Looking Up

Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.
Weekly English South Africa Places & Travel
463 Episodes
320 – 340

Looking up - 14 June 2019

This is to clarify Trump's recent confusing tweet: For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the…
14 Jun 2019 4 min

Looking up - 07 June 2019

Did exploding stars result in humans walking upright? Latest research from astronomers suggests that a supernovae explosion increased lightening strikes, burning forests to the ground to be replaced by long grasses and shrubs. It was advantageous to walk upright in the savannah, hence bipedalism.
7 Jun 2019 5 min

Looking up - 31 May 2019

More exoplanets. Astronomers are detectives, using tiny amounts of data to infer what's going on up there. The South African Astronomical Observatory has helped to detect yet another rather exotic planet.
31 May 2019 4 min

Looking up - 24 May 2019

Astronomy Professor Paul Groote talks to Kechil about exploding stars and why there will be more and more of them as time goes on
24 May 2019 5 min

Looking up - 17 May 2019

We're all DOOMED! But how doomed? What if a large asteroid lands on Earth smashing it to bits? Can life be carried off in rocks, to land back down on Earth aeons later and re-seed the planet? The computers say Yes.
17 May 2019 4 min

Looking up - 10 May 2019

You may be tired of politics with this recent election, but space and satellite technology have a lot to do with politics and civic society. Here to tell us about it is Prof Rene Laufer from Baylor University in Texas.
10 May 2019 4 min

Looking up - 3 May 2019

The observatory is constantly upgrading its equipment, and a current project is setting out to make the telescopes at Sutherland operational remotely, so astronomers don't have to trek up to Sutherland to operate them. This has many benefits, and one of them is that astronomers can order pizza if they…
3 May 2019 5 min

Looking up - 26 April 2019

The hunt is on - astronomy as it happens! Kechil dropped in on astronomer Dr Stephen Potter at the observatory in Observatory, whilst he happened to be receiving alerts about a new gravitational wave event. Astronomers receive alerts from telescopes around the world when something happens. In this case a…
26 Apr 2019 4 min

Looking up - 19 April 2019

Twice a year the astronomical community gets together for a Star Party. This is where we spend a few days camping in a dark spot in the Karoo with our telescopes, enjoy talks and events as well as, most importantly, nights looking at the sky. Some are new to the…
19 Apr 2019 4 min

Looking up - 12 April 2019

Galaxies don't just sit there in space. They get up to all sorts of tricks. They clump together and they collide in interesting ways. Here to tell us something about them and how we know what we know about them is Dr Nathan Deg, post-doctoral researcher at the Department of…
12 Apr 2019 5 min

Looking up - 05 April 2019

The astronomical image of the year, if not the decade, is that of the black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, about 55 million light years away. This is the first time an image has been taken of a black hole and this is a major engineering feat. It took…
5 Apr 2019 4 min

Looking up - 29 March 2019

If you thirst for more after listening to Looking Up move along to www.thecosmicsavannah.com for a lengthier podcast of astronomical things happening in Africa. Plus more about asteroids - what happens when they die?
29 Mar 2019 5 min

Looking up - 22 March 2019

All water on Earth is alien. In other words, water arrived on our planet from outer space, we believe carried by asteroids. Recent exploration by the OSIRIS-Rex mission to the asteroid Bennu confirms that asteroids can harbour a lot of water. Could water in asteroids be used as refuelling stations…
25 Mar 2019 4 min

Looking up - 15 March 2019

Professor Matthew Bershady is bothered once again by Kechil with questions about what the universe is made of. So much of it is undetectable by our instruments, yet we have to use our intelligence and knowledge of the laws of physics to infer what's going on.
15 Mar 2019 5 min

Looking up - 08 March 2019

What is the universe made of? Well about a quarter of the matter of the universe, we think, is matter we can't detect with any of our instruments today. It has mass but is invisible. Prof Matthew Bershady of the Universities of Cape Town and Wisconsin tries to explain Dark…
8 Mar 2019 5 min

Looking up - 22 February 2019

Professor Paul Groot talks to Kechil about the mysteries of Gamma Ray Bursts, what are they and something about the history of their detection and his involvement in that history. You may find out something new about black holes.
22 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 15 February 2019

Things that go bang in the night - Astronomer Professor Paul Groot talks again to Kechil about exotic stars and black holes that orbit around each other. The universe is a fascinating place.
15 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 08 February 2019

As humans we have several senses with which to make sense of our environment. In Astronomy it's the same: we use different instruments to find out more about the same object or phenomenon, and this is called multiwavelength astronomy. It's all the rage now, and to tell us more about…
8 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 01 February 2019

I feel sorry for the dinosaurs. It seems that Saturn's rings were only created during the time they stomped and flew about the Earth, some 10-100 million years ago. Latest data analysis from the Cassini mission proves this to be the case.
1 Feb 2019 4 min
320 – 340