The fifth episode of our new podcast series Live from the Space Shed is now live! Please subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts, rate (FIVE STARS, obvs) and spread the word!
For this episode we were outside the Great North Museum: Hancock as part of the Great Exhibition of the North with cosmologist and dark matter explorer Dr Alex Amon. At the time, Alex was just completing her PhD at the Institute for Astronomy in Edinburgh and has recently been awarded the prestigious Royal Astronomical Society thesis prize. She is super cool.
In this episode Alex explains:
• what dark energy and dark matter are and how you find it
• what “gravitational lensing” is
• how space telescopes work
• how to get a job looking at galaxies
• her new project looking for “killer asteroids”
and answers questions including:
• what will happen when the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxies collide?
• what even is the Milky Way anyway?
and Alex tells us why stars are boring…
Full transcript coming very soon!
Enjoy!
Full transcript here
LINKS
Alex on Twitter @astroalexamon
Alex’s excellent article Shedding Light on the Dark Universe