The Jodcast

You don't see the same universe twice. This month Jim Cordes tells us [20:12 - 34:25] about the recently discovered class of pulsars which emit their pulses in a very intermittent way. Jim also tells us about future searches for transient astrophysical objects and his use of the Arecibo radio telescope. As usual we get the latest news from Megan [01:14 - 08:37] and find out what you can see in the northern night sky from Ian [38:10 - 52:55].

In this show Tim returns to answer your questions about astronomy [09:04-37:16] and we talk to Andreas Faltenbacher about dark matter halos in the Millennium Simulation [37:38-76:56].

This month we bring you a final interview that we conducted at the National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast. Dill Faulkes, the man behind the Faulkes Telescope project, tells us why he set it up and what the future holds [20:12 - 34:25]. We also talk to Debbie Mitchell about how her training in astrophysics led her to a career working for the National Air Traffic Control Service [15:02 - 18:55]. As usual we get the latest news from Megan [01:03 - 08:08] and find out what you can see in the northern night sky from Ian [36:10 - 47:24].

In space nobody can hear you scream but that doesn't mean that it is totally quiet. In this show, Tim O'Brien helps our ears to explore the sounds of the cosmos [08:12-46:53] and Elaine Barrett tells us about her very special tour of NASA's Space Centre in Houston [48:03-1:10:13].

On 1st August 2008 parts of the world experienced a total solar eclipse. In the UK we saw a partial solar eclipse and the Jodcast was at Jodrell Bank Observatory with our eclipse special. We talk to Dr Phillipa Browning about eclipses and the state of our knowledge about the solar atmosphere [15:15 - 21:09] and to Professor Mark Edmonds about the evidence that prehistoric people had an interest in the Sun, Moon and stars. As usual we also get the latest news from Megan [02:35 - 10:59] and find out what you can see in the night sky from Ian [31:50 - 43:10].

With 95% of the content of the universe being dark, we ask Jochen Weller about dark energy and models that describe the expansion of the universe [16:28 - 31:17]. As usual we also get the latest news from Megan [02:09 - 10:28] and find out what you can see in the night sky from Ian [33:24 - 43:36].

In the show this time we find out how astronomers and particle physicists are detecting cosmic rays hitting our atmosphere with the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina [13:43 - 40:41]. Nick also gives us an update on some recent extrasolar planet discoveries which have found a planet only 3.3 times the mass of the Earth orbiting a star thought to be a brown dwarf [2:13 - 8:40].

In this show we talk about Mars Phoenix Lander touching down on Mars and sending back its first results. In our interview Ben Maughan tells us how he has been weighing clusters of galaxies. Tim O'Brien tells us about events at Jodrell Bank Observatory over the next month including the Longest Day Garden Party. We also get the latest news from Megan and find out what you can see in the night sky from Ian.

This issue we talk to Dr Anthony Challinor from the University of Cambridge about the Cosmic Microwave Background. We also get your astronomical questions answered by Dr Tim O'Brien.

In this show we find out about a mysterious blue blob found in the Galaxy Zoo and we find out what the Genesis mission can tell us about oxygen in the solar wind. We also get the latest news from Megan and find out what you can see in the night sky from Ian.