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
430 Episodes
340 – 360

Looking Up - 25 May 2018

This past Sunday China launched a rocket which carried three satellites that are now en route to the Moon. Two of these satellites carry instruments co-developed here in Somerset West by Space Advisory Company, part of a complex and exciting science collaboration with the Dutch, Saudis and Chinese. Dr Francois…
25 May 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 18 May 2018

The End of the Universe: when and how will the universe end and just what are these numerical poets up to? Why are they so hung up on Dark Energy when nobody knows what it is? Professor Peter Dunsby tries to explain all in less than 5 minutes to a…
18 May 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 05 May 2018

We think of astronomy as looking at the stars, but there's other ways that southern african observatories are contributing to a fuller picture of what the universe is like. Professor Christo Venter, an astrophysicist from North West University, tells us about gamma rays and about the gamma ray detector in…
5 May 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 27 April 2018

What has accountancy got to do with astronomy? What has fake statistics got to do with astronomy? Benford's Law has been applied to data we have about the size of exoplanets with excellent results.
27 Apr 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 20 April 2018

TESS and the exoplanets. Find out about a new satellite sent up to survey planets orbiting around distant stars. We will for sure find many Earth-like planets, some perhaps in the 'Goldilocks zone'.
20 Apr 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 13 April 2018

Have you ever wondered what is there on the Dark Side of the Moon? Soon, we may know. A South African company is involved in a fascinating unmanned mission to land on the far side and carry out scientific investigations. But in order to communicate back to Earth, a communications…
13 Apr 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 06 April 2018

Dr Fernando Camilo, Chief Scientist at SARAO, the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, proudly tells us of the first scientific paper to be published using observations from MEERKAT. This is a brand new telescope being built in the Karoo, which will soon be the largest of its kind in the…
6 Apr 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 30 March 2018

Case Rijsdijk is the President of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa, amongst many responsibilities he shoulders. He continues to make a difference, being a leading light in South Africa's physics teaching programmes. He teaches physics teachers throughout the land, helped by the SA Institute of Physics and is instrumental…
30 Mar 2018 4 min

Looking Up - 23 March 2018

You may remember a very special space mission to Pluto called New Horizons which took unprecedented images of our furthest planet. That was in 2015, but the mission has not come to an end. Assistant Project Scientist Anne Verbiscer has been visiting Cape Town and tells us what is planned…
23 Mar 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 16 March 2018

Most of you radio listeners will have heard that the cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking died on 14th March, which happens to be the day Einstein was born, and is International Pi Day. Not as in meat pie, but the number Pi, since the date in American is 3.14, the value…
16 Mar 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 09 March 2018

Astronomy and Art: Lucia Marchetti tells us about a fabulous art project involving astronomy and the people who live around astronomical sites and those who work in the field. Go to Company's Gardens to see part of the installation, and the rest in the Iziko Museum: https://www.hemelliggaam.com/
9 Mar 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 23 February 2018

Man-made objects in space - they are there, but where? In this programme Kechil talks about her favourite space mission: the Voyagers.
23 Feb 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 16 February 2018

There are many things, and perhaps people, that you’d like to send into space, and others who seem to be already in orbit. But what is the fate of Elon Musk’s Tesla roadster that he sent into space? Several observatories on Earth have photographed the car on its long, long…
16 Feb 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 2 February 2018

Sutherland is where you can find the telescopes used by astronomers and other scientists for all sorts of purposes. Find out more, listen to Dr David Buckley, SALT Scientist, tell us what's going on up there or better still - visit yourself.
2 Feb 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 26 January 2018

Detecting gravitational waves is one thing, to verify their source with a variety of instruments is ground-breaking stuff. Ushering in a new era of astrophysics is Dr David Buckley from Cape Town's South African Astronomical Observatory, describing how we used instruments up at Sutherland to help carry out this work…
26 Jan 2018 5 min

Looking Up - 19 January 2018

The Earth could have formed inside the dense shell of an enormous bubble within a giant star, no kidding.
19 Jan 2018 4 min
340 – 360