Doctor Who and the Silver Spiral
We’re used to Doctor Who containing lots of science, some of it even real. After all, the programme was originally conceived as an educational show. But as far as I know this is a first: a professional real-world astronomer announcing their research through the medium of a Doctor Who story.
Dr Megan Argo was part of a team at Jodrell Bank who observed a stream of energy emerging from a catastrophic supernova. The full technical report is published in the journal Nature under the title “A mildly relativistic radio jet from the normal Type Ic Supernova 2007gr”. According to the press release from the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe (JIVE):
the team led by JIVE’s Zsolt Paragi reports, for the first time ever, detection of a relativistic outflow in a Type Ic supernova, thus supporting the link with the even more energetic Gamma Ray Bursts, some of the most energetic explosions in the Universe
If that means as little to you as it does to me you’ll appreciate Dr Argo’s decision to explain it to us laypeople in the form of a Dr Who story. The Silver Spiral has David Tennant’s Doctor and Martha in the Tardis watching SN 2007gr up close.
Could this set a new trend? Archaeological finds announced as episodes of Merlin? Paleontological research on Primeval? Waste disposal on Demons?
