#44 - February 2016

The Discussion: As we lament the passing of some great people we
remember how lucky we are to live in an age of great discovery.
We discuss British astronaut Tim Peake’s spacewalk with American
Tim Kopra outside the International Space Station and take a look
back at the annual festival of TV astronomy StargazingLIVE.


The News: There’s a packed news section in this month’s show as
we discuss:


Have astronomers discovered another planet in our solar system?


LIGO’s possible detection of gravitational waves


Does an irregular star host evidence for alien life?


A possible explanation for the ‘Wow signal’


The most powerful supernova ever detected


Poor Philae gives up the ghost


Attempting to photograph a black hole


The Interview: This month Jen bags herself an astronaut. While
celebrating the launch of Tim Peake, Jen grabs an interview with
Spanish/ESA astronaut Pedro Duque: a veteran of two space
missions having flown the Shuttle, Soyuz and the International
Space Station.


WooBusters: With a long back catalogue to call upon to understand
objects and concepts in astronomy, Paul calls it a day on his 5
Minute Concept. In its place comes WooBusters! Send in your
suggestions for conspiracy theories, bonkers ideas and general
pseudoscientific nonsense and we’ll add them to Paul’s Big Hat of
Woo.


This month we kick off WooBusters with a debunking of alien
abductions.


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.


If Mars’ gravity is too weak to hold onto its atmosphere, how did
it ever get one? Andrew Osbourne from the UK via email