Professor Emma Bunce

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 August 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Emma Bunce, Professor of Planetary Plasma Physics at the University of Leicester, was inspired to study the solar system as a child by a TV programme that featured Voyager 2’s flyby of Neptune. She has spent the last 20 years focusing on the magnetic fields around the outer planets, in particular that of Jupiter. The Earth’s magnetic field interacts with the solar wind to create aurorae, the spectacular Northern lights. Emma’s discovered how aurorae are also produced at Jupiter's poles. Emma Bunce talks to Jim al-Khalili about her fascination with the gas giants, why she has to be patient to check out her theories as missions to the planets are few and far between and how she'd love to work on a spacecraft to Neptune. And in the year when the Royal Astronomical Society marks its 200th anniversary, Emma explains why she's taken on the role of its President.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Newscast is the unscripted chats behind the headlines.
0:05.6	It's informed, but informal.
0:07.5	We pick the day's top stories and we find experts who can really dig into them. We use our colleagues in the newsroom and
0:14.4	our contacts. Some people pick up the phone rather faster than others.
0:18.0	We sometimes literally run around the BBC building to grab the very best guests.
0:23.4	Join us for daily news chats to get you ready for today's conversations.
0:28.3	Newscast, listen on BBC sounds.
0:35.0	This is Discovery from the BBC. I'm Jim El Killelli and in today's program I'm in conversation with a leading scientist
0:40.0	about their life and research.
0:42.0	Welcome to the life scientific.
0:44.0	Today we're going on a tour of the solar system.
0:48.0	We hear so much about missions to Mars
0:50.0	and a return to the moon,
0:52.0	the probes to the outer planets are often forgotten.
0:55.0	My guest today is a leading researcher and world expert on the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn and beyond.
1:02.0	Emma Bunts, Professor of planetary plasma physics at the University of Leicester,
1:06.0	was inspired to study the solar system as a child by a TV program that featured the Voyager
1:11.8	2 fly by of Neptune.
1:14.0	Emma's research is into the magnetic fields of the planets.
1:18.0	You may be aware of the effects of the Earth's magnetic field if you've ever seen the spectacular
1:22.0	Northern Lights. These
1:23.7	orori are the result of interactions between particles from the Sun and the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.