
At the start of the month ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft plunged into the Moon. We caught up with one of the mission scientists to find out just what the SMART-1 mission's aims were and why it crashed. We also find out about the beginnings of the Universe and how the NASA spacecraft WMAP has helped shed some light on the first 300,000 years. The latest astronomy news includes the naming of 2003UB313, the launch of Solar-B (Hinode) to study the Sun and the latest news from the Mars Rovers and Mars Express. We also find out what you can see in the night sky and Nick gets Tim O'Brien to answer questions about coordinates and viewing the sky.
Show Links
The news
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- Eris on the BBC news
- Eris by Mike Brown
- Anousheh Ansari's website - includes link to her blog
- Solar-B
- Wikipedia entry on solar flares
- Masanori Iye's nature paper
- Rychard Bouwens' nature paper
- NASA news - Rychard Bouwens' work
- Subaru
- Subaru press-release on IOK-1
- NASA's Mars Rovers
- ESA's Mars Express
- Washington Post article about Iceland's blackout
Interview with Barry Kellett
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- ESA's SMART-1
- D-CIXS instrument
- BepiColombo
Interview with Dr Joanna Dunkley
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- NASA's WMAP mission
- Polarization: how it works
- Questions about the Cosmic Microwave Background (The Universe Adventure)
- MP3: Astronomy Cast talk about the Cosmic Microwave Background (9th October 2006)
Ask an astronomer - Software and Telescopes
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- Coordinate systems
- Stellarium
The night sky for October
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- Ian Morison's Night Sky pages for October
Show Credits
News: | Hannah Thrall |
Interview: | Nick Rattenbury talked to Barry Kellett (Rutherford Appleton Laboratories) |
Interview: | Stuart Lowe interviewed Dr Joanna Dunkley (Princeton) |
Ask an Astronomer: | Nick Rattenbury asked Tim O'Brien your questions |
Night sky this month: | Ian Morison |
Presenter: | Stuart Lowe |
Editor: | Stuart Lowe |
Cover Art: | The tiny fluctuations in the Universe seen by WMAP |
Website: | Stuart Lowe |
Intro/Outro Cast: | Eric Busby as Brad, Amanda Fitzwater as Janet, Miles Reid as the butler and David Ault as the Narrator |
Cover art: | The tiny fluctuations in the Universe seen by WMAP Credit: WMAP/NASA |