#77 - November 2018 Part 1

The Discussion: Jeni’s tells us about her gig at the Cardiff Book Talk and an upcoming talk at Usk Astronomical Society, Paul had a hairy moment giving a talk on the Herschels only to find their descendants in the room and we run through listeners’ emails The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Low metallicity stars seem to harbour the rocky exoplanets A possible satellite galaxy to Mirach’s Ghost may have been discovered by amateur kit Aliens may not be green but purple A plume-like cloud of water ice over Mars A review of the Galileo data shows no signs of cryovolcanic plumes on Europa The slowest rotating pulsar found Magnetism around Cygnus A supermassive black hole gives us some clues Has the first exomoon been discovered? Sky Guide: Taking a look at the astronomical objects above our heads this month that you can enjoy with a small telescope or binoculars. Paul: Saturn, Mars, Uranus, Neptune & a risky greatest elongation of Mercury on 6th November. And Comets 46P Wirtanen and 38P Stephan-Oterma may well provide some distractions too. Ralph: Northern Taurids meteor shower peaks on 12th November and the Leonids peak on the 17th. Jen: Mirach’s Ghost in Andromeda and two galactic members of the Local Group NGC147 & NGC185. And we finish off with a spotlight on Venus which will be its brightest all year at the end of the month. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look at accepted wisdom vs the evidence: Did a collision with the Earth create the moon? Is it fact or still a hypothesis? Andrew Osborn in London.