• MP3 - the whole show
  [Duration 69:04, 23.7 MB]
• MP3 - The news - April 2007
  [Duration 06:46, 2.3 MB]
• MP3 - The News in Chinese - April 2007
  [Duration 05:33, 1.9 MB]
• MP3 - Notícias em Português - Abril 2007
  [Duration 07:15, 2.5 MB]
• MP3 - Nouvelles en Français - Avril 2007
  [Duration 07:12, 2.5 MB]
• MP3 - Interview with Dr Graham Woan (University of Glasgow)
  [Duration 24:22, 8.4 MB]
• MP3 - Interview with Prof Steve Rawlings (University of Oxford)
  [Duration 12:23, 4.3 MB]
• MP3 - Ask an astronomer - Making Dark Matter Maps
  [Duration 07:03, 2.4 MB]
• MP3 - The night sky for April 2007
  [Duration 09:42, 3.3 MB]

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April 2007

Aliens have landed at Stonehenge! Actually they haven't, and we aren't serious about horoscopes either, but we nearly had you fooled there. Luckily, the rest of our April show has real astronomy in it. We find out some more about gravitational wave detectors and we talk about quasars and black holes. As always we have the news with Megan, get Tim to answer your questions, get a roundup of other podcasts from Stuart and Ian tells us what we can see in the night sky.

• April 2007 MP3: Download the whole show (low and high bandwidth versions)
• Please, please, please fill in our survey.
• BBC fools the nation with spaghetti harvest on 1st April 1957
• Planetary Radio: The International Lunar Decade
• Planetary Radio: Mars Express Confirms Lots of Polar Ice! Where's the Rest?
• The Science Show: Missions to Mars
• Astronomy Cast: Asteroids Make Bad Neighbors

The news - April 2007

In the news this month: Liverpool telescope throws light on gamma-ray bursts, astronomers use computers to blow up a white dwarf, latest results from Akari, strange cloud formations seen on Saturn and binary star-system may be just as likely to form planets as our Sun.

• The news - April 2007 MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)
• The Liverpool Telescope
• Swift gamma-ray burst mission
• JAXA/ISAS Akari mission
• Akari mission (UK site)
• NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft
• Cassini Images Bizarre Hexagon on Saturn

The News in Chinese - April 2007

• The News in Chinese - April 2007 MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)

Notícias em Português - Abril 2007

Telescopio Liverpool observa explosão de raios gama. Astrónomos usao computadores para expludir estrala ana branco. Ultimos resultados de Akari. Nuvems estranhas no polo norte de saturno. E Spitzer estuda sistemas binarios

• Notícias em Português - Abril 2007 MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)

Nouvelles en Français - Avril 2007

• Nouvelles en Français - Avril 2007 MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)

Interview with Dr Graham Woan (University of Glasgow)

Nick Rattenbury talked to Graham Woan about gravitational waves. Dr Woan is part of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration which brings together observations from the LIGO detectors in the US, GEO600 in Germany and a detector in Italy. He explains what gravitational waves are, how you might go about trying to detect their tiny effects and we listen to the simulated sounds of gravitational waves.

• Interview with Dr Graham Woan (University of Glasgow) MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)
• Gravitational wave sounds
• LIGO
• GEO600
• LIGO Scientific Collaboration

Interview with Prof Steve Rawlings (University of Oxford)

Nick Rattenbury talks to Steve Rawlings about black holes and quasars.

• Interview with Prof Steve Rawlings (University of Oxford) MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)
• Ask An Astrophysicist: the basics of accretion disks
• APoD: Artist's impression of an accretion disk
• Black holes and quasars
• Spitzer Space Telescope

Ask an astronomer - Making Dark Matter Maps

Nick asks Tim a question about the recent dark matter map created using gravitational lensing of background galaxies. How did they do it? Surely you need to know precisely where the galaxies were in the first place? Tim explains what was done to make the map and the differences between strong and weak gravitational lensing.

• Ask an astronomer - Making Dark Matter Maps MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)
• MP3: The February news where the 3D dark matter map was mentioned.

The night sky for April 2007

Ian Morison tells us what we can see in the night sky from northern latitudes during April 2007. The constellation of Orion is now low in the south west after sunset. Above and to the left of Orion is the constellation Gemini and to the left and south of that is Leo the lion. Between Gemini and Leo, on the boundary of Leo and Cancer is the planet Saturn. Looking to the right of Saturn you can see the Beehive cluster with binoculars. Low to the left of Leo is Virgo and its brightest star Spica. Between Leo and Spica we see, with a small telescope, some of the galaxies that form the Virgo supercluster. Saturn is the star of the evening sky in the south and Venus dominates the western sky after sunset. Jupiter is becoming visible by around 11pm (at the end of April) but is at the lowest part of the ecliptic so from the UK will appear quite low. On April 11th Venus will be two degrees from the Pleiades and on the 18th will be near the Hyades cluster. On the 22nd of April is the Lyrid meteor shower. There are two opportunities to see the minima in brightness of the star Algol on 9th and 12th April.

• The night sky for April 2007 MP3: Download this segment individually (low and high bandwidth versions)
• Ian Morison's Night Sky pages for April 2007
• Lyrid meteor shower

Show Credits