Look Up!

What's in April’s night sky? Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomers Jess and Julienne talk through some of the month's must-see cosmic objects in this podcast. They also bring updates on all the recent human space exploration news, including the fact that NASA is recruiting astronauts! Join the conversation on X (@ROGAstronomers) in April. We want to know if you feel qualified to be an astronaut – and if you want to be one!

This month we have a very special episode of the Look Up! podcast. We have the Royal Observatory's Dr. Ed Bloomer interviewing Professor Chris Lintott, astronomer and author. In his episode Chris tells us about his new book, ‘Our Accidental Universe’, which discusses how astronomers often stumble across their discoveries. We hope you enjoy! If you wanted to learn what's in the night sky this month, head to our Night Sky Highlights blog at rmg.co.uk. We'll be back to our regular programming next month!

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15 The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomer Affelia recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with Miguel Claro, Angel Yu, and John White. Please be aware that you might hear some background noise from the event in the recordings below. If you’d like to see the exhibition yourself, it is open daily at the National Maritime Museum.

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15. The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomer Affelia recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with Derek Horlock, Joao Yordanov Serrhalheiro, and Jonathon Lodge. Please be aware that you might hear some background noise from the event in the recordings below. If you’d like to see the exhibition yourself, it is open daily at the National Maritime Museum.

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15. The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomer Jess, with help from members of the Astronomy Ambassadors Group, recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with entrants from the Young Competition, Benjamin Lawler, Feargus Casbolt, and Harry Johnson. They're being interviewed by members of the Astronomy Ambassadors Group - Petra, Varuni, and Lizzie. Please be aware that you might hear some background noise from the event in the recordings below. If you’d like to see the exhibition yourself, it is open daily at the National Maritime Museum.

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15. The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomer Affelia recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with Andre Vilhena, Martin Lewis, and Lorenzo Ranieri. Please be aware that you might hear some background noise from the event in the recordings below. If you’d like to see the exhibition yourself, it is open daily at the National Maritime Museum.

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15. The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomer Affelia recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with Josh Dury, Peter Larkin, Dario Giannobile, and Katie McGuiness Please be aware that you might hear some background noise from the event in the recordings below. If you’d like to see the exhibition yourself, it is open daily at the National Maritime Museum.

In Conversation with the Shortlisted and Winning Photographers from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 15. The shortlisted and winning photographers of this competition were invited to a special Private View event in September 2023 where they could see the Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. During the event, Royal Observatory astronomers Affelia and Jess, recorded interviews with some of the photographers who were there to talk about their images and to ask for some advice about how to start taking beautiful photos of the night sky. This interview is with Astronomy Presenter Mario also spoke to Yann Sainty who was part of the trio who won this year’s title with their photograph Andromeda, Unexpected. You can listen to their conversation in French in the recording or read the English transcription on our website - https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/astronomy-photographer-year-15-conversation-entrants-winners

What's in February's night sky? Royal Observatory Greenwich astronomers Jess and Affelia talk through some of the month's must-see cosmic objects in this podcast. They also give updates on the Peregrine 1 and SLIM lunar missions and ask what colours the planets actually are after reprocessed images of Neptune show it to be less blue than what most people think. In this we say that the SLIM lunar lander might come back online - and since recording it has successfully turned back on! Congratulations again to all the teams involved. Join the conversation on X (@ROGAstronomers) at the start of February and tell us which you prefer - the blue or green Neptune image (and say goodbye to Affelia!).

Affelia (with a different Jess as a special guest!) from the Royal Observatory Greenwich tell you what you can see in January's night sky. They also talk about two news stories from the world of astronomy - a fantastic new discovery from a school science project, and a cat video sent from space. Join the conversation on X (@ROGAstronomers) at the start of January. We're discussing pets, on space and on Earth!

Astronomers Jess and Affelia from the Royal Observatory Greenwich tell you what you can see in December's night sky. They also talk about new aurora found at Uranus and Jupiter's shrinking Great Red Spot.

In November's episode, Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky this month in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. We also bring you two new space news stories. First, Jess tells us about a recent update on Insight's Mars mission, and then Affelia gives us two stories about asteroids - OSIRIS-REx and the Psyche mission! You can listen to our previous podcasts to find out more about Insight https://soundcloud.com/user-429302439/look-up-jan-2023 and OSIRIS-REx https://soundcloud.com/user-429302439/cosmic-news-october-2016-journey-to-the-asteroid-bennu. Tell us below, or join us on X, previously known as Twitter, (@ROGAstronomers) at the start of November and tell us if you've spotted a planet in the night sky this month, and which one is your favourite!

In October's episode, Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky this month in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. We also bring you two new space news stories. First, Jess tells us about JWST's discoveries on the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18 b. Affelia then reports on whether JWST resolves the Hubble Tension or not. Tell us below, or join us on X, previously known as Twitter, (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us if you could give K2-18 b a proper name, what would it be?

In September's episode, we highlight what to look for in the sky this month and discuss two cosmic news stories - how scientists almost lost Voyager 2 forever and huge tidal waves on a heartbreaker star. At the start of September, join the conversation on Twitter (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us: if we were to launch Voyager 3, what would you put in its time capsule for potential aliens to find in the future?

In August's episode, we talk about how astronomers took the first ever image of the Milky Way, not with electromagnetic radiation, but with neutrinos, and CHAPEA, NASA's mission that involves locking away four crew members for a year to help plan for future human missions to Mars. At the start of August, join the conversation on Twitter (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us what personal item you would bring if you were one of the CHAPEA crew members.

In July's episode, Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky this month in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. We also bring you two new space news stories. First, we talk about the discovery of some strange rings around Quaoar. We also discuss some new observations of water plumes coming from Enceladus! At the start of July, join us on Twitter (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us how many Olympic sized swimming pools *you* think Enceladus' jet would fill in 24 hours?

In June's episode, Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Jake take you through what to see in the night sky this month in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. We also bring you two new space news stories. First, we share a news story about a recent meteorite fall. We also discuss some new information about Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars! At the start of June, join us on Twitter (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us if you've ever touched a meteorite - and maybe how many hamsters *you think* could fit inside Deimos?

In May's episode, Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky this month in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. We also bring you two new space news stories. First, we discuss what a recently detected repeating radio signals from a relatively nearby planetary system might mean(spoiler alert - it's not aliens!) and then we talk about a gamma ray burst known as the BOAT - the Brightest Of All Time! At the start of May, join us on Twitter (@ROGAstronomers) and tell us if you've ever seen a shooting star.

In April's episode we cover the night sky highlights for the month ahead and discuss the recent Aurora sightings in the UK, and the discovery of a particularly large exoplanet orbiting a particularly tiny star! At the start of April, you can join us on Twitter to vote on which story is your favourite in our poll (@ROGAstronomers).

In March’s episode we cover the night sky highlights for the month ahead and discuss a wealth of news stories related to Jupiter, including some newly discovered moons! We also talk about an update on the International Space Station and its damaged Soyuz capsule. Since this episode was recorded an uncrewed soyuz has successfully launched and docked with the ISS, so the damaged capsule doesn’t need to be used! The SpaceX crew-6 launch has been postponed until at least the 2nd March. For more information on this Soyuz launch: Uncrewed Replacement Soyuz Launches to the Space Station – Space Station (nasa.gov) For more information on the postponed Dragon launch: NASA, SpaceX Move Forward with March 2 Launch to Space Station – NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Mission At the start of March, you can join us on Twitter to vote on which story is your favourite in our poll (@ROGAstronomers).

In February's episode we cover the night sky highlights for the month ahead and then discuss black holes taking bites out of the same star over and over, and LauncherOne - the attempt to be the first orbital launch from the UK. At the start of February, you can join us on Twitter to vote on which story is your favourite in our poll (@ROGAstronomers). How to see the green comet: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/how-see-green-comet-c2022-e3-ztf

In January's episode we cover the night sky highlights for the month ahead and talk about the latest (and last!) updates from the Insight mission on Mars, which sent its last ever signal shortly after this podcast was recorded. We also discuss JWST's fantastic new images of Titan. At the start of January, you can join us on twitter to vote on which news story is your favourite in our poll (@ROGAstronomers)

Royal Observatory Astronomers Affelia and Jess take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of December. They also cover some cosmic news! In this month's episode we discuss all things Moon-related with the recent launch of Artemis 1. Join us on twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of December! In this episode we don't discuss the Apollo 1 tragedy. If you wanted to learn more about Apollo 1 we covered this in our April 2019 episode: https://soundcloud.com/user-429302439/look-up-april-2019 If you're interested in the Moon our next livestream, which celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 17, this will take place on the 7th December. Find it on our YouTube channel: @RoyalObservatoryGrnwich

Royal Observatory Astronomers Affelia and Jess take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of November in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Affelia and Jess talk about a new theory on Uranus' spin, and the legacy of the Arecibo telescope. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of November!

Facilitated by artist Charlotte Grayland Spotlighting the creative minds around the museum - content shared on behalf of Royal Museums Greenwich’s Young Creatives group. If you wanted to learn more about this program, follow this link: https://www.rmg.co.uk/schools-communities/young-people

Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Tania take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of October in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jess and Tania talk about developments in the Hayabusa2 mission, and the DART mission's successful impact into an asteroid. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of October!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of September in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jess and Greg talk about the progress in NASA's plan to return to the moon, and a recently opened liquid mirror telescope. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of September!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Jake and Jess take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of August in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jake and Jess talk about the newly released images from the James Webb Space Telescope. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of August!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Aman and Jess take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of July in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Aman talks about NASA starting a study on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), while Jess updates us on the Europa Clipper mission. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Jess and Jake take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of June in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jake talks about the image of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, while Jess explores the history of space crime. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Jake and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jake talks about the largest comet ever discovered, while Patricia explains the weird and wonderful way that sound travels on Mars. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month! Don't miss out on the wonders of the night sky this month:

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Jake take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of April in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Patricia talks about the legacy of solar physicist Eugene Parker, while Jake dives into the first image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month! Don't miss out on the wonders of the night sky this month: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-april-2022

Royal Observatory Astronomer Jake takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of March in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Jake talks about the one year anniversary of NASA's Perseverance Rover's successful landing on Mars, featuring audio of the winds of Mars. (Credit: NASA https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/sounds/) We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky for the final month of 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. But wait, there's more; they also bring two exciting stories that have recently broken in the world of astronomy and space science to the table. Bryony talks about the stellar beginnings of heavier elements, particularly those that are important for us, while Patricia discusses her past life of studying eclipsing binary stars and some new research recently published about the bright star(s) Algol. Which of these piques your interest the most? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-december-2021 Article mentioned by Bryony: https://theconversation.com/your-smiles-cosmic-history-we-discovered-the-origin-of-fluoride-in-early-galaxies-169562

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomer Bryony is going it alone this month, letting you know what to look out for in the night sky this November 2021 in our family-friendly Look Up! podcast. As for our cosmic news, this month Bryony talks about NASA's newest mission, the Lucy mission, launched October 16th, and explains where it's going, what it's looking for, and where its (rather adorable) name comes from! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-november-2021

Join Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia to hear about what's up in the sky in October 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. But wait, there's more! Bryony and Patricia both leave the solar system to discuss recent astronomical breakthroughs, discussing the fiery ends of stars. Bryony looks at the smaller end, how white dwarf stars may not be as docile as we used to think, while Patricia talks about a new kind of supernova involving the most massive of objects. Which one is your favourite? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-october-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia tell you what to look out for the night sky in September 2021, as well as giving you the run down on a couple of astronomical news stories from August in our family-friendly Look Up! podcast. This month Patricia brings her love of Star Trek to the forefront and talks about how NASA are celebrating the 100th birthday of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, while Bryony delves into the quantum realm, revealing the solution to a paradox that has puzzled solar physicists for over 20 years. Which story is your favourite? Head to our twitter @ROGAstronomers to vote in our poll at the start of September! NASA's tribute to Gene Roddenberry: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-helps-celebrate-star-trek-creator-gene-roddenberrys-centennial Solar paradox solved after 20 years: https://phys.org/news/2021-08-year-old-paradox-solar-physics.html Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog which will be live from September: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-september-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky this August 2021 as well as a few astronomical news stories from July in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. As for our cosmic news, this month Bryony talks about the first ever measurement of isotopes in the atmosphere of an exoplanet and how they may give us insight into where and how it formed, while Patricia discusses the recent Hubble telescope glitch and why it is perhaps a bit of a wake-up call. Which story is your favourite? Head to our twitter @ROGAstronomers to vote in our poll at the start of August! First measurement of isotopes around an exoplanet's atmosphere: https://phys.org/news/2021-07-isotopes-atmosphere-exoplanet.html Hubble catastrophe (and fix): https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/hubble-returns-to-full-science-observations-and-releases-new-images Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-august-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky this July 2021 as well as a few astronomical news stories from June in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month Patricia talks about the newest images coming from Juno, NASA's mission to Jupiter, and what they are revealing about the largest moon of our Solar System, Ganymede, while Bryony discusses the recent dimming (and subsequent re-brightening) of the red supergiant Betelgeuse, sadly concluding that it was not a harbinger of supernovae. :( Juno images: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/see-the-first-images-nasas-juno-took-as-it-sailed-by-ganymede Betelgeuse's dimming: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01526-6 Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-july-2021

Join Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia as they give you a guide to the night sky in June 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. But wait, there's more! Bryony and Patricia also nerd out over two recent astronomy/space science related news stories, and this month is no exception. Bryony starts us off by talking about the Voyager 1 probe and its journey through interstellar space, while Patricia stays a little closer to home, telling us some of what's been going on with the Perseverance Rover on the red planet. Which is your favourite? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-june-2021

Join Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia as they give you a guide to the night sky in May 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Not only that but they will then bring their favourite astronomical news stories from the previous month to the table and do their best to break them down. Patricia starts us off this month, talking about the Mars Insight lander and the exciting possibility of Mars-quakes, while Bryony bends our brains and discusses some recent events in the weird world of particle physics, and why some recent experimental results are both less and more exciting than you may have at first thought. Which is your favourite? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/astronomy/night-sky-highlights-may-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky in April 2021 in this Look Up! podcast. But wait, there's more! Bryony and Patricia also discuss two of their favourite astronomical news stories from March 2021. Bryony kicks off by talking about 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object that we ever observed in our Solar System, explaining why it may have been premature to declare that it was an alien spaceship, and Patricia follows up by describing how an apparent malfunction on the Juno spacecraft may have solved the mystery of the zodiacal light. Which is your favourite? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-april-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky in March 2021 in this Look Up! podcast. That's not all, though - they also discuss some recent astronomical news stories. February was mostly dominated with the Mars missions, but some other exciting things happened. Patricia discusses the newly-found most distant solar system object (with a fantastic name - but you'll need to listen to the podcast to find out!) while Bryony does her best to explain a new theory about the formation of supermassive black holes. Which of these do you find the most interesting? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-march-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky for the start of 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. As well as this, they discuss some recent astronomical news. Patricia kicks off with an overview of some important space-related legislation that passed on December 31st of 2020 that aims to help preserve our heritage in space, and Bryony follows it up with some newly published research about the motion of stars in our galaxy, and how they appear to be following a pattern well-known to sports fans... Which of these do you find the most interesting? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-february-2021

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky for the start of 2021 in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. As well as this, they discuss some recent astronomical news. Patricia discusses the sample return from asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft while Bryony pays tribute to a fallen friend: the radio dish at Arecibo Observatory. Which of these do you find the most interesting? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Quick note: in this podcast Bryony repeatedly says that work from Arecibo Observatory has won multiple Nobel Prizes, which may be misleading; direct observations from Arecibo have only won a single Nobel Prize (and it was for the discovery of the first *binary pulsar, not first pulsar!), but many observations from Arecibo have pointed scientists to explore something that they might not otherwise, and those subsequent observations have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. Just wanted to make that clear as I realised that listening back it wasn't! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night…ghts-january-2021 Link to the Nobel Prize won directly thanks to observations from Arecibo Observatory: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1993/press-release/.

Royal Observatory Greenwich Astronomers Bryony and Patricia are here to tell you what to look out for in the night sky this December, 2020, in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. As well as this, they discuss some recent astronomical news. Bryony explains how Mars' dust storms may be the reason for its lack of water, while Patricia talks about the possibility of Europa glowing in the dark. Which of these do you find the most interesting? Head over to our twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote on our poll at the start of the month! Here is the link to our night sky highlights blog: https://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/blog/night-sky-highlights-december-2020 Links to more information for each of the stories: Dust storms driving evaporation of water on Mars Paper: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6518/824 News article: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/martian-dust-storms-parch-planet-driving-water-space Glow-in-the-dark Europa Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-01248-1 News article: https://earthsky.org/space/jupiter-moon-europa-glows-radiation

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Bryony take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of November in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara chats about the asteroid sample-return mission of OSIRIS-REx and Bryony discusses the Physics Nobel Prize of 2020 for the robust theoretical prediction of black holes with the discovery of a compact object at the centre of our galaxy. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of October in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the discovery of phosphine on Venus - a potential sign of life and gets a chance to speak to Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder who is one of the researchers involved in the study! We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of September in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about a proposed explanation for the dimming of the star Betelgeuse that was observed in late 2019 and into early 2020. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of August in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the recent launches of new spacecraft to Mars and explores the history of Mars exploration. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of July in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the discovery of either the heaviest known neutron star or the lightest blackhole - an object found in the mass gap of stellar remnants. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of June in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the cosmic 'chicken or the egg' question of which came first - galaxies or the supermassive black holes that lie at their hearts? We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the age old question of where did life first begin on Earth? We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomer Dhara takes you through what to see in the night sky during the month of April in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the longstanding question of how the Earth got its Moon. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and take part in our poll at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of March in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara talks about the end of the Spitzer Space Telescope mission and Patricia talks about the iconic 'Pale Blue Dot' image and Carl Sagan. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of February in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Patricia discusses the dimming of the star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion and Dhara talks about how our Solar System may have got its Great Divide. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of January in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Patricia discusses the fizzing lakes of Saturn's largest moon Titan and Dhara talks about a recently discovered ultra-massive black hole. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of December in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Dhara reveals that when it comes to a galaxies spin direction, size does matter and Patricia explores how the detection of liquid water from Jupiter's moon Europa has scientists very excited. We also have this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story at the start of the month!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of November in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. On this month's podcast, Greg takes us through the insights into planet formation provided by our most powerful submillimetre telescope, ALMA, and Patricia asks the question "Why was our first close-up image of the red planet's surface coloured in with pastels?". Plus this month's viewing highlights in our Cosmic Diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Greg and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of October in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Accompanying a round-up of this month's astronomical highlights, Patricia discusses crashes in space as we consider the history and the danger of asteroid impacts on our world and others, while Greg brings us the news of a habitable zone planet with water in its atmosphere - but is it actually suitable for life? Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of September in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. In this month's podcast, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune with a recap of the Voyager missions history and a look forward to its future, and we discuss a star almost devoid of iron, showing key signs of being a member of the missing link in the ancestry of stars, the elusive Population III stars. Plus, all of the month's viewing highlights for novice and experienced astronomers alike! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite news story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Greg and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of July in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month, healing serious injuries in space may become much easier soon as Patricia lets us know about 3D bioprinting, and things get theoretical with Greg as he talks about the concept of dark stars, some of the biggest and brightest stars in the Universe, powered by dark matter! Plus a run-down of what to see in the sky this month! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Greg and Patricia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of June in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month, Patricia answers the question "What does Charlie Brown have to do with the Guinness World Record for fastest speed of a human?" as we continue our build up to the 50th anniversary of the Moon landings! Meanwhile Greg looks to the future of protecting Earth from meteors, without Bruce Willis' help of course! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of April in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month, a look back to the tragic story of Apollo 1 as Patricia explains Northrop Grumman's recent dedication of its Cygnus spacecraft to astronaut Roger Chaffee, while Greg looks at much longer journeys as he talks about hypervelocity stars, objects being ejected from our home galaxy out into the depths of space. Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of March in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. In this edition of Look Up!, we take a look at the legacy of the little rover that could, NASA's Opportunity rover, and a story of the one of the longest round trips a rock could make, as Big Bertha, a rock collected from the surface of the Moon, turns out to have possibly come from Earth after all! Also, see what the sky has to offer in this month's cosmic diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of February in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month on Look Up!, Greg discusses news of the Moon, with the recent Chang'e 4 mission and a look at meteoroid impacts on the Moon during the recent lunar eclipse, while Patricia tells us about exciting citizen science, the discovery of an unusual planet by members of the general public! Plus a round-up of the month's astronomical highlights in our cosmic diary! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Patricia and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of January in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Bringing in the New Year, we have two new stories from the world of Astronomy! Greg talks to us about the ongoing hunt for Dark Matter and how some of the faintest light in the sky may be the key to its understanding, while new Royal Observatory astronomer Patricia reveals the incredible insights of the New Horizons probe as it passed by Ultima Thule, making it the most distant object visited in our solar system! Plus we give you a roundup of the month's top observing highlights! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of December in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. In this festive season, as relatives gather for all kinds of celebrations, we look at two families in the cosmos! Dhara gives us an overview of the our current missions on Mars, our own robotic family: those ending, those still going and those that are only just beginning! Meanwhile, Greg tells us about astronomers' ongoing search for our own Sun's extended family, and how even finding our celestial siblings is a real challenge! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story! Update: A huge congratulations to the brilliant engineers and scientists at NASA who successfully landed InSight a few days after this recording!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of November in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month find out how lucky we are to be around a relatively quiet star as Greg discusses how flaring red dwarf stars might spell doom for planets around them and Dhara looks into the giants of the Universe, supermassive black holes; only this time, there's two of them. Violent mini stars, binary black holes and an update on the health of our aging fleet of satellites and probes: all on this month's Look Up! Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story! Update: The day after recording this podcast, NASA's Kepler satellite was officially declared out of fuel, bringing an end to this fantastic and incredibly successful mission.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of October in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month it's an exoplanet double bill, with Dhara giving us an update on the habitability of Proxima Centauri b, a world around our nearest neighbouring star, and Greg tells us about the brand new planet-hunter TESS which has already found its first planet! Plus there's a bonus story about the possible discovery of a certain planet of sci-fi significance.... Join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of September in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. In this episode, Greg tells us about the recent launch of the NASA Parker Solar Probe, soon to be the fastest object ever made by humans, and Dhara helps us celebrate the 15th birthday of the hugely successful Spitzer space telescope with a rundown of its greatest discoveries to date! Don't forget to join us on Twitter @ROGAstronomers and vote for your favourite story!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of August in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month, Dhara tells us about the discovery of 12 new moons of Jupiter bringing the total up to 79, while Greg talks about only the third time in history that a cosmic neutrino has been traced back to its source. Take a guess at what that might be...... As usual, join us on Twitter to vote for your favourite story @ROGAstronomers!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of July in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month we discuss a trio of stories from the rovers on Mars, including possible evidence of life, and talk about the discovery of a flare from a rare intermediate mass black hole!

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month, we discuss two recent news stories that caught our eye in the world of astronomy. This month, we talk about the formation of the ravioli-shaped moons of Saturn and the vast new catalogue of data from the Gaia mission to survey the Galaxy! Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astronomy news story to chat about. This month, we discuss the very unexpected finding of a galaxy which is thought to have no dark matter and the detection of a glitch in the regular beating pulse of a spinning neutron star also known as a pulsar. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of April in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astronomy news story to explore. This month, we discuss the numerous discoveries about Jupiter made by the aptly-named Juno space probe and we talk about the 'reanimation' of a long dead neutron star. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of March in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story. This month hear about the most recent developments on the first detected interstellar visitor to our solar system, the asteroid Oumuamua, and learn how astronomers think they may have found a vast population of exoplanets in a galaxy halfway across the Universe with a little help from Einstein's famous theories. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of February in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about the first time details on a star's surface have been observed - until now, our Sun in the only star we have ever seen details on. The second story is all about a newly proposed definition for a planet which includes setting an upper limit to its mass. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of January in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about how clay minerals on Mars may have formed in a primordial steam bath before any liquid water may have flowed on the Martian surface and the discovery of the most distant supermassive black hole that’s been detected to date. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Greg take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of December in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about the 100th anniversary of the first evidence of exoplanets and the tale of an exploding star that refuses to die. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of October in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about the how the detection of Boron on Mars hints at the possibility of life on Mars in the past and the Cassini-Huygens space probe - some of the highlights from its 20 year mission. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of September in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month Radmila and Dhara pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about the asteroid Apophis and how likely this Near-Earth object is to collide with the Earth and the launch of the first supercomputer to the International Space Station by SpaceX - dubbed the Spaceborne Computer. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Dhara and Affelia take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of August in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month the astronomers pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about a surprising case of ‘indigestion’ in a supermassive black hole and how hidden stars could affect what we know about 50 already discovered exoplanets. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of July in our family friendly Look Up! Podcast. This month Radmila and Dhara pick their favourite news stories: the Kepler telescope's great discoveries to date in its search for exoplanets and new evidence to support the Sun had a twin 4.5 billion years ago. Vote for your favourite on our Twitter poll @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month Radmila and Dhara pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about anti-matter and anti-gravity and the latest discoveries from the Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of May in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. Each month Radmila and Dhara pick their favourite astro’ news story – this month they chat about the 27th birthday of the Hubble Space Telescope and five of its amazing achievements along with the discovery of hydrogen molecules spewing out from Enceladus (one of Saturn’s moons), providing more support for alien life in its sub-surface ocean. Vote for your favourite on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools.

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of April in our family friendly Look Up! Podcast. Every month Radmila and Dhara each pick their favourite news story. Their news stories for this month include 7 potentially habitable worlds around a star called Trappist-I and a possible new stellar event called an imposter supernova – let us know your favourite! Vote via Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of March in our family friendly Look Up! Podcast. Each month Radmila and Dhara each pick their favourite news story. Which will be your favourite - a giant black hole in a cluster of galaxies blowing bubbles of gas and feeding itself or the possibility of finding habitable exomoons? Vote via Twitter: @ROGAstronomers #ROGSchools

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of February in our family friendly Look Up! Podcast. This month Radmila and Dhara each pick their favourite news story. Which will be your favourite - an explosion that is predicted to light up our sky in 2022 caused by two merging stars or the possibility of microorganisms existing on Mars including how they could be used to make Mars a habitable place for humans to live?

Royal Observatory Astronomers Radmila and Dhara take you through what to see in the night sky during the month of January in our family friendly Look Up! podcast. This month Radmila and Dhara each pick their favourite news story. They talk about whether the Earth will still exist 5 billion years from now and then chat about the exotic liquid ocean that’s thought to exist beneath an ice covered basin on Pluto – which is your favourite?