#106 - April 2021 Part 1

AWESOME ASTRONOMY

The Discussion:

• Jen finally becomes Dr Jen – bow down pitiful Earthlings!
• Binocular astronomy
• Get the book Vera Rubin - A Life by Jacqueline and Simon Mitton with 25% off by emailing [e-mail], and quoting the discount code H0350 (mentioning Awesome Astronomy probably wouldn’t go amiss too)
• Emails from listeners correcting a possible error and posing a teasing question about US refractors.

The News: Rounding up the astronomy news in February, we have:

• UCL researchers unravel the mystery of the Antikythera mechanism
• The Event Horizon Telescope improves the image of a supermassive black hole by revealing its magnetic fields
• Confirming the existence of the furthest major solar system object
• An exoplanet that lost its atmosphere and then gained another one!

Main News story: CERN’s LHC spots a quirky quark that hints at a big anomaly in the Standard Model of Physics

The Sky Guide: This month we’re taking a look at the constellation of Coma Bereneces with a guide to its history, how to find it, a couple of deep sky objects and a round-up of the solar system views on offer in April.

Q&A: You mentioned recently that a comet was a long period comet? What does this mean? How do we know if a comet is a long period comet? From our good friend Arliss Evans in Texas, USA.