In this episode, we take a closer look at how the increasing number of rockets and satellites going up mean there is also an unfortunate increase in the space junk coming down. We also cover dramatic weather, stars dying and disappearing, and update you on Maven and Paranal Observatory. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast ...
Feb 20, 2026•29 min
Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. actualastronomy@gmail.com Episode 522. Continuing on with our 2026 resolution we have a special guest listener joining us today. Richard Navarette is a long time amateur astronomer from the San Francisco Bay Area where he has been instrumental in getting people out observing through The Astronomy Connection, well known as "TAC". Richard has owned 20+ telescopes over the years and while he has enjoyed viewing thr...
Feb 19, 2026•1 hr 4 min
Astronomers just found something cool! Typically, most Sun-like stars host planets between the size of Earth and Neptune called 'super-Earths' or 'sub-Neptunes'. These planets often orbit their stars even closer than Mercury orbits our Sun. They're mostly rocky super-Earths or they have a thick atmosphere and a rocky core and are sub-Neptunes. They're the most common types of planet found in our Galaxy. And yet, astronomers weren't sure exactly how these planets formed. So yeah, they found somet...
Feb 18, 2026•6 min
Hosted by Dr. Paul M. Sutter. Why is math so effective at describing the Universe? What is reality is made of math? What does it mean for us to be conscious beings in a mathematical structure? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes: http://www.AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, as...
Feb 17, 2026•33 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVvY9HGss8E Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Feb 13, 2026. Modern astronomy has found that the Universe can surprise us. Here's one which astronomers have called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients. They're kinda like supernovas, they're kind of like gamma ray bursts, but they're not like them. So what are they? In the distant Universe, are blue light flashes, bright and hard to understand. These objec...
Feb 16, 2026•29 min
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From June & July 2025. Today's 2 topics: - In 2016 NASA created the Planetary Defense Coordination Office to manage the mission of finding, tracking, and studying asteroids and comets which could pose an impact threat to our home planet.The NASA documentary "Planetary Defenders" provides an...
Feb 15, 2026•6 min
Sweeping winds of vaporized metals have been found in a massive cloud that dimmed the light of a star for nearly nine months. This discovery, made with the Gemini South telescope in Chile offers a rare glimpse into the chaotic and dynamic processes still shaping planetary systems long after their formation. In this podcast, Dr. Nadia Zakamska describes the discovery of this object, stemming from a mysterious dimming of a star, to the analysis of the gas cloud. Bios: - Rob Sparks is in the Commun...
Feb 14, 2026•16 min
From May 21, 2020. Join us today as we discuss the impressive work by an undergraduate student who figured out how galaxy mergers influence the growth of supermassive black holes. We talk about a gigantic galaxy found in the early universe. And finally, we look at amazing images of a planet being formed around a distant star. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donat...
Feb 13, 2026•9 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Alz4UXGqLk From March 8, 2017. In just a few months, NASA's Cassini spacecraft is going to die, crashing into the planet Saturn. Let's look back across the mission's history. What were the highlights? What did we learn? Team: Fraser Cain - @fcain / frasercain@gmail.com Karla Thompson - @karlaii Chad Weber - weber.chad@gmail.com Ask me my favorite object in the Solar System, especially to see through a telescope, and my answer is always the same: Saturn. Saturn is...
Feb 12, 2026•12 min
A podcast about rocks, big and small. Dear Cheap Astronomy – What's Psyche really like? Psyche is an asteroid in the asteroid belt and apparently a very metal rich one, which makes it a prospecting target for budding asteroid miners. Pysche is also a spacecraft, launched on October 13, 2023. We're recording this episode about one month after launch when it's already over 15 million km from Earth – and its destination? Yep, Psyche – the asteroid. Dear Cheap Astronomy – How is Mars Sample Return m...
Feb 11, 2026•15 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7FAg_AYXaw From April 14, 2025. Astronomers using the JWST have made direct observations of the black hole at the center of our galaxy: Sagittarius A*. These observations are possible because the Webb Space Telescope can peer through the dust at the center of our galaxy using infrared light. These observations surprised astronomers. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www....
Feb 10, 2026•9 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpZRjII8qkc Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Feb 2, 2026. One long standing mystery in astronomy were the quasars. Incomprehensible energy blasting out of a point-like source, billions of light years away. We now know these are actively feeding supermassive black holes, which can turn off and on in a startlingly short period of time. Today: When black holes awaken! Our Universe is filled with sleeping mo...
Feb 09, 2026•32 min
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From June, 2025. Today's 2 topics: - In the search for life on Mars, Europa, Titan, and elsewhere in the universe astro-biologists are scouring the Earth for creatures tough enough to flourish under really difficult conditions. So far the leading species are the Tardigrades commonly known as wa...
Feb 08, 2026•6 min
Hosted by Avivah Yamani, our Director. February 2026 is packed for stargazers at the equator, with a dusk-time planet parade, dark New Moon skies for astrophotography, and the year's first "Ring of Fire" annular solar eclipse on February 17 (visible from Antarctica). Catch beautiful Moon pairings with Antares, Saturn, the Pleiades, and Jupiter, and join the Globe at Night campaign to help measure light pollution in your area. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support ed...
Feb 07, 2026•7 min
From January 28, 2026. In this episode we look at highlights from the latest American Astronomical Society Meeting. An accidental theme came out: with each new telescope and each improved instrument we can look more closely at our Universe - we can and do learn more and understand more even about the things we thought we knew best. In this episode, Rubin Observatory brings rapidly rotating asteroids, and JWST peers at objects thriving in the first 2 billion years of our universe. Observatory aft...
Feb 06, 2026•32 min
Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. actualastronomy@gmail.com This month we talk about the Moon occulting Regulus, Saturn and Neptune pairing up while Mercury is visible in the evening sky and occulted by the Moon for some. The Zodiacal light also becomes visible in February and we give you the details on seeing lunar features and some of the best Deep Sky objects plus the Carbon and Double Stars to see at this month. Feb 1 - Full Moon - 26 Aur Co...
Feb 05, 2026•43 min
Paul Hill and Dr. Jenifer "Dr. Dust" Millard host. Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce. We discuss the British Government's vandalism of UK physics and astronomy. In better news we celebrate the refunding of NASA and the up coming Artemis II mission… will Paul finally get excited? We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Sha...
Feb 04, 2026•1 hr 16 min
Hosted by Dr. Paul M. Sutter. What is the weak equivalency principle? How was antimatter discovered and why is it the perfect thing to put gravity to the test? What did the CERN experiment discover? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes: http://www.AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books Keep those questions about space, science, astrono...
Feb 03, 2026•30 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIVunut4Dgk Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Jan 26, 2026. We live in a cosmic shooting gallery. It's not a matter of "if" but "when"! Dinosaurs, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. But seriously, folks, it's raining rocks & ice out there! How seriously should we take it? What happens when a variety of different objects hit the Earth? Different kinds of objects affect Earth very differently when th...
Feb 02, 2026•34 min
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From May & June, 2025. Today's 2 topics: - In a recent paper published in Nature Astronomy entitled "Surveys of the scientific community on the existence of extraterrestrial life" Dr. Peter Vickers and his team of 10 co-authors report the results of their survey of the lead authors for the ...
Feb 01, 2026•6 min
Hosted by our Director, Avivah Yamani. Earth swings closest to the Sun at perihelion and farthest at aphelion, words that apply to every planet orbiting the Sun. Learn how Kepler's laws reveal an elliptical orbit, why Earth moves faster at perihelion, and why seasons come from Earth's tilt, not distance. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! ...
Jan 31, 2026•8 min
From February 8, 2021. A new theory has been proposed that could answer the question of what causes recurring landslides on Mars: small-scale ice melting just below the surface may leave the regolith vulnerable to wind. Plus, a look at some of Earth's ancient climate changes, a gamma-ray source, puffy galaxies, and this week's What's Up. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstrono...
Jan 30, 2026•21 min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxgdcG_NQyA Hosted by Fraser Cain. And a happy robin. From May 3, 2018. The European Space Agency just dropped an enormous amount of data onto the scientific community. The location and position of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and ...
Jan 29, 2026•11 min
Paul Hill and Dr. Jenifer "Dr. Dust" Millard host. Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce. So it looks like Low Earth Orbit is not just crowded but a disaster waiting to happen trapping humanity on this planet for a very long time… https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.09643 We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com...
Jan 28, 2026•57 min
Still looking. Hosted by Steve Nerlich. Dear Cheap Astronomy – Is there anything new on Planet 9? Well, not really and there is some growing skepticism about whether it's really there. Nonetheless, its original proponents, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, still stick to their guns on the matter, though both agree Planet 9's existence must be considered speculative until it is actually observed. Dear Cheap Astronomy – Is Nemesis really out there? Continuing the theme of hypothetical solar syste...
Jan 27, 2026•15 min
From October 23, 2008. Hosted by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay. Everyone loves a theme. And this week we've collected together some of your questions about relativity. More light speed spacecraft, twin paradoxes, and the mixing up of gravity, time and mass. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name. - What would happen if you're t...
Jan 26, 2026•36 min
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From May, 2025. Today's 2 topics: - NASA's Europa Clipper was launched October 14, 2024 on a mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter's Moon Europa. The space craft will travel some 1.8 billion miles and should reach Jupiter in April 2030. This mission will begin to tell us if life as we ...
Jan 25, 2026•6 min
Hosted by Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, Dr. Tshiamiso Makwela, Dr. Daniel Cunnama & François Campher. At long last…we're back!!! The Cosmic Savannah is entering an exciting new era as we transition into a video podcast! In this episode, we kick off that journey and invite you to join us as we venture even deeper into the cosmic ocean—exploring the universe, sharing new perspectives, and connecting with the people who bring astronomy to life. Exciting times lie ahead, and we're thrilled to have you a...
Jan 24, 2026•1 hr 2 min
From April 28, 2022. An analysis of images taken by the Spirit rover of olivine-rich rocks in Gusev crater has revealed a much more violent volcanic origin than originally thought and one that likely occurred early in Mars's history. Plus, balloon science, more Mars, more volcanoes, pretty Hubble images, and What's Up (a supernova!). We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy a...
Jan 23, 2026•25 min
https://spacescoop.org/en/scoops/2529/a-thrilling-radio-message-from-a-nearby-red-star/ Hosted by our editor, Richard Drumm. About 130 light-years away from Earth there's an early M-Dwarf star called StKM 1-1262. Let's call it 1262… It's actually a common, ordinary star, the most common of stars, in fact. It's a red dwarf! They're also called 'Flare Stars' because they flare up frequently. Tempestuous little buggers! Not long ago astronomers got an exciting radio message of a sort from this star...
Jan 22, 2026•6 min
