Media Appearances

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Eleanor Oldroyd and Jeanette Kwakye interview me about the failed space probe Kosmos 482, that should have gone to Venus 53 years ago, but instead will crash land into the Earth.

Did we find life on K2-18b, a Tatooine planet with a strange orbit, Hubbles' 35th Birthday, clues as to where Mars' atmosphere went, the all female Blue Origin flight carrying a Nobel Peace Prize nominee who is also a bioastronautics researcher, NASA astronaut returns to Earth on his 70th birthday, and China's space rescue.

Did we find life on exoplanet K2 18-b? We go through about what the researchers actually found, why it could mean alien life (radioactive super plankton) and how credible that signal is.

James Livesey asks me about the Blue Origin all female space flight which carried bioastronautics researcher and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee, Amanda Nguyen, former NASA rocket scientists, STEM outreach professional and entrepreneur Aisha Bowe, singer Katy Perry, broadcaster Gayle King, film-maker Kerianne Flynne and author Lauren Sanchez.

The comet F2 SWAN was recently discovered and only has a few days left of visibility in the UK.

The strange spiral in the sky over Europe, lunar and solar eclipses, images of Deimos, the first Euclid data release, did the latest Frankenstein experiments work? And what is going on with Saturn? Over 100 new moons but it's rings disappeared.  In space news we have Sunni and Butch finally returning to Earth, greeted by dolphins, the first 100% successful commercial moon landing and an image of an eclipse from the Moon.

I discuss the 2025 planetary parade with James Cannon on BBC Radio Surrey during the morning drive time.

Where we discuss asteroid 2024 Y4 and what it all means, the Bullseye Galaxy, a full Einstein ring and the end of Gaia.  In space news we cover why the astronauts are (still) not stranded on the ISS, plans to de-orbit the ISS, Falcon 9 debris lands in Europe, the upcoming Blue Ghost Moon landing and a jumping robot design for Enceladus.

In this episode we discuss why Dark matter may not be real after all, the end of the Gaia mission and imaging the spacecraft from the ground.  Comet science: how comets might show us about other forces in the solar system, and when a comet becomes a headless ghost.  We also discuss the planetary parade, the New Glenn Rocket launch, Starship Flight 7, a Flacon launch abort, and a Tesla masquerading as a comet.

A recap of the biggest news stories from 2024: JWST's 2nd Anniversary of Science celebrated with the release of the Penguin and the Egg Galaxy, Chandra X Ray observatory is being decommissioned, we are now at solar maximum and all the auroras. We also discuss all the Mars Rover discoveries, comet 2023 A3 Tsushinchan Atlas, all the eclipses.

You can listen to older episdoes and access show notes here.