Staring at the Dawn of Time - part 2

Pythagorean Astronomy

In the last month there was a show of the Northern Lights - or aurora - visible from the UK. If you didn't get to see it (spoiler: neither did we!), then you might get a chance in the future if there's another outburst. Edward Gomez and Chris North discuss how to increase your chances of seeing them next time there's an alert. In science news, some new thoughts on how the Moon could have formed, and an intriguing (and controversial) story about how balck holes might - possibly - be the answer to the mystery of dark energy.

Chris also continues the conversation started in the last episode with Dr Ian Harrison and Dr Bob Watson about observing the cosmic microwave background. This time we discuss the advantages and challenges of launching in to space, and the problems caused by increasing numbers of satellites. There's also a new observatory being built in Chile - the Simons Observatory - which will present a huge leap forward in ground-based observations of the early Universe.