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
430 Episodes
180 – 200

Looking up - 16 July 21

Space tourism is launched! Virgin Galactic successfully completed their fourth test flight and next, in a week's time, we have Blue Origins taking tourists into space. Kechil explores the consequences of these private endeavours.
16 Jul 2021 5 min

Looking up - 09 July 21

The new South African MeerKAT telescope has been revealing the secrets of the universe. Here to tell us about the latest revelations is Shilpa Ranchod, a PhD student at Wits. Her research has shown how groups of galaxies are connected by examining the gas around them.
9 Jul 2021 5 min

Looking up - 02 July 21

There is alcohol in space! Yes, plenty of alcohol floating about in clouds if you know where to look. Kechil gives the lowdown on booze in space
2 Jul 2021 5 min

Looking up - 25 June 21

Recently the US military released footage of UFOs. Kechil explores the arguments with the help of Anders Sandberg. What are they? Angels, fairies, intrusions from the fifth dimension, swamp gas, Chinese drones, sapient octopuses, or a prank or what? And if aliens then why are they so shy? Yesterday was…
25 Jun 2021 4 min

Looking up - 18 June 21

There's a lot we don't know about our own solar system. Signs are there could be a very large planet about a million light years from Earth, but still orbiting our star.
18 Jun 2021 4 min

Looking up - 11 June 21

The latest trend is to send thousands of very small satellites into low earth orbit, which have a short life. These then burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after a few months of operation. There is predicted to be a couple of tons of satellite debris entering the atmosphere…
11 Jun 2021 5 min

Looking up - 04 June 21

Lots going on in space flight at the moment: the Chinese space station is being constructed in space with the second robotic cargo launch having been successfully completed; something made a hole in the International Space Station's robotic arm; SpaceX made a 10th launch and re-landing of its reusable booster…
4 Jun 2021 5 min

Looking up - 28 May 21

Professor David Buckley of the South African Astronomical Observatory talks to Kechil about the latest weird findings from outer space. Periodic X-ray flares from the centre of far away galaxies is having scientists wondering what is causing them - perhaps two black holes whizzing around each other? We just don't…
28 May 2021 5 min

Looking up - 21 May 21

Associate Professor Emeritus John S Compton has produced a new book about the West Coast called "The West Coast, A Natural History" and his particular view of the ecology of this area has been influenced and inspired by his life as a geologist. Geology is interesting to some branches of…
21 May 2021 5 min

Looking up - 14 May 21

Anti-matter is a strange concept and apparently exists in space somewhere. Scientists are looking for it, and if it is detected it could offer clues as to how the Universe was born.
14 May 2021 4 min

Looking up - 07 May 21

Would you like to swing on a star? Space tourism is finally taking off. Place your bids with Blue Origins and you too could spend a lot of money to peer out at space from a capsule, for a few minutes, before parachuting down to Earth.
7 May 2021 4 min

Looking up - 30 Apr 21

Satellites are used to detect fires, and here to tell us about the South African Advanced Fire Information System is engineer from the CSIR, Riaan van den Dool.
30 Apr 2021 4 min

Looking up - 23 Apr 21

This last week Table Mountain went up in flames, causing terrible damage, displacing people and destroying the lives of countless creatures and plants. But what is fire and how is terrestrial fire different to what we see in our Sun? Here to talk us through the physics (gently) is Dr…
23 Apr 2021 5 min

Looking up - 16 Apr 21

It's 60 years since Yuri Gagarin orbited planet Earth, and in that time we have learnt how to examine the atmospheres around exoplanets orbiting distant stars. What about our closest star and the planets around that? And what will the next 60 years of space exploration bring?
16 Apr 2021 5 min

Looking up - 09 Apr 21

The Mars rover Perseverance is sending back astonishing high resolution images from the surface, and soon its helicopter will be launched. Kechil walks us through the journey the signals have to take to reach NASA
9 Apr 2021 5 min

Looking up - 02 Apr 21

It's a long time since we visited Uranus and Neptune: the 80's in fact. Scientists are proposing launching a mission to these planets in 2030. Not only that, but they are proposing that a mission to the ice giants could be used to measure gravitational waves.
2 Apr 2021 5 min

Looking up - 26 Mar 21

Keith Gottscalk has a lifelong passion for space flight and some FMR listeners may have caught him speaking at a UCT Summer School on South Africa's history in space. Recently he has published a poetry book called 'Cosmonauts do it in heaven' and talks to Kechil about it. It is…
26 Mar 2021 4 min

Looking up - 19 Mar 21

Zodiacal light: what is it? Have you seen it? What has Mars got to do with it? Latest research from the Juno mission suggests that most of this dust originates from the Red Planet.
19 Mar 2021 5 min

Looking up - 12 Mar 21

PhD student Erik Osinga in Leiden in The Netherlands tells us about his citizen science project Lofar Galaxy Zoo. You too can participate and help the astronomers to identify galaxies in outer space. The link to the project is: http://lofargalaxyzoo.nl/ There is also a tutorial video that helps people get…
12 Mar 2021 5 min
180 – 200