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
440 – 460

Looking Up - 29 July 2016

Kechil goes to the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) offices in Pinelands, Cape Town to speak to Rupert Spann, operator supervisor for MeerKAT
29 Jul 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 22 July 2016

"Nowadays we know a fair amount about planetary motion. We can predict very precisely where planets will be, and we understand the laws governing their motion..."
22 Jul 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 15 July 2016

"Last week three astronauts travelled to the International Space Station. Nothing new about that, except that they took two days to get there. The ISS is only about 350kms from the surface of the Earth, and in case you didn’t know it is a mere 100km to outer space, straight…
15 Jul 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 1 July 2016

"Last week I mentioned DARK MATTER, by way of describing the latest findings that the universe is expanding faster than previously thought. We don't really know what this "Dark Matter" is - this elusive substance that composes most of the material universe, but it could be, that it's made of…
1 Jul 2016 4 min

Looking Up - 24 June 2016

"Consider your waistline, is it expanding? Is it expanding at an ever-increasing rate? If so, you are in tune with The Universe. Yes, the universe is expanding faster than astronomers had thought, a new study suggests. And if you don't believe me trot along to space.com to verify this strange…
24 Jun 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 17 June 2016

Interferometry for the people: Dr. Anna Scaife talks about radio astronomy interferometry.
17 Jun 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 10 June 2016

Big Data in the City: The Square Kilometre Array radio telescope is attracting many kinds of talent and resources to Cape Town. One of the most challenging aspects of the SKA is its greed for data. It will need a massive IT infrastructure to deal with the amount and throughout…
10 Jun 2016 6 min

Looking Up - 27 May 2016

MEERKAT switched on! SKA Chief Scientist Dr Fernando Camila describes the first test from the new telescope, MEERKAT. This will eventually form part of the massive Square Kilometre Array, an instrument 100 times more powerful than any radio telescope ever built. MEERKAT itself is a South African effort and will…
27 May 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 20 May 2016

New bigger, better and all together funkier special purpose space telescope called The James Web Space Telescope
20 May 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 13 May 2016

Great Balls of Fire: It’s Friday 13th and if nothing untoward has happened to you yet, consider asteroids landing on Earth and spoiling your weekend. What to do about it? Listen to this podcast for handy hints. Well, actually not, but you could possibly be reassured by the efforts of…
13 May 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 29 April 2016

Sending a Dragon capsule to Mars “as soon as 2018″ “One of the planets you can see in the night sky is Mars. It remains in Scorpius rising at 7:30 at night and visible, and closing on it heels is Saturn, only half an hour behind and also in the…
29 Apr 2016 5 min

Looking Up - 15 April 2016

Super Massive Black Holes emitting jets all in the same direction the latest from research in Cape Town: Big news in astronomy: local research has uncovered black holes emitting jets of material into interstellar space which are all pointing in the same direction. This has implications for how the universe…
14 Apr 2016 6 min

Looking Up - 8 April 2016

What’s up with Saturn’s moons? A round-up of the month’s celestial objects plus recent findings which suggest that some of Saturn’s moons are quite young – if the dinosaurs had telescopes they may not have been able to see them!
7 Apr 2016 4 min

Looking Up - 1 April 2016

The spider from Mars: “What has the ‘spider from Mars’ got to do with the South African National Space Agency’s latest venture: supplying the International Space Station with a radiation-protected source of fat and protein?”
31 Mar 2016 4 min

Looking Up - 18 March 2016

Music and Astonomy (repeat): “You’ve probably heard of The Harmony of the Spheres or Music of the Spheres. Where did it come from and how does it relate to distance measurements in astronomy?”
18 Mar 2016 4 min

Looking Up - 11 March 2016

Exo-planets: There are various methods to detect exo-planets – i.e. planets orbiting around stars other than our own. A student at Washington D.C. Howard University has created palm-sized satellites known as “Cubesats” which usually measure no more than 10cm cubed and with a mass of no more than 1.3kg.
11 Mar 2016 3 min

Looking Up - 4 March 2016

Fast Radio Bursts: Fast Radio Bursts are brief yet brilliant eruptions of cosmic radio waves and they have baffled astronomers since they were first reported nearly a decade ago. Though they appear to come from the distant universe none of these enigmatic events have revealed more than the slimmest details…
4 Mar 2016 5 min
440 – 460