AWESOME ASTRONOMY

Following a recent NASA press conference – a regular event that fills us with dread as we anticipate an anticlimax – this time NASA really get us excited with the announcement of seven rocky Earth sized planets around a star 40 light years away. Three of these planets are in that star system's habitable zone.

Luckily our own resident exoplanet researcher, Jeni, is on hand to take us through the hunt and explain the science! In this podcast extra we discuss:

• The NASA announcement
• The international collaboration that made this discovery
• How exoplanets are discovered
• The significance of the find
• What this star system looks like
• Could life exist on any of these worlds?
• What the environmental conditions could be like so close to their parent star

(image credit: NASA)

The Discussion: Jeni's been teaching the teachers of Wales how to include astronomy in their classroom exercises as part of the school curriculum. Ralph takes us on a historical tour of the King's Observatory in Richmond which was the original Prime Meridian before it found its home in Greenwich. While Paul and Jen have a date this month at the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham.

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

• Hubble spies a comet breaking up around a distant white dwarf star
• A very special exoplanet discovery
• The Event Horizon Telescope takes aim
• Isolated extremophiles on Earth help with our search for alien life
• Is NASA accelerating its manned spaceflight programme?

The Interview: This month we welcome back the European Space Agency's project scientist on the Rosetta mission to Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko, Matt Taylor, to discuss the end of the mission, the data gathered, the discovery of Philae and what's next for ESA.

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 we're tackling a question about the Allais Effect which claims to have observed strange happenings during eclipses:

I need help understanding something called the Allais Effect. This is a phenomenon that supposedly causes pendulums to get funky during solar eclipses Matt Minter, Chicago, Illinois.

What to look out, and up, for in March.

Our highlights of this month's skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers:

• The moon, Mercury and Mars close together on the 29th
• The King of Planets returns to our skies
• 4 comets to observe with amateur telescopes or the naked eye

Next up, we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Jen – The Owl Nebula in Ursa Major
• Paul – The Virgo Supercluster and Markarian's Chain of galaxies
• Ralph – Messier 67 and the Beehive Cluster in Cancer

This podcast extra takes a look back at the extraordinary life of navy aviator, test pilot and astronaut Gene Cernan who tragically died last month at the age of 82.

In this memoriam we discuss:

• Gene's stellar career
• Pioneering rendezvous and spacewalking techniques on Gemini 9A
• The final test run for a moon landing on Apollo 10
• Commanding the last ever moon landing mission on Apollo 17

The last footprints on the moon

The Discussion: Paul continues his herculean travels around the UK promoting the European Space Agency and teaching people about the science of spaceflight. Ralph's waxing lyrical about a waxing moon and Venus, while Jen has a big announcement regarding her PhD research.

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

• Another asteroid hits the news as NASA look elsewhere for future missions
• ESO's ALMA array turns its attention to the Sun
• Making refinements on the age of the Moon
• A new star to look out for in the sky in 2022

Hat of Woo: With the hat now empty and the world still full of loons, we reach out to you to tell us what you'd like to see replace this segment of the show.

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 we take a look at a listener's submitted graph and explain the Roche Sphere:

Can you please explain why the Hill Sphere of Neptune is greater than that of Jupiter? Gavin Price, @Pillarscreatio, Wales.

What to look out, and up, for in February.

Our highlights of this month's skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers:

• A last chance look at Mercury in the morning sky
• Mars a few degrees from Venus
• Jupiter in Virgo
• Saturn in the early morning sky

Next up is the return of a couple of comets to our observing tick list:

• Comet 45P at its best on the 11th February in Hercules
• Comet 2P Encke returns to our skies in the constellation Pisces

Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Ralph – the Rosette Nebula and open cluster NGC2244 in the constellation Monoceros
• Paul – open cluster M93 in Pupis
• Jeni – supernova remnant, Messier 1 – the Crab Nebula - in Taurus

And we finish this sky guide with February's moon phases, a conjunction with the Hyades Cluster on the 5th and a penumbral eclipse on 10th/11th February.

This podcast extra takes a look at the proposals from Boeing and Lockheed Martin to develop a lunar space station for NASA.

In this discussion we cover:

• NASA's current plans for deep space exploration
• Lunar and Martian exploration
• What exploration can be done from orbit
• Human vs robotic exploration
• The likelihood of contaminating other worlds with Earth organisms

The Discussion: As we welcome in the New Year Paul's been mixing science with art, Jeni's professional astronomy looks to be taking her to South Africa or Mexico and we read out some of our listeners' emails

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

• The death of John Glenn – a true pioneer and legend
• ESO's Very Large Telescopes glimpses something from nothing
• And we take a look at NASA latest release list of its spin-out technologies

Hat of Woo: In our latest and final Hat of Woo we put Astrology under the magnifying glass.

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 we're tackling a question about a recent news story covered in a previous episode:

The number of bodies in the Solar System featuring subsurface oceans seems to increase with every planetary mission sent out there. Many of these are bodies of water of great depth, with Europa and Ganymede possibly having oceans 100km deep. Given that the deepest part of our own ocean is a 'mere' 11km deep and barely studied, what kind of conditions could future explores expect at such depths? Would the enormous pressure at a depth of 100km cause the water to act differently and what implications would this have for life in these oceans? Steve Brown, Yorkshire, England.

What to look out, and up, for in January.

Our highlights of this month's skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers:

• Venus at greatest eastern elongation
• Mars a few degrees from Venus
• Jupiter in Virgo
• Saturn & Mercury in the morning sky
• Next up is the other solar system wonders of note in January:
• The Quadrantids meteor shower peaking on 3-4th January with a ZHR of around 40
• The largest asteroid, Vesta, at opposition passing through Cancer into Gemini

Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year:

• Jen – M33, spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum
• Paul – NGC 2903, barred spiral galaxy in Leo
• Ralph – Messier 35, open cluster in Gemini

And we finish this sky guide with January's moon phases.

Awesome Astronomy's 2016 Christmas Panto. Think: HG Wells' War of the Worlds meets Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.

The Eve of the War: Plans for our latest invasion of Earth are discussed over a nice, friendly and relaxed Christmas dinner.

In London: A rousing and inspiring speech to the defeated peoples of Earth.

The Earth Under the Martians: Jeni's excited about her new taser and we all have a jolly Christmas wager.

The Days of Imprisonment: Another speech to the assembled and compliant Earthling slaves.

Dead London: John begins the human resistance with the release across all frequencies of the 2016 outtakes.

The Wreckage: Jeni sees out Christmas Day with a few science and astronomy themed factoids.

We don't do Awesome Astronomy for money or to advertise, we just do it for fun and education. As long as we still enjoy creating it and you enjoy listening to it, we'll keep on going. So if you want any changes, have any comments or suggestions, email us at [email protected]

Merry Christmas everyone and our very best wishes for 2017.