AWESOME ASTRONOMY

We chat to Dr Kathy Thornton, nuclear physicist turned NASA astronaut who went on to fly on four Space Shuttle missions. Dr Thornton flew for over 40 days and completed over 21 hours of EVA, including the famous operation to fix the blurry Hubble Space Telescope. We talk about her life as an astronaut, the Hubble fix and that fateful day in mission-control on Columbia's last re-entry.

This month Jeni and Paul talk about the recent supernova in galaxy M101; volcanic exoplanets; the growing observational evidence putting the current Big Bang theory under strain and the history of water on both Earth and Mars.

There is discussions on alien contact; exoplanet detection and how long it would take to accelerate to the speed of light.

Paul does a summer reading book review with three space books to keep you entertained on the beach this summer.

Jeni has a look at the Juice mission, Axiom 2, future space station plans and a round up of launches.

This months skyguide includes discussion noctilucent clouds and deep sky in the centre of our galaxy.

To celebrate the Skylab 50th anniversary here is one our favourite astronaut chats from 2012 where we caught up with Skylab 3 and STS-3 astronaut, Jack Lousma. Jack was also capcom during Apollo 13 and he tells us about taking that ominous 'Houston, we've had a problem' call and how they solved each life-threatening issue in sequence to get the astronauts back alive. He talks about missing out on flying Apollo 20 to the moon, being a crew member on the Skylab space station and taking one of the first space shuttles out for a test drive.

This month Paul and Jeni in astronomy news talk about new data on the M87 blackhole, the architecture of planetary systems, the hottest stars, an impact crater in France and how Mars might not have been oxygen rich.

In exploration news there is the latest on JUICE and they welcome an old friend back to the show to talk about Starship.

There is a review of the recent AstroCamp where the team witnessed one of the biggest geomagnetic storms of recent times and saw one of the most impressive Auroral displays while standing on a Welsh mountain.

Jeni visits Space Forge for an update on their mission to build reusable satellites to manufacture materials that that are impossible on the ground.

She talks to CEO Joshua Western about that fateful launch from Cornwall on Virgin's Cosmic Girl, how they are getting ready for their next test aboard a Falcon 9, their re-entry tech nicknamed 'Mary Poppins in Space' and the company's future plans to scale up the manufacturing process from grams to tons!

In this episode Jeni and Paul talk about exoplanet atmospheres, the latest thinking on solar system visitor Oumuamua, Vigin Orbit's woes, Relativity's 3D success, and the oldest orbiting satellite.

There is the sky guide for April, a discussion about what new telescope Jeni should buy and listener emails, as well as Paul's miserable weather and Jeni's gala dinner talk for International Women's Day.

Paul takes time out from outreach at the Festival of Tomorrow at the Swindon STEAM museum to chat with Professor Robert Walsh of the University of Central Lancashire, who with artist Alex Rinsler has created a giant representation of the Sun as an outreach and art project that uses the data of the Solar Dynamics Observatory.

They talk about solar science, the coronal heating problem, sounding rockets, space missions professor Walsh has been involved with, space weather and why he has his own Sun.

In this episode Jeni tells us about her TEDx talk, dressing up for Mama Mia and eating insane burgers, while Paul appears to have started a modelling career.

In astronomy news the team explore the latest JWST findings that may have broken cosmology and changed everything we thought we knew about the history of the universe, as well as a potential new explanation for dark energy and black holes.

There is the sky-guide looking at the highlights for March as well as the Messier marathon, while in spaceflight news it is all change on the ISS, Boeing may finally be getting its act together and Starship may be going to orbit.

Emails and questions complete a packed show

Interview with astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Jeni talks to the legendary discoverer of pulsars, champion of women in science and Oxford University astronomer about her astronomy career, inspirations, motivations and key discoveries.

The Discussion:

• Our dark sky practical astronomy event, AstroCamp
• Farewell Apollo 7's Walt Cunningham
• Comet C2022 E3 ZTF reaches naked eye brightness

The News:

Rounding up the astronomy news in February, we have:

• Incredible finding: stars have not always been made the same way throughout the history of the Universe
• The debacle of the first space launch from UK soil
• 3 rocky water worlds found by the Kepler Space Telescope

The big news story: a decade-long study finds light pollution is worse than we thought

The Sky Guide:

This month we're taking a look at the large winter constellation of Ursa Major with a guide to its history, how to find it, a few deep sky objects to seek out and a round-up of the solar system views on offer in February.

Q&A:

Does the James Webb Space Telescope have to take calibration frames like I do from Earth - darks, flats, and bias frames to then stack? From our good friend Peter Coates in East Yorkshire.