From Dr. Becky.
Go to https://ground.news/drbecky to stay fully informed with the latest Space and Science news. Save 50% off the Vantage plan through my link for unlimited access this month only. – AD | Hello and welcome to this episode of Night Sky News for December 2024! This is the show where we chat about what you should look out for in the night sky in the next month, and what’s been happening in space news in the past month. In this episode we’re chatting about whether there are streams of interstellar objects that the Solar System is passing through, the latest report on the funding of the Thirty Metre Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope, JWST’s image of the Sombrero Galaxy, and two new papers on the mystery of JWST’s "little red dot" galaxies – are they growing supermassive black holes? Or something else…?
Find out when the International Space Station will pass over your location this Christmas (and don’t confuse it for Santa’s sleigh 😉 https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/home.cfm
The report on the status of the Thirty Meter Telescope and Giant Magellan Telescope projects: https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/ELT-Evaluation-Panel-Report.pdf
My previous videos on the Crisis in Cosmology – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd19WvC9yqUf5TRqYoMYxEwjT6JIDW4Zn
My previous Night Sky News video covering NSF’s ultimatum on choosing one of TMT or GMT:
Tripodi et al. (2024; a growing black hole in an LRD) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04983
Labbe et al. (2024; detecting the galaxy light in an LRD) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.04557
Forbes et al. (2024; streams of interstellar objects) – https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.14577
00:00 Introduction
00:54 Planets near the Solstice
02:02 Venus and Saturn conjunction
02:55 Spot the Space Station at Christmas
03:54 Quadrantids Meteor Shower 3rd Jan
05:14 Crescent Moon Venus and Occults Saturn 4th Jan
06:38 Full Moon occults Mars 13th Jan
07:37 Ground News | AD
09:50 JWST and the Sombrero Galaxy
12:40 The report on the TMT and GMT projects
15:57 Streams of Interstellar Objects
19:27 JWST’s "little red dots" mystery –
26:58 Outro
27:48 Bloopers
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini
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👩🏽💻 I’m Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don’t know. If you’ve ever wondered about something in space and couldn’t find an answer online – you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
