In the show this time, we talk to Simon Johnston about Searching for pulsars, Laura Driessen tells us about the first new transient source discovered with the MeerKAT telescope, a flaring stellar sys in this month's JodBite, and your astronomy questions are answered by Iain Mcdonald in Ask an Astronomer.
JodBite with Laura Driessen
Tiaan talks to Laura Driessen about the first new transient source discovered with the MeerKAT telescope, a flaring stellar system. Searching for transients in the radio is challenging, and looking for stellar flares is even more so. Laura talks about her recent paper and has also written an article on The Conversation for a more general science audience on this.
Interview with Simon Johnston
Simon Johnston talks about pulsars and their irregularities, particularly in the timing of pulsars. He discusses his work using the Parkes radio telescope in Australia to sample pulsars and what information can be gained from using these samples, before briefly explaining the possible use of MEERKAT to get a larger sample size. He then discusses his history at Manchester, where he did his PhD, and finishes by mentioning Gamma ray pulsars and the link between the radio work he has been doing and space based missions searching for gamma ray emitting objects.
Ask an Astronomer
Iain Mcdonald answers your astronomical questions:
- Fern Batty asks: "How did planets form?"
- Lakshya asks: "Where did the Moon come from?"
- Alex S asks: "How many planets are there in the Universe?"
Snow White and the 7 Dwarf Novae
Thank you for listening to our pantomime. We hope you enjoyed another year with the Jodcast. The cast were:
- Crispin Agar as the Narrator
- Michael Wright as the Student
- Aishwara Selvaraj as a fellow student
- Hongming Tang as a fellow student
- Fiona Porter as the Flarey Godmother
- Iain Mcdonald as the Evil Postdoc
- Emma Alexander as Gaia
- Micah Bowles as Angstrom
- Shruti Badole as Dame Cynthia Cataclysmic
- Tiaan Bezuidenhout as the Supervisor
- Jake Staberg Morgan as Hack Bauer
- Dave Ault as Himself
- Special thanks to Jake Staberg Morgan for writing this year's script
Show Credits
| JodBite: | Laura Driessen and Tiaan Bezuidenhout |
| Interview: | Simon Johnston and Michael Wright |
| Ask An Astronomer: | Iain Mcdonald and Tiaan Bezuidenhout |
| Presenters: | Tiaan Bezuidenhout, Laila Vleeschower Calas, and Michael Wright |
| Cast: | Tiaan Bezuidenhout, Michael Wright, Iain Mcdonald, Shruti Badole, Jake Staberg Morgan, Aishwara Selvaraj, Crispin Agar, Emma Alexander, Hongming Tang, Micah Bowles and Dave Ault |
| Editors: | Tiaan Bezuidenhout, Lizzy Lee, Ben Shaw and Michael Wright |
| Segment Voice: | Mike Peel |
| Website: | Michael Wright and Stuart Lowe |
| Producer: | Michael Wright |
| Cover art: | Enhanced image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, ionized gas around Z Camelopardalis (Z Cam was one of the earliest known recurrent dwarf novae). CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech |