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Podcaster: Ralph & Paul

Title : Awesome Astronomy’s February Edition

Organization: Awesome Astronomy

Link : www.awesomeastronomy.com

Description:

The Discussion: The BBC’s annual StargazingLIVE series, observations in January and aurora hunting in Iceland.

The Audio Journal: Damien, the Awesome Astronomy webguru, describes the skies in rural Pakistan and shows the locals their 1st ever views of the universe.

The News: In the news section, Ralph begins with a new planet-hunting instrument in Chile, the recently discovered best candidate for a naked-eye visible supernova, the progress of commercial spaceflight and public access into space, China’s Chang’e-3 rover’s progress on the moon and ESA’s Rosetta wakes up.

The 5 Minute Concept: Paul explains one of our solar system’s rings of icy debris – the Kuiper Belt – and the importance of having a good publicist!

The Competition: Goodies from the European Southern Observatory are on offer to one listener, draw at random, in this month’s competition.

The Interview: This month, Ralph speaks with The European Southern Observatory’s Dr Joe Liske about the world’s largest telescopes and finding ET within our lifetimes.

Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month Ralph & Paul answer:

  • I have a question regarding Mercury. How can a planet so close to the sun have temperatures colder than -100 degrees?

Darren Knight in Cambridgeshire via Facebook

  • How are we able to see the light from the early universe if it’s going in a different direction to us as the universe expands?

Francis Moore in London via email

Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2013, so please consider sponsoring a day or two. Just click on the “Donate” button on the lower left side of this webpage, or contact us at signup@365daysofastronomy.org.

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the New Media Working Group of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Audio post-production by Preston Gibson. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. Web design by Clockwork Active Media Systems. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. In the new year the 365 Days of Astronomy project will be something different than before….Until then…goodbye