The Cosmic Savannah

Latest Episodes:

Episode 51: No Planet B Mar 15, 2022

Show notes

We are joined by Prof Travis Rector, co-founder of Astronomers for Planet Earth, who chats about why and how astronomers can teach climate change!

The post Episode 51: No Planet B appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 50: Titans of Astronomy Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

In celebration of our 50th Episode, we are joined by a Titan of Astronomy, Dr Bernie Fanaroff, who speaks with us about his illustrious career and his vision for the future of astronomy in Africa

The post Episode 50: Titans of Astronomy appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 49: SALT Spectroscopy Feb 14, 2022

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This episode is in celebration of the IAU Women and Girls in Astronomy Month in February. We speak with Dr Elizabeth Naluminsa who is one of the first Ugandan women to obtain her PhD in astronomy is now working with instrumentation on the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).

The post Episode 49: SALT Spectroscopy appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 48: ATLAS – Holding up the Heavens! Feb 01, 2022

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We're joined by SAAO Astronomer Dr Nic Erasmus who has been responsible for the newest telescope on the SAAO site (And he's just had a comet named after him!)

Sutherland has become the latest observatory to host an asteroid tracking system funded by NASA!

The post Episode 48: ATLAS – Holding up the Heavens! appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 47: SALT and Near-Earth Asteroids (re-run) Jan 27, 2022

Show notes

This is a re-run of the very first episode of The Cosmic Savannah! We're re-running it in preparation for our next episode where we'll be speaking again with Nic for some exciting updates. In Episode 1, we introduce ourselves and our vision for the podcast. SALT Astronomer Dr Moses Mogotsi then describes what it's like to use the biggest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere (from 00:12m). Lastly, Dr Nicolas Erasmus tells us about the hunt for near-earth asteroids (from 00:23m) using the ATLAS network. Nic explains how another ATLAS telescope is being installed in South Africa in order to achieve continuous coverage of the Southern night sky.

The post Episode 47: SALT and Near-Earth Asteroids (re-run) appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 46: A crash of clusters Dec 06, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Kenda Knowles. Kenda has just released a beautiful new dataset called the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey (MGCLS). The survey contains images of the radio emission from 115 clusters of galaxies!

The post Episode 46: A crash of clusters appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 45: The James Webb Space Telescope Nov 22, 2021

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The long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope will finally launch into space on December 18 2021! In this episode we are joined by Prof Christy Tremonti who is a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is an observational astronomer who works on galaxy evolution and stellar feedback processes. Christy speaks with us about her work, the JWST and the exciting future that awaits!

The post Episode 45: The James Webb Space Telescope appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 44: Stars behaving badly! (Re-run) Nov 08, 2021

Show notes

We are joined by two experts in stellar astronomy, Priscilla Muheki from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda and Distinguished Professor Hakeem Oluseyi from the Florida Institute of Technology. Priscilla talks about her PhD research in Uganda studying violent outbursts, known as coronal mass ejections, from certain types of stars. Hakeem then goes on the explain these coronal mass ejections and the violent magnetic fields associated with them, and what effect they may have on both our technology and our entire planet!

The post Episode 44: Stars behaving badly! (Re-run) appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 43: The search for hidden hydrogen Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

In this episode, we are joined by Dr Tariq Blecher and Shilpa Ranchod who talk to us about the clever ways they are trying to capture the elusive signals of hydrogen gas in the distant Universe.

The post Episode 43: The search for hidden hydrogen appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

Episode 42: Rockin’ all over the World Oct 11, 2021

Show notes

We are joined by Dr Eugene Grosch who is a geologist and petrologist at Rhodes University in South Africa to discuss how planets create the building blocks for life!

The post Episode 42: Rockin’ all over the World appeared first on The Cosmic Savannah.

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