#93 - March 2020 Part 1

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

The Discussion: Paul’s favourite bit of the coronavirus, the Cradle of Aviation Museum’s upcoming Apollo 13 anniversary event, a @CunningCosmos space art exhibition and a talk from Jen in Bromsgrove for British Space Week, from the sublime to the ridiculous with the passing of Katherine Johnson and Mad Mike Hughes, and listeners’ emails.

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

• Finding the remnants of the progenitor star after a Type 2b supernova
• Solving the puzzle of giant planets orbiting low mass stars
• More clues to Mercury’s oversized iron core
• A galaxy that has stopped producing stars after a period of prolific star birth
• Mars seems to be more active than we thought
• Debate over Mars’ very long formation history

Main News story: ESO images of Betelgeuse and the more recent evidence for why the star’s dimmed so impressively.

The Sky Guide: This month we’re taking a look at the constellation of Cancer with a guide to its history, how to find it, a couple of deep sky objects and a round up of the solar system views on offer in March.

A guide to the electromagnetic spectrum: In this series we take a look at the electromagnetic spectrum, what, it is, what is shows us and why it’s so important to astronomers. This month we explain the radio part of the spectrum and its relevance to astronomy.