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
220 – 240

Looking up - 09 Oct 20

The Cape Town planetarium is open to the public! Ofentse Letebele explains their covid-safety procedures and how you can find out what's going on. It's World Space Week this week, and throughout the continent we are celebrating mobile planetaria, which are taken to rural areas to entertain and educate children…
9 Oct 2020 4 min

Looking up - 25 Sept 2020

There may or may not be life on Venus but what about the geyser-spewing moon Enceladus? It's pretty active and new ice sheets have been detected, Also the International Space Station avoided a piece of space junk last week.
25 Sep 2020 3 min

Looking up - 19 Sept 2020

Life on Venus! Could it be possible? A chemical normally only associated in any quantity as a by-product of living processes has been detected in the clouds of Venus. But does this mean there is life on the fiery and inhospitable Goddess of Love?
18 Sep 2020 5 min

Looking up - 11 Sept 2020

Space is big. It's a long way to the nearest planet (over 4 light years) which means an 8.5 year round-trip just to send a message and get a response. How do we get round the speed of light? People are working on this. There is a thing called a…
11 Sep 2020 5 min

Looking up - 04 Sept 2020

Prof Tom Jarrett talks about Virtual Reality and how we deal with the problem of astronomical amounts of astronomical data
4 Sep 2020 5 min

Looking up - 28 Aug 2020

On the day before the US election due to be held on 3 November, an asteroid could hit the Earth. This asteroid has a name, and a known trajectory. What are the odds? And what do these odds mean? Onto lighter topics: your local astronomy society is holding great talks…
28 Aug 2020 5 min

Looking up - 21 Aug 2020

It was believed that the early universe was chaotic, but, using a nifty technique called gravitational lensing, researchers have detected a very young galaxy - only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, that appears to have structure, including a central bulge with closely packed stars in it.
21 Aug 2020 5 min

Looking up - 14 Aug 2020

How are satellites helping us during lockdown? What are they detecting and how is this useful to people on the ground?
14 Aug 2020 4 min

Looking up - 07 Aug 2020

Kechil is, as is often the case, worrying about being in space: how to carry out surgery and what to eat? Well it's more fun than worrying about what's going on here.
7 Aug 2020 4 min

Looking up - 31 July 2020

A medley of space and astronomy news including the three Martian missions launched in July, Juno has had a stay of execution and continues on its mission around Jupiter, plus salt and hot water - who'd have thought! That's what may be needed to make a big star. Lastly comet…
31 Jul 2020 4 min

Looking up - 25 July 2020

Two news items here: July is the Month of Mars! There are 3 missions going to Mars this month as Earth and Mars are close to each other. The NASA mission will deliver a new rover which will gather samples to be returned at a later date - the first…
24 Jul 2020 4 min

Looking up - 18 July 2020

How far do you want to go to socially isolate? Find out about space tourists to the International Space Station and the future of space travel.
17 Jul 2020 4 min

Looking up - 10 July 2020

3 snippets of science news: a new particle has been found, there are probably a lot more Earth-like planets in the Milky Way than previously thought, and some likely candidates have been found around a nearby star.
10 Jul 2020 5 min

Looking up - 03 July 2020

How do we justify spending on science and technology at a time like this? Well here to tell us about a very justifiable project is Willem Esterhuyse, an engineer on the Square Kilometre Array radio astronomy project. He is in charge of a project designing and manufacturing ventilators for use…
4 Jul 2020 5 min

Looking up - 26 June 2020

Astronomical discoveries continue. Two recent stories here: a new type of object has been discovered - a grey hole? Plus a beautiful new X-ray image of the universe. If you want a look try this website: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/erosita-x-ray-universe-08555.html
26 Jun 2020 5 min

Looking up - 19 June 2020

A host of telescopes and astronomers, including importantly, SALT up in Sutherland, have contributed a little more to our understanding of how a particular class of neutron stars go about their business of sucking the living daylights out of their companion stars. Here Dr David Buckley, and astronomer at the…
19 Jun 2020 5 min

Looking up - 12 June 2020

Scientists are continuing with their strange experiments, trying to understand our weird universe. Here Kechil mentions a couple of recent experiments with entanglement and quantum states, one taking place on the International Space Station.
12 Jun 2020 4 min

Looking up - 05 June 2020

I'll give you seconds after the start so you have a decent idea where the cuts should be made. Erase after she says "nice and hot and sunny now" (0:47) until I say "now tell us about this project" Erase after she says "that was supposed to be in 2020"…
5 Jun 2020 6 min

Looking up - 29 May 2020

Let us not worry about the South Atlantic Anomaly, but it's true that the Earth's magnetic field is weakening and that this gigantic area of low magnetic activity between Africa and South America may be splitting into two. What the implications are for us mere mortals is unclear, but nothing…
29 May 2020 5 min

Looking up - 22 May 2020

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the Music of the Spheres, well there's more music to be had in space. Recently astroseismologists have started understanding two types of special star - Delta Scuti stars, which pulsate in complex ways. Modelling the behaviour of these types of stars helps to…
23 May 2020 4 min
220 – 240