Astrophiz 87- Exobiology Pt3

In Part 3 of an extended three part interview, our featured guest is again Professor Jonti Horner, the Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia. With thousands of citations, he is an esteemed Astronomer and Astrobiologist who researches Exoplanets, Exoplanet Habitability and the evolution of our Solar system. Jonti has lead the construction of the newly commissioned MINERVA-Australis exoplanet search and follow-up facility at the USQ Mt. Kent Observatory. In todays episode we hear about how the media needs to stop speculating about Earth II until we actually find one, and how often we can expect meteor impacts on earth cities. Jonti explains the origins and causes of meteor showers Our regular host Dr Ian Musgrave tells us what to look for in the night skies for the next two weeks, and in ‘Ian’s Tangent’ we find out about XXXXXXXX Now our news is truncated today, because I’m pretty determined to keep our podcasts under 60 minutes, so I’ll just give you the summary and provide the weblink for you. .1. Ironically, given Jonti’s presentation today about rogue asteroids, we hear that we had a ‘near-miss’ asteroid transit between the earth and the moon’s orbit, which was not detected till *after* the fly-by. Ooops! No need for Bruce Willis and the nuclear option. Lol That article is at tinyurl-DOT-com/hahamissed .2. The MINERVA-Australis exoplanet search and follow-up facility led by Professor Horner at the USQ Mt. Kent Observatory has seen first light and been commissioned. That story is at tinyurl-DOT-com/minervaDASHaustralis .3. Congratulations to the people in the Australian outback who thought they witnessed an alien spacecraft, and to Jonti again, who explained in the media how they had actually seen the Indian Moon mission launch. That rather amusing story is at tinyurl-DOT-com/sorrynotaliens .4. Bigger congratulations to the Indian space agency ISRO for their fabulously successful launch for their mission to put their rover and lander on the south pole of the moon. There's a great story about the trajectory they are taking at tinyurl-DOT-com/indianmoonlaunch