麻豆社

British astrophysicists have used a space telescope to detect the weather conditions on a planet, one thousand light years away. They've pieced together their climate picture from minute changes in the light reflected from the distant planet's atmosphere. Apparently the winds there can blow at speeds of thousands of kilometres per hour and the clouds are probably made of the same stuff as rubies. Gareth Mitchell talks to Dr David Armstrong of the University of Warwick about how the scientists made their discoveries with data from the Kepler space telescope.

Also in the programme:

Researchers at the University of Bristol are using nuclear waste to make diamonds for tiny long lasting batteries. You may have ideas on uses for their invention.

麻豆社 science correspondent Jonathan Amos reports from the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco: the latest finds from the project that drilled into the dinosaur extinction impact crater - smart boulders that tracked a gigantic undersea avalanche - and tracking the unstable glaciers of West Antarctica.

Would sending millions of tonnes of fine limestone dust high into the atmosphere every year deal with the problem of climate change? Would it be safe? Should we even research the questions?