AstronomyCast 298: Space Stations, Pt. 3: The International Space Station

by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay

AstronomyCast297: Space Stations, Pt. 2: Mir, by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay

AstronomyCast 296: Spacestations, pt. 1, by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay

When too much material tries to come together, everything starts to spin and flatten out. You get an accretion disc. Astronomers find them around newly forming stars, supermassive black holes and many other places in the Universe. Today we’ll talk about what it takes to get an accretion disc, and how they help us understand the objects inside.

Last week we explored the various ways spacecraft can die. But this week, we explore the spacecraft (and the scientists) who never give up, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. We’ll look at clever solutions to potential spacecraft catastrophes.

In the end, everything dies, even plucky space robots. Today we examine the last days of a series of missions. How do spacecraft tend to die, and what did in such heroes as Kepler, Spirit, and Galileo (the missions... not the people).

So many of the forces in space depend on equilibrium, that point where forces perfectly balance out. It defines the shape of stars, the orbits of planets, even the forces at the cores of galaxies. Let's take a look at how parts of the Universe are in perfect balance.

AstronomyCast 294: Arecibo Observatory, by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay

Even the ancient astronomers knew there was something different about the planets. Unlike the rest of the stars, the planets move across the sky, backwards and forwards, round and round. It wasn’t until Copernicus that we finally had a modern notion of what exactly is going on.