#68 - February 2018

The Discussion: Friend of the show and lecturer at Jeni’s Cardiff
University, Dr Ed Gomez is launching a Kickstarter project to
create and distribute a children’s comic book to encourage
children to take an interest and career in science. Jeni tells us
about Ada’s Adventures in Science, which you can give your
support to at http://kck.st/2DI43hg. Paul suffers the adverse
effects of being travelling science salesman and Ralph reads out
some listeners’ emails - including one interesting email that
suggests ‘Kim Jen Un’ may be getting into peoples’ heads.


The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we
have:


An update from Cassini on the strange orbits of Saturn’s moon
Janus and Epimetheus and a look at a research paper shedding
light on the ring they create around the gas giant.

We mourn the loss of yet another Apollo astronaut as we say
goodbye to John Young with a look back at his NASA career.

Recent analysis of Martian meteorites and current Martian
atmospheric constituents tempers our optimism that Mars had a
long history of habitability.



Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter
take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always
plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month
we take a look at the end of our galaxy as we know it:


In 2 million years or so, when we merge with Andromeda, would you
notice anything much different from Earth? Or just another Milky
Way type structure in the night sky, assuming we merge at an
angle? Sean Mulcahy from Yorkshire, UK via Twitter (@sfgmulcahy)