New Telescope To Make 10-Year Time Lapse Of Sky
npr.orgEvery 10 years, about two dozen of this country’s top astronomers and astrophysicists get together under the auspices of the National Research Council and make a wish list. The list has on it the new telescopes these astronomers would most like to see built. At the last gathering, they said, in essence, “We most want the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.”
Here’s why. A synoptic survey is a comprehensive map of every square inch of the night sky. The Large Synoptic Survey — LSST — will do that multiple times.
Cows Driving Down the Motorway
Chris is in Arizona and Rob is Oxford (but he can see into Chicago). Chris’ obsession with Curiosity continues. Rob wonders why Brian May has a badger on his arm at the Olympics. There’s debris on Mars, rings around Saturn and a distinct lack of oblateness on the Sun. [We apologise for the audio quality of some parts of this episode - there was unexpected interference on Rob’s microphone.]
[MP3 Link]
Episode #45. If you have anything you’d like us to look at, or any questions you’d like us to answer - use the links at the top of the web page at http://recycledelec.com. Follow us on Twitter @recycledelec @orbitingfrog and @chrislintott.
Links:
- Congrats to Stuart Clarke, Rebekah Higgitt, Vanessa Heggie and Dean Burnett for their new Guardian science blogs: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/across-the-universe, http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-h-word/ and http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/brain-flapping/
- A new .Astronomy website: http://dotastronomy.com
- Mars Curiosity: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/pia16040_Sell_2_Thruster_Divots-br2.jpg and http://www.mit.edu/%7Ejfc/MER%20Soundtrack.html
- Why is the Sun so round?: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/RoundSun/
- Gravity around a neutron star is REALLY strong: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tempolimit-lichtgeschwindigkeit.de%2Fgalerie%2Fgalerie.html&act=url
- Bernard Lovell gets arsey : http://etherwave.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/bernard-lovell-an-archival-anecdote/
- Telepresence robots via an iPad: http://www.doublerobotics.com
- Brian May has a Fox/Badger patch: http://instagram.com/p/OPpciLD7Vw/
- Eyjafjallajökull’s ash: http://all-geo.org/volcan01010/2012/08/ten-swimming-pools/
- Filtergraph: http://delia.phy.vanderbilt.edu/tools/default/portal/23
- NASA and we know it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFvNhsWMU0c
Credits:
Audio content Copyright 2012 Chris Lintott and Robert Simpson. Many thanks to Oxford Press Office for recording space. Podcast Image courtesy of Flickr user bazik (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazik/395792175/).
