Ever experience the last rays of sunlight sparkling across the ocean? In this episode, PhD student Michael Heslar tells us how we can use this twinkling across the methane seas of Titan to study waves, winds, and much more. Plus, Alex brings us an Astrobite using shimmering starlight to help you find your next exoplanet vacation destination! Michael’s published paper: doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/aba191 Article about Michael’s paper: skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/winds-and-tides-drive-sea-waves-on-t...
Dec 20, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Please describe a time in your life when you experienced and overcame hardship. Well, middle school wasn’t great...I stubbed my toe this morning….how much detail are you looking for here?? The decision to apply to grad school can be both thrilling and terrifying. And, just like in research, one question can lead to ten more. Have no fear, the team is here! Will the Worthful helps you find the perfect advisor, Malena the Musicological shares her tips for crafting the perfect personal statement, a...
Dec 05, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 25
Planets and quenching and stars, oh my! In this finale to our four-part series on machine learning in astrophysics, the team hits the (virtual) road to hear from the experts. Our first stop is Irvine, California, where Tae Baxter teaches us that even galaxies struggle to stay active during quarantine. Next, we’re off to Porto, Portugal, where Ana Barboza uses the planetary ends to justify the k-means. We also make a pit stop for some banana-inspired techno. Tae’s Website: sentientstarstuff.githu...
Oct 11, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 24
They say the 20th century explorers were astronauts. The 21st century explorers might be data scientists using unsupervised learning methods to explore big data. In this episode, we learn Alex and computers have a love-hate relationship with authority, Will struggles to introduce his space sound, and Malena tells us she has enough coffee tables. Astrobites astrobites.org/2017/09/21 astrobites.org/2020/09/12 Space Sound + Reference merl.com/demos/deep-clustering ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/74716...
Sep 26, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Today we get to talk about everyone’s favorite problem: too much data and too little time! It’s not yet Halloween, but today’s spooky episode is full of GHOSTs and ASSASNs. Alex shares his recent work applying random forests to create a supernatural catalog and predictor of supernova types, and Will describes a tremendous classification effort to automatically sort variable stars. Alex’s GHOST website + paper: ghost.ncsa.illinois.edu https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.09630 Astrobites: astrobites.org/20...
Sep 12, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 22
This episode takes us into dark notions and oscillating questions! Malena spices rocks that orbit remote places and Will covers his dwarfs with tenderness and instability. Okay, so none of this is true. But we used machine learning to generate this text! Episode 21 is the first in our three part series covering machine learning methods in astronomy. First up? Neural networks! https://astrobites.org/2019/04/02/ https://astrobites.org/2020/01/02 / Space sound: https://openai.com/blog/jukebox/...
Aug 29, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Why are power laws so ubiquitous in nature? And how can they teach us about space? In today’s episode, we dive into some classic research results to understand the properties of objects at all scales and sizes. Malena has her head in the (molecular) clouds, Will gets a little peculiar, and Alex takes pulsars for a spin. astrobites.org/2012/11/18 astrobites.org/2016/06/30 astrobites.org/2017/04/11 Space sound: youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9Go1PnAVA Power laws derivation: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~m...
Aug 15, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Is there extraterrestrial life? Are they on giant glowing planets? Do they listen to Bach? We explore three papers in the field of astrobiology that take concrete, experimental steps toward an answer. "Everything not forbidden is compulsory,” so we speculate wildly about first contact. astrobites.org/2020/03/12 astrobites.org/2019/08/27 astrobites.org/2020/04/06 Space sound: youtube.com/watch?v=qTpCD2Xvh_s Cinder lake crater fields: youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=FVkBaaOBejc&feature...
Aug 01, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 19
We venture far beyond the local universe, outside our subfields, and back in time to look at galaxies when they just formed for the first time. In doing so, we learn Malena’s beagle was a good boy, Alex has a soft spot for dropouts, and Will’s doppelganger is a more prolific publisher. Astrobites: astrobites.org/2020/05/16 astrobites.org/2020/05/02 astrobites.org/2020/02/05 Space Sound: Prof. Alicia Margarita Soderberg scholar.harvard.edu/asoderberg/supernova-sonification...
Jul 19, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 18
What does it mean to be a successful astronomer? In our second Beyond episode, we delve into the notion of personal and professional success in the field, and revisit the constant expectation to "publish or perish". Astrobites: astrobites.org/2017/10/27 astrobites.org/2016/12/16 astrobites.org/2018/08/17 astrobites.org/2020/06/19 Other links: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/04/21/early-journal-submission-data-suggest-covid-19-tanking-womens-research-productivity https://www.nytimes.com/...
Jul 04, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 17
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