Looking Up

Five minutes at the end of each week explores the big and the small questions in astronomy, cosmology, and space science. Hosted by Kechil Kirkham, no subject is too big or too small, and experts are regularly brought on board to illuminate and excite. Cape Town is the place to be for astronomy, with some of the largest telescopes in the world housed or being built not too far away. Looking Up takes advantage of the shoals of scientists and engineers working on the planet’s most advanced astronomy projects, who live and work right here in the Mother City. Kechil has recently acquired an MPhil in Space Studies at the University of Cape Town, and works in South Africa’s space industry on the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope.

Weekly English South Africa Places & Travel Kechil Kirkham

335 Episodes

1 – 20

Looking Up - 29 Mar 23

How is your cosmological coupling? What has this to do with Dark Energy? What are black holes up to? What is Cold Death and when might it occur? These and other questions may have nothing to do with your daily life, but they are fascinating. Kechil talks to Dr Chris…

29 Mar 5 min

Looking Up - 22 Mar 23

Dr Chris Pearson tells Kechil about the scary Event Horizon, the point of no return when you get near a black hole. Hear it from the expert!

22 Mar 5 min

Looking Up - 15 Mar 23

Black holes! What are they? How many are out there? How do we know they are there? Kechil talks to Dr Chris Pearson who was in Cape Town with the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project.

15 Mar 5 min

Looking Up - 08 March 23

There is a big meeting happening right now in Cape Town at the South African Astronomical Observatory, where engineers, technologists and scientists have flown in from the four corners. Kechil talks to Louisa Quartermaine from Perth about the Australian component of the Square Kilometre Array, the biggest telescope being built…

8 Mar 4 min

Looking Up - 01 March 23

There is a pretty conjunction of Venus and Jupiter you might like to take a look at in the evening or just before sunrise, if you have a clear western aspect. Kechil motors through conjunctions, alignments and other geometric features of our position in the solar system.

1 Mar 4 min

Looking Up - 22 Feb 23

A reminder that the observatory has open nights on the second and fourth Saturdays of each month at 8pm. You need to book which you can do from their website saao.ac.za. The Very Large Telescope and the European Space Agency's space telescopes have combined strengths and produced images of an…

22 Feb 4 min

Looking Up - 15 Feb 23

There is a pretty chain of planets to be seen after sunset at this time, if you have a clear western horizon. Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has been visible in the southern hemisphere - a green blob that won't be back here, if at all, for a very very long…

15 Feb 3 min

Looking Up - 08 Feb 23

Last Sunday the US shot down a Chinese balloon which had made its way across US territory. What is special about balloons? What sort of balloon was it? Are we all living in a spy novel?

8 Feb 3 min

Looking Up - 010223

Kechil unpacks the Skittles image from the James Webb Space Telescope which she and astronomer Pamala Klassen were chatting about last week.

1 Feb 4 min

Looking Up - 25 Jan 23

Pamela Kassen, an astronomer from Edinburgh, is here in Cape Town and talks to Kechil about the latest from the James Webb Space Telescope, a telescope up in space whose data she works with. Here she describes that the universe has far more galaxies than originally thought, and it is…

25 Jan 5 min

Looking Up - 18 Jan 23

A satellite launch recently failed from the UK on 9th January. Satellites were to be released from a rocket fired from a jumbo jet which took off from Cornwall, a southern county in England. This was the first ever satellite launch from the UK, but they will try again. Learn…

18 Jan 4 min

LOOKING UP - 11 JAN 23

There is a comet arriving in our neighbourhood, listen out for announcements in early February. There are new lunar landers created by private industry, on their way to the Moon. These pave the way for more ambitious undertakings.

11 Jan 4 min

Looking Up - 28 Dec 22

How is it that the Earth is not the center of the solar system? It does look like the Sun, Moon and planets move around us. Retrograde motion, epicycles, these are explained in 5-minutes, with some history thrown in.

28 Dec 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 14 Dec 22

The Orion capsule splashed down last Sunday, as part of NASA's Artemis programme, which will send humans back to the Moon. Find out how it's going.

14 Dec 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 07 Dec 22

Sumari Barocci-Faul, a Masters student at the University of Cape Town, tells Kechil about her research in cataclysmic variable stars: exploding stars - more great balls of fire.

7 Dec 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 30 Nov 22

Great balls of fire! A fireball, or bolide, was seen by many above Kirstenbosch Gardens at the concert last weekend. And other fiery topics: the eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii and volcanism on other planets in, and out of, our solar system.

30 Nov 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 23 Nov 22

Chris Forder has spent a lifetime building telescopes, a very worthy hobby. He tells Kechil about the changes that have occurred in telescope design and materials over the last 60 years.

23 Nov 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 16 Nov 22

South Africa is to host a ground station for NASA to communicate with the Artemis lunar exploration programme at Matjiesfontein. This is great news for SANSA. Also a plug for the 2023 Sky Guide Southern Africa published by Penguin Random House / Struik Nature.

16 Nov 2022 4 min

Looking Up - 09 Nov 22

9 Nov 2022 5 min

Looking Up - 02 Nov 22

Kechil mentions a couple of new space engineering endeavours: how to get heavy objects through tricky atmospheres on other planets, and launching hypersonic planes from other massive planes. Also something scary for Halloween: a large asteroid missed us. Phew!

2 Nov 2022 5 min