#89 - November 2019 Part 1

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

The Discussion: Before we start the show proper, we discuss Jeni’s encounter with Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne, her new research paper undergoing a painfully slow peer review and we take a look at Chris Lintott’s book, The Crowd and the Cosmos: Adventures in the Zooniverse. Then it’s over to the listeners for a few emails suggesting cooler names for the phenomenon of the Pair Instability Supernova.

The News: Rounding up the astronomy news this month we have:

• An enigmatic radio burst opens up a new method of probing the universe
• Hubble takes a look at interstellar comet
• Hygiea becomes the latest candidate to be recategorized as a dwarf planet
• Spiral galaxies give more clues to discredit the MOND theory of dark matter
• Venus going pop and perhaps a 2 billion window of habitability
• More confusion over the age of Saturn’s rings

The big news story: perhaps heavier elements in the Universe are not only forged in supernovae, but also from neutron star mergers.

The Sky Guide: Covering the solar system and deep sky objects on offer to amateur astronomers in November:

• Paul: A round up of the planets available to northern hemisphere observers in November, a tour of the comets currently in our skies and Vest at opposition. In the deep sky, Paul recommends a few overlooked objects in Cetus and Sculptor.
• Jen: The upcoming Transit of Mercury on 11/12th November.
• Ralph: 3 lunar/planetary conjunctions and a couple of meteor showers. Then further afield, the Orion Nebula

Main Object: The innermost planet, Mercury

Q&A: What actually is the solar wind? From our good friend Andrew Osborne.