Fine Music Radio Looking Up

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
438 Episodes
120 – 140

Looking Up - 09 Nov 22

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…
9 Nov 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 12 Oct 22 Out in the Karoo in the middle of the Northern Cape

Out in the Karoo in the middle of the Northern Cape is the site of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, consisting of 64 MeerKAT radio dishes and other strange instruments, designed to capture radio waves from the universe. Turning them into something astronomers can work with requires the biggest…
12 Oct 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 09 Sept 22

The James Webb Space Telescope has been at it again, and has found something odd - a star with concentric rings.
9 Sep 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 02 Sept 22

What has the James Webb Space Telescope been up to? It's found carbon dioxide on a far away planet, WASP-39b, and also taken a peek at Jupiter's auroras and rings.
2 Sep 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 26 Aug 22

Gamma-Ray Bursts: Simon de Wet gives us the low-down. Do not get in the beam of a Gamma Ray Burst. Sadly, the only way to avoid this is to leave planet Earth.
26 Aug 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 19 Aug 22

Latest from space: what is the impact on the invasion of Ukraine on the Russian space agency, Roscosmos? What's the latest on the NASA Mars rover? And how is the James Webb Space Telescope doing?
19 Aug 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 12 Aug 22

What does statistics have to do with astronomy? Sydil Kupa of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory tells us what the link is.
12 Aug 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 05 Aug 22

Kechil's colleague at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, Sydil Kupa, enjoys statistics. She tells us why
5 Aug 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 29 July 22

The James Webb Space Telescope's early images are superb. Kehil gives the lowdown on what this magnificent instrument will be up to in the coming years.
29 Jul 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 22 July 22

What was it like being an astronomy back in the day? Dr Robin Catchpole gives a personal account of life at the observatory in Sutherland. Why should astronomers wear a hat? Because it's cold? Well, not quite.
22 Jul 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 15 July 22

Continuing the theme of the history of astronomy in South Africa, Dr Robin Catchpole of the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge talks to Kechil about the opening of the observatory in Sutherland, and how things (almost) went awry!
15 Jul 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 08 July 22

Dr Robin Catchpole, an astronomer with the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, started working in local astronomy in 1966, and gives us some background to the foundation of the observatory in Sutherland
8 Jul 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 01 July 22

100 years ago today the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa was formed, and here to tell us about it is Chris de Coning, Director of the History section. If you'd like more information please go to https://assa.saao.ac.za/centres/cape-centre/
1 Jul 2022 4 min
120 – 140