The Astronomy Show 24.06.19

The Astronomy Show 24.06.19

On the Astronomy Show today I will be looking at evidence that Mars has been hit by a meteorite within the past year causing a crater around 50 feet (15m) across. It gives more evidence of just how dangerous asteroids can be.

The will be the usual look at the night sky during the next 7 nights, although the skies are still bright at this time of the year , it is still the Noctulucent clouds that are still attratcing all the attention, there have been some terrific displays. Also we will be looking at the lack of sunspots on the Sun which of course would be expected during solar minimum. Could this year be a record breaker?

The other regular features include news that astronomers have been seeing super flares on stars  in our galaxy, that are similiar to our own Sun. Could our own Sun produce such super flares and what would this mean? There appears to be cotton candy clouds in the atmopshere of Mars and there is a mysterious glow which is warming the rings around Uranus.

The astronomy scrapbook which looks at events that happened this week in history include the so called Yorkshire eclipse of the Sun on June 29th 1927 and the Tunguska event of June 30th 1908. There will also be the round up of news from the astronomical societies of the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5FM, the show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or you can listen to the show later on the Drystone Radio podcast.

The Astronomy Show 17.06.19

The Astronomy Show 17.06.19

The Astronomy Show returns today after another break, I have been away on a cruise to the Baltic presenting astronomy talks. I also had the chance to visit the Helsinki Observatory which is well worth a visit if you are ever in Finland.

On the Astronomy Show today I will be looking at evidence that not only do we have meteorites from the Moon and Mars on the Earth but new evidence suggests that some rare meteorites on Earth may well have come from the asteroid Vesta.

There will be the regular round up of what is happening in the night sky over the next seven nights, however to make up for the lack of long periods of night time we have been experiencing some fantastic Noctulucent Cloud displays. There is a day time meteor shower on at the moment which can only be studied by radio or radar but astronomers are trying to discover if the Tunguska event in 1908 was part of this shower.

The astronomy news this week includes details that the Spitzer space telescope will be shutting down next year, there appears to be a weird galaxy creeping up on our Milky Way Galaxy and the asteroid 2006 QV89 has a 1- in 7,000 chance of hitting the Earth later this year.

There will also be extra news stories regarding the Moon including a weird anomaly at the south pole which could be the site of of a metal asteroid and why is the Moon flashing at us? Could it be due to Transient Lunar Phenomena?

The Astronomical Scrapbook will be looking at events that happened this week  including in 1800 the birth of the the future Earl of Rosse, in 1955 the longest solar eclipse of the 20th century and in 1978 Charon the largest moon of Plut was discovered. There will also be the usual round up of news from astronomical societies in the north of England.

The Astronomy Show every Monday evening between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm only on Drystone Radio 103.5 FM. The show can be heard live on line at www.drystoneradio.com or you can listen to the show later on the Drystone Radio podcast.