Home Planet - 22/12/2009

About 4.5 billion years ago the newly formed planet Earth was in collision with a planet the size of Mars, a cataclysmic event that gave birth to the Moon. But the impact was so huge that it left one listener puzzled as to why the Earth remained in place instead of spinning off into interstellar space. Listeners also want to know what the Earth was like, much later, when it was a few degrees warmer than today and if that offers us any hints for the future. What, too, is the future of UK forestry; how do plants' need for oxygen balance out with their production of this crucial gas and how is it possible for astronomers to detect the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation? We also want your help in finding out how the New Year festivities affect roosting birds. Do you have a nestbox camera which shows black-and-white pictures using infrared lighting? If you do, Graham Appleton from the BTO, one of our regular panelists, would like to know if you have birds roosting in your nest box. We'd like you to turn on your camera on New Year's Eve to see how much disturbance fireworks cause. Graham will be with us on 4 January to discuss your responses. Remember, this needs to be an infrared camera. You don't want to wake up birds by turning on a normal light. On the panel are astronomer Dr Carolin Crawford of Cambridge University, plant geneticist Professor Denis Murphy of the University of Glamorgan, and forestry expert Dr Nick Brown of Oxford University. If you have any comments on the topics discussed or any questions you might want to put to future programmes, please do let us know.