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November 2006

We have another packed show for you this month. Megan tells us the latest news in astronomy including exciting news about the STEREO mission, the Nobel Prize for physics 2006, ice on the Moon, extrasolar planets, damage to the Faulkes Telescopes, the re-opening of Mt Stromlo and the future of the Hubble Space Telescope. Nick and Stuart talk to Robert Nemiroff about the great internet resource that is astronomy picture of the day. We find out about an exciting ESA/NASA mission that will attempt to detect waves in space-time (gravitational waves) using three spacecraft named LISA. We also get a spooky edition of Ask an Astronomer where Tim O'Brien tells Nick about the variable star Algol and Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the November night sky.

The News

In the news this month: COBE scientists (George Smoot and John Mather) awarded the Nobel prize, the STEREO mission to image the Sun in 3D takes off, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovers ultra-short period planets, evidence for ice sheets on the Moon is called into question, the Faulkes Telescopes both suffer natural disasters and Mount Stromlo Observatory is re-opened.

The News in Chinese

Notícias em Português

Este ano o Prêmio Nobel de física foi concebido a scientistas que trabalharão no projecto COBE; A missão STEREO foi lançada para obter imagens 3D do Sol; Hubble descobre planetas de ciclo ultra-curto; Nova evidência sugere que agua na forma de gelo na lua não exista; NASA aprova quinta missão a Hubble

हिंदी समाचार

Nouvelles en Français

اخبار به فارسى

Interview with Dr Oliver Jennrich (ESA)

Dr Oliver Jennrich of the European Space Agency tells us what gravitational waves and how it might be possible to detect them. He tells us how a constellation of three spacecraft - LISA - will work together in an attempt to detect these exciting predictions of General Relativity.

Interview with Dr Robert Nemiroff (APoD)

Nick and Stuart rang up Robert Nemiroff to find out about Astronomy Picture of the Day. Robert tells us how conversations with Dr Jerry Bonnell started it all back in 1995. We find out how he finds images to use, how long it takes to put APoD together and why some images get repeated. He also tells us about his new book (Astronomy: 365 days) which has just been published and features the best images from APoD over the past three years.

Robert Nemiroff's book Astronomy: 365 days published by Abrams
Robert Nemiroff's book Astronomy: 365 days published by Abrams

Ask an astronomer - Creepy Constellations

As they were recording on Halloween, Tim O'Brien and Nick Rattenbury discuss one of the spookiest objects in the sky; the eclipsing binary named Algol (actually a triple star system). Algol is also known as the eye of Medusa and is seen to "wink" every few days.

The night sky for November

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the night sky from northern latitudes during November 2006. It isn't a month for planets but with the evenings drawing in you should be able to go out and observe without staying up too late. The summer triangle, composed of the stars Deneb, Vega and Altair, is now in the western sky in the evening. Below Cygnus is the rather lovely constellation of Delphinus (the Dolphin). Towards the south are four stars which make up the winged horse Pegasus which can be used to find the Andromeda Galaxy. In the north-east during the evening you will see Taurus rising with the Pleiades cluster also known as the seven sisters. Later on in the night the Hyades cluster will appear. Nearly all the planets, except Saturn, are passing by the Sun this month so will not be easily visible. Saturn's rings are currently at an angle of about 15 degrees to our line-of-sight and over the next few years they will be closing so have a look at them now. On November 8/9th is the last transit of Mercury that will be seen until around 2016. It can be seen (taking proper precautions not to look directly at the Sun) from New Zealand, Australia, Japan and parts of the United States. In November we pass through the Leonid meteor shower and it is predicted that at 4:45 am UT on the morning of the 19th November we may see as many as 50 meteors per hour.

Saturn Occults the Sun. CREDIT: Cassini Imaging Team, SSL,JPL,ESA,NASA.
Saturn Occults the Sun. CREDIT: Cassini Imaging Team, SSL,JPL,ESA,NASA.

Show Credits

News:Megan Argo
News in Chinese:Dandan Xu
Notícias em Português:Valerio Ribeiro
हिंदी समाचार:Sanhita Joshi
Nouvelles en Français:Neil Vaytet
اخبار به فارسى:Mina Panahi and Mohammad Ebadinejad
Interview:Nick Rattenbury talked to Dr Oliver Jennrich (European Space Agency)
Interview:Stuart Lowe and Nick Rattenbury talked to Dr Robert Nemiroff (Michigan Technological University)
Ask an Astronomer:Nick Rattenbury asked Tim O'Brien your questions
Night sky this month:Ian Morison
Presenter:David Ault
Editors:David Ault and Stuart Lowe
Production Assistant:Matt Strong
Cover Art:Sombrero Galaxy (Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes) - NASA
Website:Stuart Lowe
Intro/Outro Cast:Amanda Fitzwater was the narrator, Mark Bruzee was HAL, Seth Adam Sher was Dave, Nick Rattenbury was Dave/himself, Tim O'Brien was himself