Astronomy Cast

Pulsar powering up; Prototype Gamma-Ray telescope sees Crab Nebula; Hot stars have giant magnetic spots

571: Extreme Binaries

So we're familiar with regular binary stars. Two stars orbiting each other. Simple. Of course the Universe has come up with every combination of things orbiting other things, and this week we look at some extreme examples.

Ep. 569: Ethics of Commercial and Military Space, Part 1: Private Space Flight

Every year, more and more people are making their way to space. Some private citizens have already gotten their astronaut wings, paying for a trip to space out of their own pocket. What are the ethical implications of this as ...

Ep. 567: When Satellites Need a House Call

Space is really far away, so when you send a satellite out into the void, that's pretty much the last you're going to be able to work on it. And if anything goes wrong, too bad, you're out a satellite. ...

Ep. 565: When Worlds Collide

565: When Worlds Collide Astronomy Cast 565: When Worlds Collide by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay So much of our Solar System has been shaped by enormous collisions early on in our history. Seriously, the nature of every planet ...

Ep. 563: White Dwarf Mergers

White dwarfs are usually about 60% the mass of the Sun, so it was a bit of a surprise when astronomers found one that was almost exactly twice that. What happens when white dwarfs merge?

Ep. 561: Remembering Katherine Johnson

We lost a bright star here on planet Earth last week. NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away at the age of 101, after an incredible career of helping humans land on the Moon. If you saw the movie Hidden Figures, ...

Ep. 559: The Surface of the Sun

A brand new telescope has completed on Maui's Haleakala, and it has just one job: to watch the Sun in unprecedented detail. It's called the Daniel K. Inouye telescope, and the engineering involved to get this telescope operational are matched ...

Ep. 557: Red Dwarfs: Friend or Foe

On the one hand, red dwarfs are the longest lived stars in the Universe, the perfect place for life to hang out for trillions of years. On the other hand, they're tempestuous little balls of plasma, hurling out catastrophic flares ...

Ep. 555: Satellite Constellations and the Future of Astronomy

The other big issue at the AAS was the challenge that astronomy is going to face from all the new satellite constellations coming shortly. There are already 180 Starlinks in orbit, and thousands more are coming, not to mention the ...

Ep. 553: What To Look Forward To In 2020

It's hard to believe it, but we survived another trip around the Sun. Now it's time to take the whole journey all over again, but with new news. Let's take a look at some of the space and astronomy stories ...

CosmoQuest Hangoutathon Promo

Hi everyone, Producer Susie here. This weekend, December 21-23, 2019, we will be having our CosmoQuest Hangoutathon. For 40 straight hours, our team will be bringing you guests, science and fun live on our channel. We are raising money to ...

Ep. 550: Missing Epochs - Observing the Cosmic Dark Ages

Powerful observatories like Hubble and the Very Large Telescope have pushed our vision billions of light-years into the Universe, allowing us to see further and further back in time. But there are regions which we still haven't seen: the Cosmic ...

Ep. 548: Stellar nucleosynthesis revisited: In stellar cores & atmospheres

The Universe started out with hydrogen and helium and a few other elements, but all around us, there are other, more proton-rich elements. We believe these heavier elements formed in stars, but which stars? And at what points in their ...

Ep. 546: Weird Issues: Planetary Migration

Before we discovered other planets, our Solar System seemed like a perfectly reasonable template for everywhere. But now we see massive planets close to their stars, which leads you to the question, how does it all get there. Do the ...

Ep. 544: Weird Issues: Biosignatures

Once again, another place where the Universe is going to make this difficult for us. Proving, once and for all that there's alien life on another world. It should be straightforward, look for biosignatures, but it looks like there are ...

Ep. 543: Weird Issues: The Habitable Zone

Our series on Universe weirdness marches on. This week we take a look at the habitable zone, and how things aren’t as simple as we thought. In this episode we mentioned donations.

Ep. 541: Weird Issues: Expansion Rate of the Universe

541: Weird Issues: Expansion Rate of the Universe Astronomy Cast 541: Weird Issues: Expansion Rate of the Universe by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Just when the Universe was starting to make sense, the cosmos throws a curveball at ...

Ep. 539: Weird Issues: Why We Don't Know the Age of Saturn's Rings

How old are Saturn's rings? They could be brand new, or they could be as ancient as the Solar System itself. Planetary scientists thought they knew the answer thanks to new data from Cassini, but new ideas are calling even ...

Ep. 537: Reusable Rocket Revolution

We took a hiatus this summer, but SpaceX sure didn’t, with the tests of the Starhopper prototype. Today we’re going to talk about the revolution in reusable rocketry and quest to build a fully reusable two-stage rocket.

Astronomy Cast on Hiatus until Sept 2019

Astronomy Cast will be on hiatus for July and August. Don't worry, we'll be back in September, and we might just have surprises for you all along this summer! Don't forget you can still catch Pamela with Daily Space, rocket ...

Ep. 535: Astronomy-Related Things To Do This Summer

535: Astronomy-Related Things To Do This Summer Astronomy Cast 535: Astronomy-Related Things To Do This Summer by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay It's summertime, and time for our annual Astronomy Cast hiatus. But that doesn't mean that the astronomy ...

Ep. 533: Indigenous South African Astronomy

533: Indigenous South African Astronomy Astronomy Cast 533: Indigenous South African Astronomy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Let's move to another continent this week, and look at the astronomy that was going on in southern Africa in ancient ...

Ep. 531: Australian Indigenous Astronomy

531: Australian Indigenous Astronomy Astronomy Cast 531: Australian Indigenous Astronomy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay South America, especially the Atacama Desert in Chile has become one of the best places in the world to put a telescope. It's ...

Ep. 529: Astronomy of the Andes - Then and Now Pt. 1

529: Astronomy of the Andes - Then and Now Pt. 1 Astronomy Cast 529: Astronomy of the Andes - Then and Now Pt. 1 by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay The Andes mountains in South America are a hotspot ...