Asteroid Tagging and Stellar Spaghettification

Pythagorean Astronomy

Chris North and Edward Gomez give a round-up of the month in astronomy. Towards the end of October, NASA's Osiris Rex spacecraft grabbed a sample from the asteroid Bennu. What happens next, and what might we learn from these samples? Chris and Edward discuss. There's also an update on Betelgeuse (however you chose to pronousne it), which is not estimated to be closer than previously thought - which means it's smaller? But we're still safe when it goes supernova. Right?! Further afield, telescopes around the world spotted a star getting spaghettified by a supermassive black hole - what an Earth does that mean? An finally, October is the month that Nobel Prizes are awarded. With Sir Richard Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez sharing the prize for discoveries related to black holes. (Crucially, recorded before the recent announcement regarding the Moon - but we have something to talk about next month!)