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
439 Episodes
380 – 400

Looking Up - 20 October 2017

Animals in Space! What could be more attractive to social media than pussy cats in rocket ships! Listen to this brief history of animals in space, you'll be surprised at what we've sent up there.
20 Oct 2017 4 min

Looking Up - 13 October 2017

More about the wonderful new digital dome and planetarium. Prof Michelle Cluver tells us about how this new high-tech facility at the Iziko Museum in Cape Town will be used for many different kinds of research. Visualising massive data sets is at the core of much of modern research, and…
13 Oct 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 6 October 2017

The Cape Town planetarium at the Iziko Museum has had a major renovation. Gone is the projector that used to rise from beneath the floor, to be replaced by something far more spectacular and wide-ranging in its appeal and what it can do. Here to tell us about the renovations…
6 Oct 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 29 September 2017

Find out about gravitational waves and the latest news about their detection from one of the visiting scientists at LIGO, Kai Staats. The announcement was made this week of a fourth detection, so it's great timing to speak to someone in the know. The Laser Interferometry Gravitational-wave Observatory has one…
29 Sep 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 22 September 2017

Ancient and modern astronomers detect nova burst, and local scientists piece together the fragments of a puzzle providing evidence for the lifecycle of stars. It's important to keep old records!
22 Sep 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 15 September 2017

Today marks the grand finale of the highly successful 20-year Cassini mission to Saturn, when the space probe enters the atmosphere to Saturn to end its days. To mark this occasion, Kechil recently interviewed South African Professor Michelle Doherty about Cassini's magnetometer, Saturn's moon Enceladus with its mighty plume of…
18 Sep 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 17 March 2017

Could Saturn's second moon harbour life? The Cassini spacecraft has detected that the ocean beneath Enceladus's icy crust is closer to the surface at the pole than previously thought, meaning that a future mission could probe this more directly and possibly find evidence for life forms.
17 Mar 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 9 March 2017

In a galaxy far, far, far away. Kechil talks to Prof. Russ Taylor, UCT professor of astrology about the evolution of distant galaxies.
9 Mar 2017 6 min

Looking Up - 3 March 2017

Find out about the local contribution to the amazing TRAPPIST-1 discovery. Rudi Kuhn, a SALT astronomer in Cape Town enthuses with Kechil about the view from the outer planet in this extraordinary solar system.
3 Mar 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 24 February 2017

Don't miss Sunday's solar eclipse. It will be as spectacular as the latest news from NASA about the Trappist-1 solar system, where you would see multiple eclipses per day if you lived on one of the outer planets!
24 Feb 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 03 February 2017

Lets talk about BIG DATA. Kechil chats to Prof. Russ Taylor, the director of the Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA).
3 Feb 2017 6 min

Looking Up - 13 January 2017

An exploration behind the Friday the 13th superstition as well as some other interesting superstitions. Also why does our calendar day start at midnight? Why not at sunrise as in some parts of the world.
13 Jan 2017 5 min

Looking Up - 6 January 2017

Ketchil talks the New Year, what to expect in 2017 and the best publication on astronomy you could wish for.
6 Jan 2017 4 min

Looking Up - 2 December 2016

Kechil interviews the Director General of the The Square Kilometre Array Project, Professor Philip Diamond.
2 Dec 2016 11 min
380 – 400