Professor John S Compton talks to Kechil about some of the fascinating characters connected to the history of astronomy in Cape Town. You can find out more from his book: Interpreting Earth, A History of Geology through Encounters with Table Mountain. It is obtainable by visiting the website https://www.johnscompton.com/ and from independent bookshops.

Matter does escape from black holes, in million-light-year-long Jedi lightsaber type structures called relativistic jets, which stretch up to 10 times longer than our Milky Way galaxy. These things continue to amaze scientists.

Professor John Compton talks to Kechil about his latest book: Interpreting Earth, A History of Geology through Encounters with Table Mountain. It is full of the history of astronomy and geological exploration in The Cape, and contains many lovely illustrations. It is obtainable by visiting the website https://www.johnscompton.com/ and from independent bookshops.

The worthy and wonderful Sky Guide Southern Africa 2024 is now available in bookshops. You can see a review here: https://assa.saao.ac.za/ and if you scroll down a bit, on the facebook site here: https://www.facebook.com/Astrosocsa. How to buy it, you can find here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za/book/sky-guide-2024/9781775848677

Also, something about SpaceX's Starship test flight this last weekend. Worth taking a look at the extraordinary footage: https://www.youtube.com/live/uOI35G7cP7o?feature=shared

Nano-particle accelerators, women in space, and Chinese space endeavour. It's all happening!

Two unrelated stories: historical records of the Sun's cycles, and luxurious space toilets.

There is a new documentary film doing its rounds on the festival circuit called !Aitsa about the people and the place where the big radio telescopes are being operated and built in the northern cape. Kechil interviews the director, Dane Dodds, who is from that area himself, about the film. The scope of the film is enormous and cosmic, and you can find out more at: https://www.aitsafilm.com/

Migratory bird vagrancy is not a phrase you may ponder often, but it happens, and especially during solar storms which disrupt the Earth's magnetosphere. What else does space weather get up to?

Sounds in space! The Perseverance Mars rover is the only one to record human audible sounds and return it back to Earth. It looks like in future we may send microphones on other space missions. Odd to think of other planets and moons sounding very different to Earth.

Have we detected a sign of life on an exoplanet? The chemical signature of DMS has been possibly found by the James Webb Space Telescope. In a year's time we'll have more robust data on this, but it suggests that phytoplankton may exist - that is, life! - on a planet which is not Earth.