UNTANGLING SCIENCE: PLANETS – PART 1*****

 

By Megan

Link: https://www.untanglingscience.com/blog/episode-7-planets-part-1

Also available on podcast sites including Spotify, Listen Notes, Buzzsprout, Apple, and Player FM.

Link to transcript: https://www.untanglingscience.com/blog/episode-7-planets-part-1

Planets Part 1 is about three of the first four planets in the solar system – Mercury, Venus and Mars. Earth gets a few mentions too because there are comparisons with Earth but we know a lot about Earth already from living here (and from listening to all the other podcasts) so the episode focuses on the other three planets.

As always Darragh Ennis has made the podcast really interesting and fun. If you don’t know very much about the planets, you will learn a lot from this podcast. Even if you do know about the planets, I’m sure you will still learn things but even if you don’t, the solar system is so awe-inspiring, it’s exciting hearing things we know already because it reminds us of what an amazing place the solar system is and how lucky we are that we have been able to learn so much about it.

The episode includes things like the days and years of the planets and how different they are from Earth’s orbit and rotation. You’ll also find out which planet is the hottest and how the temperature can vary and why. The episode also explains which planets are best-suited to life and which might have had life in the past and which even might already be inhabited. There’s also a bit about Mars’ moons – how many it has and how this number looks set to change. There are so many facts which are not just amazing because they are true but amazing because we know them.

The episodes always finish with some recent scientific research and in this podcast, it is about expeditions to Mars and everything we have learned and hope to learn in the future. It is so exciting to hear how much has been discovered from sending robots to Mars and how much they’re able to record and send back to us. It is hard to believe sometimes that things like this are possible but they really are.

The episode is only 23 minutes long but it contains a lot of interesting and exciting information which is presented really clearly. It’s easy to understand but it isn’t dumbed down. It is a really good way of presenting scientific information because if you’re not concentrating so hard on understanding it, you have more energy for enjoying it. I really enjoyed this episode a lot.

The next episode will be Planets – Part 2 and it will be about Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. There doesn’t seem to be an episode for Pluto (which used to be a planet but is now usually classed as a dwarf planet) but Holst’s suite The Planets doesn’t have an Earth or Pluto either (Pluto hadn’t been discovered yet and it’s quite an outer-spacey suite so maybe Earth didn’t fit) and that’s brilliant and I’m sure Part 2 of this podcast will be too.