A jolly romp around viruses and tasers! We look back at the astronomy and space exploration highlights of 2020:  Phosphine in Venus atmosphere The saga of SpaceX Chang’e 5 at the Moon Comets Atlas & Neowise 3 missions to Mars  The lows of 2020 in astronomy and space exploration:  Cancellation of SPICA The loss of the Arecibo radio telescope  We look forward to the anticipated events of 2021:  Luna 25, Chandrayaan-3 & Artemis 1 to the Moon 3 Mars arrivals Vera C Rubin telescope & Maybe JWST  And we run through our own predictions for next year before signing off with our customary end-of-year outtakes.

#102 - December 2020 Part 2

Awesome Astronomy explores the frontiers of science, space and our evolving understanding of the universe.

Join Ralph, Paul & Jeni for informative and fun astronomy programmes dedicated to space and astronomy news and monthly podcast extras covering hot topics and special interviews in the world of science and astronomy.

Natural Sciences

Science & Medicine

Science

Astronomy

This month Dr Jen is off to the US for the Solar Eclipse while Paul is just back from Goonhilly Earth Station. We chat about the imminent demise of the Chandra Space Telescope, more news on the Hubble tension, and of course the Great North American Eclipse.  Chinese Lunar ambitions, Starship making it to space and the first Boeing Starliner crew make the news while in this months history moment we talk about the brightest Stellar event witnessed by humans.  

Episode 142 Awesome Astronomy April 2024

This podcast extra is our full length interview with Dr Helen Sharman, Britain's First astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991. 

Britain's First Astronaut

This month our intrepid crew of the good ship Awesome investigate sub surface oceans on the moons of the solar system, smoking stars, distant blackholes, oversized structures and of course tippy over lunar landers. There is also the monthly skyguide and a look at the astro history of March!

Wet Moons and Tippy landers

  This month Dr Jen talks to Dr Phil! Dr Phil Metzger, 30 years at NASA where he has worked on various missions and programmes including the ISS snd Space Shuttle, while more recently he has been investigating how rocket efflux interacts with soil and what this will mean for future landings on the Moon and Mars…

Blasting Soil - Interview with Dr Phil Metzger

This month we explore the exciting announcements from the European Space Agency as they outline their new missions for the 2030s. LISA, a space based gravitational wave detector and EnVision, a Venus mission that will map the surface and under-surface of that planet in unprecedented detail.  We have the usual skyguide, chat about recent lunar missions and emails from the listeners.

#102 - December 2020 Part 2

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