#66 - December 2017

The Discussion: Jeni gets her name in lights – well, bold print,
as she contributes (what else but graphs) to a published research
paper and Ralph takes a look at Ben Cacase’s very own new
asterism in the heart of Auriga and reads a defiant message from
Michelle of ‘ze resistonce’.


The News: It’s a very rocky month as we round up the following
space and astronomy news stories:


Earth’s moon had an atmosphere thicker than Mars’ for more
than 70 million years

Observations suggest Proxima Centauri has a Kuiper Belt and
maybe a Oort Cloud

A sci-fi like asteroid from another star system is now
passing through the inner solar system



Hat of Woo/Astronomy Concept mash-up: This month Paul’s festering
Hat of Woo is a little less fetid as we discuss a plausible but
untested concept that has just a faint whiff of woo about it.
This month we look at The Nemesis ‘Theory’ which suggests the sun
has a brown dwarf companion which causes periodic extinction
events – and, of course, we’re long overdue an extinction and
NASA are covering it all up!!!


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’re tackling a question about meteor showers and how we
calculate their orbits:


I was wondering if all known meteor showers are definitely
associated with a comet? Also, how do astronomers determine the
orbit of a comet using just a few locations on the sky? Ben
Cacase, Manhattan, New York via email