The Cosmic Savannah

By The Cosmic SavannahScience Astronomy

The Cosmic Savannah episodes

July 18, 2019 Episode 12: Further Adventures in Oz
Jacinta continues her visit to Australia, this week chatting with Dr Jeff Wagg about the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and Ahmed Elagali about his work on superclusters, neutral hydrogen and ring galaxies.
The post Episode 12: Further Adventures in Oz appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
47 min
July 04, 2019 Episode 11: A Trip Down Under
Jacinta takes us on a tour of her homeland, into the Australian bush, and chats about pathfinders, precursor telescopes and exciting collaborations between South Africa and Australia in the lead up to the Square Kilometre Array!
The post Episode 11: A Trip Down Under appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
55 min
June 20, 2019 Episode 10: Stars behaving badly!
We are joined by two experts in stellar astronomy, Priscilla Muheki from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda and Distinguished Professor Hakeem Oluseyi from the Florida Institute of Technology. Priscilla talks about her PhD research in Uganda studying violent outbursts, known as coronal mass ejections, from certain types of stars. Hakeem then goes on the explain these coronal mass ejections and the violent magnetic fields associated with them, and what effect they may have on both our technology and our entire planet!
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51 min
June 06, 2019 Episode 9: Simulating the Universe - Part 2
We continue our discussion from Episode 8 on simulating the Universe, this week focusing on the simulation of actual galaxies. Nicole explains the SIMBA suite of simulations she is working on. SIMBA is a set of simulations which look at how the super-massive black holes at the centre of galaxies affect the galaxy they live in.
Nathan chats with us about his work creating individual galaxies within a computer using a new code he has just published. Using this we can learn more about how galaxies change over time and interact with their environments.
The post Episode 9: Simulating the Universe – Part 2 appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
42 min
May 23, 2019 Episode 8: Simulating the Universe
Prof Romeel Davé, from the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and who spent 5 years working in Cape Town, introduces us to simulations! He explains how we can use simulations to perform experiments to test our understanding of the physics of the Universe.
The post Episode 8: Simulating the Universe appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
50 min
May 09, 2019 Episode 7: Under African Skies
In Episode 7 of the Cosmic Savannah we chat with Tanya and Simon about their astronomy at Namibia's HESS Telescope and the VLA in the USA.
We also chat about their incredible journey through Africa on bicycles and their experience of the magnificent cosmic savannah!
The post Episode 7: Under African Skies appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
47 min
April 26, 2019 Episode 6: Galactic Neighbourhoods
with Prof Eric Wilcots and Sinenhlanhla Precious Sikhosana In this episode, we speak with Prof Eric Wilcots and Sinenhlanhla Precious Sikhosana about galaxies and the environments they live in. We […]
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41 min
April 12, 2019 Episode 5 (Special Edition): Event Horizon Telescope - First Results
with Dr Roger Deane and Dr Rhodri Evans On 10 April 2019 six simultaneous press conferences around the world broadcast the first results from the Event Horizon Telescope – a […]
The post Episode 5 (Special Edition): Event Horizon Telescope – First Results appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.
47 min
April 11, 2019 Episode 4: Black holes and radio jets
with Dr Imogen Whittam and Lerato Sebokolodi Episode 4 features Dr Imogen Whittam, a SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Western Cape and Lerato Sebokolodi a PhD student, […]
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46 min
April 11, 2019 Episode 4: Black holes and radio jets

with Dr Imogen Whittam and Lerato Sebokolodi

Episode 4 features Dr Imogen Whittam, a SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of the Western Cape and Lerato Sebokolodi a PhD student, based at SARAO and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in the USA.

Imogen talks about her work on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), stemming from the super-massive black holes that reside at the centre of most galaxies and how we learn how these massive beasts work.

Lerato chats about one AGN in particular, the famous Cygnus A and her work on the magnetic fields that drive the formation of the beautiful jets pictured below.

An image taken at radio wavelengths of the dramatic jets of charged particles being ejected from the nucleus of the galaxy Cygnus A. Image credit: NRAO/AU.

Episode Links:SARAO: https://www.ska.ac.za/about/sarao/UWC: http://astro.uwc.ac.za/NRAO: https://public.nrao.edu/MeerKAT: https://www.ska.ac.za/science-engineering/meerkat/about-meerkat/JVLA: https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla

This week’s guests:

Dr Imogen Whittam @imogenwhittamLerato Sebokolodi

46 min