131 Flocculent Penguin Isotropy

Chris and Rob talk about advanced robotics, supernovae in M82, and the rise and fall of the BICEP2 results. There are Yellowballs in the Milky Way, and a lovely Philae GIF.

Links:

• Philae GIF http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/30/7953217/philae-lander-descent-comet-67p-esa-rosetta
  
• The BICEP bubbles bursts https://telescoper.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/the-bicep2-bubble-bursts/ and http://sci.esa.int/planck/55362-planck-gravitational-waves-remain-elusive/
  
• M82 from LOFAR: http://www.chalmers.se/en/centres/oso/news/Pages/Lofars-record-sharp-image-gives-astronomers–a-new-view-of-galaxy-M-82.aspx
  
• Yellowballs: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4462
  
• A nice merger : http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1503/
  
• A movie of a laser beam pulse at super high frame rate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq0H4-nvBB8
  
• Making robots that can do better than us http://io9.com/atlas-the-pentagons-humanoid-robot-just-got-a-major-u-1680654984
  
• MWP made APOD http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150131.html with the Yellow balls

[MP3 Link]

Episode #131. 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.

Credits:

Audio content Copyright 2011-2015 Chris Lintott and Robert Simpson. Many thanks to Oxford Press Office for recording space. Podcast Image of lightbulb courtesy of Flickr user bazik (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazik/395792175/).