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Podcaster: Ralph, Paul & Jen

Awesome-Astronomy--NEWTitle : Awesome Astronomy March 2016

Organization: Awesome Astronomy

Link : www.awesomeastronomy.com

Description: March discussion

Bio: Awesome Astronomy is the show for anyone and everyone with an interest in space, astronomy and science.

Join Ralph, Paul and Jen (and occasionally John or Damien) at the beginning of each month for a passionate look at the space & astronomy world, simple explanations of complex and fundamental topics, space and science news, absorbing interviews with people that make the astronomy news and answers to listeners’ questions.

Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by — no one. We still need sponsors for many days in 2016, 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.

Transcript:

Summary of content:

The Discussion: We bid a sad farewell to Apollo pioneer Edgar Mitchell who spent 33 hours on the lunar surface in 1971 on the Apollo 14 mission, celebrate the detection of gravitational waves and Paul regales us with his tales of clear skies for some long awaited eyepiece time.

The News: This month the news is dominated by the death of Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell. We bring you the highs of collecting moon rocks and the lows of a retirement spent promoting pseudoscience. We follow this up with more information on the detection by LIGO of the last confirmed prediction of Einstein’s General Relativity, gravitational waves, and what this means for the future of astronomy. And we finish off with the observation by the European Southern Observatory of a flying saucer shaped forming planetary system.

Woobusters: This month we don the tin foil hat of woo to debunk the Nibiru conspiracy theory. The planet predicted to crash into Earth and destroy all life without a shred of evidence to its name!

The Interview: We welcome Canadian Soyuz, Shuttle and Space Station astronaut Chris Hadfield into the chair this month to discuss:

  • The best and worst things about being in space
  • The most difficult thing to adjust to in space
  • What is it about test pilots that lends itself to becoming an astronaut
  • What was the best aircraft to fly
  • Is the space station a distraction from deep space missions
  • What’s the next space destination after the Space Station
  • What will Chris Hadfield do in retirement
  • Do you wish you’d been a musician
  • As a positive person, how do you face the bad things in life

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.

  • If nothing can escape from a black hole, not even light, why in the news today is there talk of ‘jets’ of energy being released by one? And, if nothing can travel faster than light, how can the universe be expanding in excess of this speed and still be accelerating? Jason Paul Smith via Facebook

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. 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.  This year we will celebrate more discoveries and stories from the universe. Join us and share your story. Until tomorrow! Goodbye!