#25 - July 2014

The Discussion: Looking back over Sirius Astronomy outreach
events in June, a bit of a rant over peer-review and science by
press conference and our own pathetic attempts to get awarded a
Nobel Prize or two.


The News: Modelling of Pluto’s moon Charon ahead of the flyby of
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft next year, aerobraking an orbiter
through Venus’ upper atmosphere and radio imaging a Near Earth
Asteroid.


The 5 Minute Concept: How comets are far from the traditional
portents of doom and may well be the harbingers of life.


The Interview: Beginning a regular series of interviews with Dr
Joe Liske about each of the key facilities in the European
Southern Observatory’s arsenal, starting with the 3.6 meter
telescope.


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
Ralph & Paul answer:


Hey you mad martians, I have a question for the podcast. When
we look at other galaxies we can clearly see the glowing bulge at
their centres. Why is it when we look up at the milky way we
don’t see one. Thanks for all your efforts? Lee Garner from
Norwich, UK via Facebook .

Should the BICEP2 team have made their announcement pre-peer
review? Mark Cullen (@Mokwepa) from the Buckinghamshire, UK via
Twitter .



And we finish with a competition to win a DVD copy of the new
film Gagarin – First in Space