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Factual: Science & Nature

Programme answering listeners' questions about planet Earth and our impact upon it

Home Planet: Comets and Constellations

12/07/2011

Comets and Constellations

BBC Radio 4 - Home Planet, Comets and Constellations

Are comets boiled away to nothing by the heat of the Sun?

Comets' tails are produced by water evaporating from their surface as they approach the Sun. Does this mean they eventually boil away to nothing?

In recent weeks the discussion over EU fishing quotas has risen to the surface again. Managing fish stocks is a tricky problem with the experience of the collapse in the Grand Banks cod fisheries a stark reminder that they are finite. One item under constant discussion is what to do with fish that are caught but cannot, for whatever reason, be landed. This week one listener wants to know whether there is an upside to this, do the fish thrown back provide food for others? 

We also discuss the fate of comets, do they slowly boil into oblivion as they swing past our Sun? Are constellations fixed in the night sky and why do rivers stay fresh while the sea stays salty?


Answering these and other questions this week are astronomer Dr Carolin Crawford, marine biologist Dr Helen Scales and Professor Philip Stott, an environmental scientist from the University of London. 

The programme is presented by Richard Daniel.


Producer: Toby Murcott 
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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