Collision Course

Astronomy is back! After a 10-year hiatus and the deletion of Collision Course Season 1 on YouTube, Astronomer at Large Francis Walsh embarks on a brand-new journey into the depths of outer space. He goes as far as the universe reaches depending on the topic. Insider information from astronomy experts and Phd Scientists, Investigators and Co-Investigators. The mission; create an astronomy news source that gives listeners insight they cannot find anywhere else. Collision Course airs interviews and lively debates with scientists, Doctors, & Citizen Scientists. Season 2 airs 2X a week. #astronomy

Last refreshed: July 28th, 2025 at 3:21 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

Parker Solar Probe: 5 Perihelions Later with Professor Marco Velli from UCLA

Good morning, Y'all! Hope all of you are having a wonderful morning like her, or evening depending on where you are or when you are watching or listening! Please remember to follow the Collision Course Podcast on your favorite streaming app. Drop a like and maybe a comment or answer a poll or question that comes with each, new episode. Every action you take makes it possible for more listeners and viewers to get a chance to choose Collision Course as a great source of outer space news that they ...

Feb 09, 2023•45 min•Season 2Ep. 13

Is There a Universal Language? Sonic Geometry May Be the Answer with Eric Rankin

Sonic Geometry - Watch Sonic Geometry Imagine if geometric shapes were numbers and sounds. If you knew how each shape has a number, the sum of the degrees in the angle. If you could do that, you will know the diameter of the Moon, or the number of stones in the Great Giza pyramids. How is it possible that by simply extracting the measurements of geometric shapes could you answer questions you never even thought you could. It's really quite amazing. Sacred Geometry allows you to do just that. You...

Jan 29, 2023•22 min•Season 2Ep. 12

Comet Night January 2023 with Carl Hergenrother and Transient Objects

Tonight, is a Collision Course Comet Night! I am going out with the neighbors to try and see the comet through an 8" SE Celestron Computerized Telescope! Wish us luck! Carl is an expert AND a fan of transient objects. His whole career has had something to do with surveying the night skies and charting asteroids and comets as they move the solar system! Besides the short introduction and intro to his work, we go over the different comets in the sky right now! I hope you enjoy this first, video ep...

Jan 27, 2023•19 min

Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb: Are We an Interstellar Civilization?

This is our second of three talks with Avi Loeb, the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University. With our first discussion focusing mainly on the first Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua, I took the time to go back since the second known interstellar traveler had graced us with its presence. The topic of today's discussion was all things Interstellar. From objects to new discoveries to old science and new. We asked questions that crossed over all of Avi's best research and ideas....

Jan 26, 2023•47 min

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF): The Green Comet That's Catching Everyone's Eyes!

Good morning! Tuesday, January 24th 20231 It's a great day to give you an update regarding the comet that is blazing across the sky as we speak. Of course, that's comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)! It's a comet that was first discovered on March 2, 2022. It was first captured in images from the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California. Palomar is the famous observatory built by George Ellery Hale who was the person most responsible for the building of Palomar Observatory. A graduat...

Jan 24, 2023•28 min

Parker Solar Probe: Man's First Solar Probe with Professor Marco Velli

Parker Solar Probe: Man's First Solar Probe with Professor Marco Velli It's a perilous trip to the edge of the Sun to unlock the mysteries of its atmosphere. The Parker Solar Probe will interact with Venus’ gravity during seven flybys over nearly seven years to gradually bring its orbit closer to the Sun. The spacecraft will fly through the Sun’s atmosphere, sometimes called a "Fry-by", it's as close as 3.8 million miles from our star’s surface, well within the orbit of Mercury and more than sev...

Jan 22, 2023•41 min•Season 2Ep. 8

At the Edge of the Solar System with the IBEX Mission and Dr. Stephen Fuselier from SWRI (Southwest Research Institute)

Our solar system is travelling through the Inter Space Medium on its way around the center of the Milky Way. One of the missions to map the edge of our solar system was undertaken when the IBEX spacecraft was dropped from the belly of a high-altitude jet and sent into an extremely elliptical orbit around Earth. The orbit takes the craft 4/5ths the distance to the Moon and allows it to image the edge of the Heliosphere like never before. After ten years in service, the information the IBEX missio...

Jan 19, 2023•53 min•Season 2Ep. 7

'Oumuamua and the Hawaiian Connection - A Talk with Astrobiologist Karen Meech

Why Was 'Oumuamua Different Than Other Space Rocks Orbiting Inside Our Solar System? We cannot emphasize enough the importance of this information. It is too easy to quickly forget something as important as the discovery of the first interstellar traveler to enter the inner solar system. The information discussed in this episode covers how our guest was critical to the story of 'Oumuamua. Being one of the astronomers on site made it possible for her to receive the first reports of data that prov...

Jan 17, 2023•49 min

For the Record: Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb and the Peculiarities of Interstellar Traveller 'Oumuamua

On October 19, 2017 a signal came from a Hawaiian-based research telescope that energized a large community of scientists and astronomers to learn more about an object orbiting within the inner solar system that had originated from outside our solar system An Interstellar Traveler, a first. Francis was quick to hear about and research the discovery and any information that was gleened from observation made as the object remained visible to land and space-based telescopes pointed their lenses in ...

Jan 15, 2023•51 min•Season 2Ep. 5

Planet 9 and 10 (X) with Dr. Renu Malhotra - Are There Two, Unidentified Planetesimals Hiding Out in Our Solar System?

Renu Malhotra (born 1961) is an American planetary scientist from India , known for using the orbital resonance between Pluto and Neptune to infer large-scale orbital migration of the giant planets and to predict the existence of Plutinos in resonance with Neptune. The asteroid 6698 Malhotra was named for her on 14 December 1997 (M.P.C. 31025). Francis and Dr. Malhotra discuss the latest information coming from the scientific community regarding the discovery of yet to be discovered planetesimal...

Jan 12, 2023•27 min•Season 2Ep. 4

WE'RE ALREADY BEHIND THE COSMIC 8-BALL

I CAN'T HELP IT, THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS ARE GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO ANSWER! What do you do when your friend comes to you and asks, "Have you heard about a pulse of energy that's going to hit our Heliosphere?” What is going to happen to me? One day it's the Heliosphere, the next day it's a comet. I never know exactly where the question is going to come from, but I know the questions will come. I t's my job to take those questions and make some sense out of what we know and who we can t...

Jan 05, 2023•18 min•Season 2Ep. 2

WELCOME BACK SEASON 2 EP 1

HEY! IT'S FRANCIS! COLLISION COURSE WAS CREATED IN A BACK ROOM INSIDE AN OBSERVATORY TEN YEARS AGO. IT WAS USED AS A DEFENDING FORCE AGAINST FALSE FACTS AND OUTRIGHT LIES IN 2010 WHEN YOUTUBE PROPHETS FED LAYMEN LIES ABOUT IMPENDING DOOM COMING FROM OUTER SPACE. ALL THE WHILE AIDING IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW TELESCOPE OBSERVATORIES IN THE US AND FOSTERING NEW ASTRONOMY ACTIVITIES IN CAMEROON, AFRICA. LOCAL ASTRONOMY OUTREACH WILL BE BOLSTERED BY THE NEW SEASON WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO DIRECTLY SUP...

Jan 03, 2023•13 min•Season 2Ep. 1

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