Cosmic dust factories & giant black holes

Spinning black holes and a cosmic dust factory: they sound like the ingredients for the latest science-fiction blockbuster film. In fact, they're the subjects of some breakthrough research involving diligent Welsh scientists, based at Cardiff University.

This week, Adam talks to Dr Mikako Matsuura and Dr Phil Cigan, who recently discovered a rich inventory of molecules within the remnants of an exploded star. It suggests that the death of a sun may lead to the birth of a new star.

He also hears from Prof Mike Hannam, an expert in Numerical Relativity, who has been observing a giant pair of spinning black holes over three billion light years away. He's testing Einstein's Theory of Relativity - with remarkable success.

It's all made possible by the work of LIGO, the group of scientists based around the world who are detecting gravitational waves in space. There are researchers at Cardiff involved too, and their work is explained by Science Café regular, Dr Chris North, the Ogden Science Lecturer at Cardiff University.