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
300 – 320

Looking up - 15 March 2019

Professor Matthew Bershady is bothered once again by Kechil with questions about what the universe is made of. So much of it is undetectable by our instruments, yet we have to use our intelligence and knowledge of the laws of physics to infer what's going on.
15 Mar 2019 5 min

Looking up - 08 March 2019

What is the universe made of? Well about a quarter of the matter of the universe, we think, is matter we can't detect with any of our instruments today. It has mass but is invisible. Prof Matthew Bershady of the Universities of Cape Town and Wisconsin tries to explain Dark…
8 Mar 2019 5 min

Looking up - 22 February 2019

Professor Paul Groot talks to Kechil about the mysteries of Gamma Ray Bursts, what are they and something about the history of their detection and his involvement in that history. You may find out something new about black holes.
22 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 15 February 2019

Things that go bang in the night - Astronomer Professor Paul Groot talks again to Kechil about exotic stars and black holes that orbit around each other. The universe is a fascinating place.
15 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 08 February 2019

As humans we have several senses with which to make sense of our environment. In Astronomy it's the same: we use different instruments to find out more about the same object or phenomenon, and this is called multiwavelength astronomy. It's all the rage now, and to tell us more about…
8 Feb 2019 5 min

Looking up - 01 February 2019

I feel sorry for the dinosaurs. It seems that Saturn's rings were only created during the time they stomped and flew about the Earth, some 10-100 million years ago. Latest data analysis from the Cassini mission proves this to be the case.
1 Feb 2019 4 min

Looking up - 18 January 2019

There are many new large funky telescopes coming online at the moment and one of them is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile. This is like a giant sophisticated camera taking thousands of pictures of the night sky each night. The really interesting thing is what it's looking at…
18 Jan 2019 5 min

Looking Up - 21 December 2018

Galaxies are not arranged in a nice grid formation in the sky, nor are they random. Galaxies form part of very large-scale structures or clusters, and some of these clusters are pretty massive. At least two known superstructures lie in the zone of avoidance, where it's difficult to see as…
21 Dec 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 23 November 2018

The International Space Station crew have been re-supplied. After a drama last October when a mission to the ISS failed and two crew members survived by aborting and parachuting in a capsule back down to Earth, two unmanned robotic missions have succeeded this last week.
23 Nov 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 16 November 2018

In days gone by people sat around fires at night and told stories, and many of these were about the night skies. Well in fact people still do this, and to tell us about different cultures and how they interpret the night sky is Dr Kerry Jones, a local linguist…
16 Nov 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 09 November 2018

How many planets are there in our solar system and what is the mysterious Planet 9, and The Goblin? There remain many mysteries still in our own astronomical back yard.
9 Nov 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 02 November 2018

The Kepler Space Telescope has come to the end of its working life. Kechil gives a round-up of its achievements in looking for planets around distant stars, and reminds us it's not long since we didn't know for sure that there were any other planets in the universe.
2 Nov 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 26 October 2018

Don't get hit by an asteroid from outer space! You may be glad to know that Prof. John Tonry and Larry Denneau from the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy are looking out for you. They'll be mounting a telescope in South Africa as part of their project. The ATLAS…
26 Oct 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 19 October 2018

How do you enjoy astronomy? Kechil Kirkham and Wendy Vermeulen, after watching a thrilling show at The Planetarium, chat about how the public can get involved. In particular there is International Observe the Moon Night at the V&A Waterfront on 20th October, Open Nights at the Observatory on the second…
19 Oct 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 12 October 2018

Drama in Space! The failure of the Soyuz capsule as it aborted its mission on Thursday has ramifications for the International Space Station. Fortunately the two astronauts on board the Soyuz launch returned to Earth safely, if a little uncomfortably, but now there are 3 astronauts on board the ageing…
12 Oct 2018 5 min
300 – 320