About this episode

The episode covers significant astronomy stories including a Spanish eclipse, the launch of a space telescope, and a starless galaxy.

Space Nuts: Spanish Eclipse, Nancy Grace Roman Launch, Cloud Nine, and Venus's Mysterious Clouds Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson cover four big astronomy stories in this episode, from Fred’s trip to view a sunset eclipse in Spain to the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. They also unpack a starless dwarf galaxy called Cloud Nine and a new way of thinking about the strange dark material in Venus’s clouds. Guests and speakers Andrew Dunkley - Host, frames the news, asks listener questions, and guides the discussion. Professor Fred Watson - Astronomer at large, explains the eclipse, the Roman telescope, Cloud Nine, and Venus’s clouds. Key topics In this episode, Fred recounts the Spanish eclipse expedition The eclipse was only 9 degrees above the western horizon at totality, making the viewing conditions unusually challenging. He and Marnie led a 16-person tour through France, Spain, and Switzerland before settling near Santander in northern Spain. They staked out a viewing site 2 kilometers from the hotel, set up a gazebo, and had to tie it down to a car to keep it from blowing away. The weather looked threatening, but a hole opened in the cloud just before…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Dunkley

Guest: Professor Fred Watson

Topics covered

• Spanish eclipse
• Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
• starless dwarf galaxy
• Venus's clouds
• astronomy news

Keywords

• astronomy
• eclipse
• space telescope
• Cloud Nine
• Venus
• dark material
• dwarf galaxy

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

Books & works: Cloud Nine

Places: Spain, France, Switzerland, Santander, Venus

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