NAM 2012: Namchester

The National Astronomy Meeting is an annual astronomy conference hosted by the Royal Astronomical Society and a UK university. NAM 2012 is being held at The University of Manchester, in partnership with the Astronomische Gesellschaft. As this year's meeting is being held on The Jodcast's home turf, we decided to record and release a short episode for every day of the conference, bringing you a summary of the research presented that day. In the first episode, Libby reports on the opening of this joint UK-Germany meeting [00:00 - 11:59]. In the second episode, Jen comes out of retirement to provide highlights of day 2 [11:59 - 26:59]. In the third episode, Christina brings us interviews and press releases from day 3 [26:59 - 42:42]. In the fourth episode, Mark rounds up the meeting and reaction to it [42:42 - 74:57].

Day 1

Libby reports on day 1:

• Dr Ben Davies (University of Cambridge) talked to Libby about his research using red supergiants to probe the abundances of different elements in galaxies.
• Dr Robert Laing (ESO) gave Libby an update on ALMA including some of the first results from the telescope.
• Prof. Fran Bagenal (University of Colorado) told Libby about the Juno mission to Jupiter.
• Dr George Bendo (UK-ARC) describes the public release of some amazing images of galaxies from the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Day 2

Jen reports on day 2:

• Dr Rob Simpson and Dr Chris Lintott from Oxford University talk to Jen about the Zooniverse, in particular Planet Hunters and the exoplanet candidate that was classified as part of BBC Stargazing Live. Rob and Chris also mention the Milky Way Project, Galaxy Zoo Mergers, SETI Live and their podcast, Recycled Electrons.
• Tana Joseph (University of Southampton) talks about finding black holes in NGC 4472 using X-ray observations and why it's surprising to find black holes in globular clusters.
• Dr Paul Woods (UCL) tells Jen about the chemistry around carbon stars and how he uses computer models to understand infrared observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope.
• Prof. Mike Edmunds (Cardiff University) explains how the Royal Astronomical Society is trying to preserve our astronomical past through the RAS Astronomical Heritage Committee.

Day 3

Christina reports on day 3:

• Prof. Bob Nichol (Portsmouth University) talks to us about the Dark Energy Survey. He also mentions EUCLID, and for further information about dark energy, click here.
• Kelly Hambleton (PhD student, UCLan) tells us about a new class of star called heartbeat stars in binary systems..
• Nathalie Skrzypek (PhD student, Imperial College London) talks to us about her work on the observations taken with UKIDSS, including quasars, brown dwarfs and white dwarfs as well as "unusual objects".
• Solar tornadoes have been observed by Dr Xing Li and Dr Huw Morgan (University of Aberystwyth) and Christina rounds up the press release about this discovery.

Day 4

Mark reports on day 4:

• The Liverpool Astronomical Society were out in the Mancunian sunshine on Thursday, showing people the Sun through a solar telescope. Rob Johnson and David Galvin explain the solar activity that was visible, including sunspots and prominences. Plenary speaker Prof. Fran Bagenal was one of a number of professional astronomers who took a rare glance through a telescope, and she describes her impressions.
• Amateur astronomer Andrew Glester gives his views on Friday's morning plenary lecture, which covered the Kepler spacecraft's mission to detect exoplanets.
• Astronomer Royal for Scotland Prof. John Brown, from the University of Glasgow, discusses his work into predicting whether comets which pass very close to the Sun will be able to take the heat without evaporating.
• Ewan Barr, winner of the NAM Astronomy poster competition and PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, explains his work searching for radio pulsars by targeting gamma-ray detections from the Fermi Space Telescope.
• Ciara Quinn, PhD student at the University of Cardiff, summarises highlights from one of the planetary science sessions and discusses her research into gas clouds and low-mass star formation.
• Mark rounds up two of Friday's press releases. The first is about work presented by Prof. Werner Becker of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, who detailed how X-ray pulsars might be used as interstellar navigation beacons. The second concerns how sunquakes are produced by coronal mass ejections from the Sun, as presented by Dr Sergei Zharkov from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory of University College London.

Show Credits

Interview:	Dr Ben Davies and Libby Jones
Interview:	Dr Robert Laing and Libby Jones
Interview:	Prof. Fran Bagenal and Libby Jones
Interview:	Dr George Bendo and Libby Jones
Interview:	Dr Chris Lintott, Dr Rob Simpson and Jen Gupta
Interview:	Tana Joseph and Jen Gupta
Interview:	Dr Paul Woods and Jen Gupta
Interview:	Prof. Mike Edmunds and Jen Gupta
Interview:	Prof. Bob Nichol and Christina Smith
Interview:	Kelly Hambleton and Christina Smith
Interview:	Nathalie Skrzypek and Christina Smith
Interview:	Prof. Fran Bagenal, David Galvin, Rob Johnson and Mark Purver
Interview:	Andrew Glester and Mark Purver
Interview:	Prof. John Brown and Mark Purver
Interview:	Ewan Barr and Mark Purver
Interview:	Ciara Quinn and Mark Purver
Presenters:	Jen Gupta, Libby Jones, Mark Purver and Christina Smith
Editors:	Jen Gupta, Libby Jones, Mark Purver and Christina Smith
Segment Voice:	Cormac Purcell
Website:	Jen Gupta, Libby Jones, Mark Purver, Christina Smith and Stuart Lowe
Producers:	Jen Gupta, Libby Jones, Mark Purver and Christina Smith
Cover art:	The NAM 2012 delegate packs. CREDIT: Jen Gupta