Astrophiz77: Dr Christine Redman ~ Space Science & Education

In this episode we feature a fabulous interview with Dr Christine Redman, who is a Honorary Fellow with the Melbourne Graduate School for Education at the University of Melbourne.
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz-77

Christine gives us the big picture on the state of Science Education in the Primary (Elementary) Secondary and Tertiary sectors in Australia, and how Science Education is the key to Australia’s ambition to nurture its newly formed Australian Space Agency.

For observers and astrophotographers, in ‘What’s Up Doc’, Dr Ian ‘Astroblog’ Musgrave tells us what to look for in the morning, evening & night skies. In this episode all the action is in the morning sky and in ‘Ian’s tangent’ he tells us about robots snorting asteroid dust with Tantalum bullets.

In the news:

1. Academic & Scientific Publishing: A short intro to predatory publishing
2. Observations of Radio Magnetars with the CDSCC Deep Space Network at Tidbinbilla.
3. Astronomers love big numbers.

Here’s proof. The most massive object in our observable universe is an ultra massive black hole 22 billion light years away and if  it were located just 280 light years away, it would shine as brightly as our Sun does in the sky. 

So how massive is S5 0014-81 you ask?
It is ‘only’ 40,000,000,000 solar masses, yep, 40 billion times more massive than our sun. 

Next Episode:

Ryan Ridden flies UV telescopes above the ozone layer to observe cataclysmic events.