Astronomy Cast Ep. 643: Sagittarius A* by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay All the waiting is over, we've finally seen the image of the event horizon from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Different shaped blobs! And a black circle in the middle. What are we looking at? Today we're going to explain the picture, and what's next for the Event Horizon Telescope.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 642: Is the Sun... Normal? by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We've always assumed that we lived in a perfectly normal star system with a normal star and normal planets. It's all... normal. But with our modern understanding of billions of stars, just how normal is our Sun, anyway?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 641: Can Planets Be Alive? by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay The Earth is teeming with life, but the upper atmosphere to kilometers underground. There's no question that our planet has life. But is our planet itself alive? This is a question posed back in the 1970s as the Gaia hypothesis, and it got its share of criticism. Some new ideas have been proposed to bring this hypothesis to the modern era as we search for exoplanets.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 640: Survey Science: Newest Projects & Results by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay There are general-purpose telescopes and missions that astronomers can use to study specific objects. And there are the survey missions that look at the entire sky, which astronomers can use to answer questions about the Universe. We've talked about surveys in the past, but the landscape is changing quickly so it's time for an update.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 639: Big Qs Update: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Etc. by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Knowledge moves forward, and so, we must move with it. Today we'll give you an update on some of the most fascinating, fast-changing topics in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 638: Simulating Space Missions by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Although humans have never actually been to Mars, explorers have simulated many aspects of Mars missions here on Earth. There are missions under the ocean, on the tops of volcanoes, in the harsh Canadian north, and even in bed that simulate the limitations of spaceflight, and teach us many of the lessons to prepare us for the real thing
Astronomy Cast Ep. 637: Machine Learning in Astronomy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Computers are a big part of astronomy, but mostly they've been relegated to doing calculations. But recent developments in machine learning have changed everything, giving computers the ability to do jobs that humans could only do in the past.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 636: Blowing Bubbles by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We think of space as a vacuum, but there are regions of different density. There are winds blowing from stars and other objects that clear out vast bubbles in space, and look absolutely fantastic in pictures. And they might have been critical for Earth to even exist in the first place.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 635: Jets: When Magnetic Fields Fling Things by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay As astronomers look out across the Universe. They see various objects spewing jets of material light years into space. What causes these jets? And what impact do they have on the Universe?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 634: Milky Way’s Mergers & Acquisitions by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay The Milky Way is a vast grand spiral today, but how did it get this way? Astronomers are starting to unravel the history of our galaxy, revealing the ancient collisions with dwarf galaxies, and how they came together to build the modern Milky Way.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 633: Weirdly Habitable Places by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We've always assumed that habitable planets would need to be like Earth; a terrestrial planet orbiting a sunlike star. But now astronomers have been discovering planets in the habitable zone around very much non-sunlike stars. What strange places could be habitable?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 632: Building Images: Optical vs Radio by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay A recent image from the South African MeerKAT Telescope blew our minds. It was a high resolution image of the center of the Milky Way showing delicate filaments and other structures. What was so mind blowing is that this was an image from a radio telescope. Today we’re gonna talk about why this was such an accomplishment and what the future holds for radio astronomy.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 631: All The Uses Of Pulsars (Including Murder) by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Pulsars are the rapidly spinning degenerate husks of dead stars, turning hundreds of times a second. But they're also handy clocks, spinning with such certainty and accuracy that astronomers can use them for all kinds of stuff. We might even use them to navigate the cosmos.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 630: Things We Can Look Forward To by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay In a rare moment of weakness, Pamela has decided she's open to the possibility that a future exists. That missions, telescopes and spacecraft are going to be built and they're going to do science. Today we'll talk about what we're looking forward to before she changes her mind and my naive optimism for the future.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 629: The Cost of Delays by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay With all the success of James Webb so far, it's looking like science's huge gamble is going to pay off, but there were years of delays and budget overruns. What impacts did these delays have on science, careers, and the future of space exploration?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 628: The Sun Revisited by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Once again, it's time to take a look at the Sun. You know, the ongoing thermonuclear explosion of fusing hydrogen that's right over there. Fortunately, there's a fleet of spacecraft and ground observatories ready to give our best ever view of the Sun, so we can watch it. Always watching…
Astronomy Cast Ep. 627: Mercury Revisited by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay It’s been about a thousand years since since we last looked at Mercury. So we figured it’s time for an update. What new things have we learned about Mercury? Or even new questions! Fortunately there’s a mission on the way to help us get some answers.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 626: Terrestrial Planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth & Mars by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We continue our refreshed tour of the solar system, checking in on the inner terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. What have we learned about the formation, evolution and what they might tell us about planets across the Universe.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 625: End of the Year Review by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We've reached the end of 2021 and this is the last episode of the year. Let's look back at the big space events of the last year and talk about what we're looking forward to in 2022.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 624: Small Rocky Bodies (Including Phobos & Deimos) by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We've talked about the icy objects of the Solar System, today let's talk about space rocks. There's a surprising variety of rocky material in the Solar System, and each object has a story to tell about the history and formation of the planets, moons and other rocky bodies.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 623: NEOs: Concern or Nah by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Are asteroids dangerous? Well, just ask the dinosaurs and they’ll tell you a sad story of fiery death. It turns out we’re in a shooting gallery of space rock and metal. And somewhere out there there’s one with our name on it. Should we be worried? Or are the risks so minimal to be irrelevant.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 622: Rockier Moons & Giant Asteroids by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay So a rock is a rock is a rock. Right? Across the solar system there are giant rocky asteroids and even “gianter” rocky moons. What is the difference between these two families of objects and where do they come from?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 621: Gas Giants by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay For the longest time the only gas giant planets that we knew about were Jupiter and Saturn. But now, in the age of extrasolar planets, astronomers have discovered thousands of gas giants across almost as many star systems. What new discoveries have been made about gas giants, both here in the solar system and across the Milky Way?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 620: Why Getting to the Outer Worlds is So Difficult by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Good News! Over the next few years we’re gonna see a flotilla of new missions headed to Jupiter and Saturn. Why aren’t we seeing more missions to the outer planets like Uranus and Neptune, even Pluto? It turns out those places are far away. Today let’s talk about the challenges of exploring the outer, outer solar system.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 619: Icy Moons & Dwarf Planets by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay The outer Solar System is far enough from the Sun that water doesn't get blasted away into deep space. In this icy realm, there are many worlds with vast quantities of water ice. Today let's look at the icy outer moons and dwarf planets.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 618: Ice Giants by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay So we’re learning more & more about the outer planets of the solar system. Uranus & Neptune are Ice Giants, filled with water and other volatiles that we'd consider ice if it was here on Earth. What’s inside these worlds and what can we expect to find across the Milky Way as we find more?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 617: Hangout-A-Thon Episode 2 - Crowdfunding Science by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Funding for basic science has always been tricky business, coming mainly from universities, government, companies or wealthy individuals. But who knows how many fascinating discoveries were never made because of a lack of funding. And we now live in an era where regular people can come together to fund scientific discoveries.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 616: Hangout-A-Thon Episode 1 - The Great Observatories by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Well, you’re familiar with the Hubble Space Telescope of course, but it’s just one of NASA’s Great Observatories. After Hubble came 3 more incredible telescopes. Each greater than the last! (That’s not true… The first one was the greatest.) But together they would fill in almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Astronomy Cast Ep. 615: Planet 9 by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay After Pluto lost its planethood we were down to 8 planets. But there’s growing evidence of another world or worlds out beyond the orbit of Pluto. Is Planet 9 out there and how will we find it? Could there even be a Planet 10?
Astronomy Cast Ep. 614: Centaurs, Comets & Asteroids by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay So there are asteroids, and there are comets. But there’s an entirely separate class of objects called centaurs. But instead of half human, half horse, imagine an object that’s half comet, half asteroid, but 100% interesting!
