Just a couple of excellent internet-based items from the world of astronomy.

Firstly, Harriet Scott (of London’s Heart FM) and Chris Lintott (of Sky at Night, obviously) are now producing a weekly astronomy news oriented podcast called Living Space. They summarise the latest space news from planetary science to cosmology and have interviews from experts in their field. The podcast is released on a Friday and has radio-quality production values and a much less “amateur” feel than some of the other podcasts that I subscribe to (though I rarely have complaints about their content). It’s great for a quick catch-up at the end of the week.

Secondly, the excellent Astroshorts video service has now been active for a few months and continues to grow with excellent material being added on a daily basis. As well as the usual content from NASA there are interesting public contributions, plus as I’ve discovered they can find things if you request them. Having missed a JPL lecture on the continuing hunt for exo-planets I dropped Steve an e-mail and within a few days he had tracked down an excellent copy of the webcast from the lecture. This shows excellent support for users and commitment to the growth of the site and gets a big thumbs up from me. Check out the video (it’s about 50 minutes long) for some details of the latest planet hunting techniques and details of what we might find in the future.