#54 - December 2016

The Discussion: This month we take a look at the recent supermoon and what it takes to make the moon ‘super’; Jeni goes teaching kids about space and hones her exoplanet hunting skills; while Paul’s been hosting events with British astronaut Tim Peake.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

• An update on Blue Origin’s spaceflight ambitions
• More on Shiaparelli and Exomars part 1
• A NASA Director’s worries about science in a Trump administration
• An Ocean like the Dead Sea under Pluto’s ice sheets
• The roundest object in space
• Could dark energy actually be an emergent property of entropy?
• The dinosaur-killing asteroid may have turned planet Earth inside out

The Hat of Woo: Delving into the rank and putrid world of conspiracy theories to debunk the nonsense that lies within. This month Paul pulls Project Pegasus out of his fetid hat where a young President Obama was part of a team of juveniles used in the 1980s to teleport to Mars and into the past. No, really!

Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we go back to Tycho Brahe:

What is a plain regular (non-super) nova? Doug, @DesRon94, Detroit Michigan