnetars with the CDSCC Deep Space Network at Tidbinbilla. Astronomers love big numbers.

Today we are speaking with Dr Shari Breen, who holds a research fellowship at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney. She has been awarded the prestigious Bolton Fellowship and has worked on some of the world’s and Australia’s most powerful instruments, including the Parkes Dish and the ATCA. In 2015 she was named a L’Oreal-UNESCO forWomen in Science Fellow for her work on understanding how the largest stars in our galaxy are formed. For observers and astrophotographers, in ‘What’s Up Doc’, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies.

Today we are at the NASA/CSIRO Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla in Australia, and we are speaking with Glen Nagle, who is the CSIRO’s outreach and administration lead and NASA operations support officer. Glen tells us how the technicians crewing the 26m dish at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station were the only ones capable of receiving and re-transmitting clear images of the first 8 minutes of Neil Armstrong's descent from the Eagle Lunar Module and his first small steps on the moon on July 20 1969.  It's a fabulous story, and Glen then continues to tell us how the CDSCC is using the 70m and 43m dishes to talk to missions doing science around sun, most of the planets in our solar system and beyond. For observers and astrophotographers, in 'What's Up Doc', Dr Ian 'Astroblog' Musgrave tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. In this episode all the action is in the morning sky and an easy-to-find comet for binocular and possibly naked eye viewing. He also ou