Ask an Astronomer: NASA’s robot rescue, should we respond to aliens and a telescope contest

If Earth picked up an alien signal, should humans reply or stay quiet? Here's the July episode of 'Ask an Astronomer.'

If Earth picked up an alien signal, should humans reply or stay quiet?

That’s one of the many questions our experts tackle in our July episode of Ask an Astronomer.

Robyn Foret with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada thinks answering an alien message could be exactly what unifies our divided planet.

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“Earth is a long way from everything. The whole concept with space travel and other solar systems and stars and other life is, we think about it, but we don’t fully understand what’s involved to engage with it – and if we get a hint of that, and we get a hint of how connected we are as a race as opposed to how divided we are as societies, I think that would be a good thing.”

Space science educator Don Hladiuk also joins us on this episode where he breaks down a historic, real-time cosmic rescue mission.

A brand-new robotic craft is currently chasing down NASA’s falling Swift space Telescope to save it from burin up in our atmosphere.

“NASA put out a bid for a contract for how to rescue this satellite. A company by the name of Katalyst Space Technologies came up with a design and built a rescue craft, a little robotic rescue craft only in seven months,” said Hladiuk. “It was launched on July 3, and is now in pursuit of the swift gamma ray telescope and will use three robotic arms to latch onto it and use ion thrusters to gently lift this satellite back up.”

Plus, you could win your very own telescope!

If you live in Alberta, head over to our Ask an Astronomer page and submit a question for our astronomers.

If we feature your question on the show, you’ll be entered into a draw for your chance to win a Dwarf Mini telescope courtesy of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Full contest details can be found here.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s covered in July’s episode by timecode:

• 00:50 - Summer solstice and how seasons change
• 03:21 - Problems with Summer astronomy
• 07:37 - Summer celestial events
• 13:09 - How to safely observe the Sun
• 18:49 - What was the cause of the Blue Origin explosion?
• 22:40 - What’s next for the Artemis missions

If you have a question you would like to ask an astronomer you can email us at [e-mail], text us at 10-400 or leave a question in the comment section on YouTube.

You can also watch full episodes of Ask an Astronomer on our CTV News Calgary website and on our CTV News YouTube page.