The Life cycle of a Star | Episode 6

01/19/18 • 12 min

As the crew of The Tardigrade prepare to land on Venus, Matthew heads back down to Earth to get some supplies. Whilst back on the home planet, he pays a visit to St. Andrews Observatory to have a look at the James Gregory Telescope - the biggest telescope in Scotland. The custodian of this fine piece of equipment is Dr. Aleks Scholz, an observational astronomer who studies problems in star and planet formation. This was a good opportunity for us all to learn something new, so Aleks is going to talk us through the life cycle of a star. Things to Learn How do stars from? Why does size matter when it comes to star formation? How do stars die? What determines the ultimate fate of a star? What causes stars to explode? How will our own sun die? What impact will the sun dying have on the planets in our solar system? If Aleks could visit anywhere in the universe, where would he go?

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Space, Relatively Speaking | Episode 5

The solar system is a big place, and while Colin's testing the shuttle, Sarah and Matthew have a visitor. David drops by to explain a bit about relativity and distance within the solar system and the universe in general. And watch out for mighty Zordon of the Orcs. Things to Learn What happens when you're travelling close to the speed of light? What's a light second? How fast are you travelling right now, and why don't you realise it? Why do two trucks seem to take ages over passing each other?

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Exploring Venus | Episode 7

Welcome to Venus, the second planet from the sun and the closest other planet to Earth. So, why do we always think of Mars as the closest and likeliest candidate for off-world exploration and habitation? On this episode, Sarah and David head to the only planet named after a female deity. With Sarah at the controls, David explores the surface of a planet which, despite its “hot and hellish landscape”, has more similarities to our own “Pale Blue Dot” than we realise. Things to Learn • Does Venus have volcanoes? • What happened to the Soviet Union’s Venera rocket series? • Why does a year on Venus last longer than a day? • Why are the plains so flat? • Why is it so hard to see the surface from Earth? • Could we colonise Venus, despite its hostile environment? Task Explore the world of highly-produced fictional podcasts and find some new shows to subscribe to! Links http://www.windows2universe.org/ (The Continents of Venus) https://www.space.com/18525-venus-composition.html (The composition of Venus) https://theplanets.org/venus/ (Interesting facts about Venus)