What will astronomy be like in the year 2033? 

In the first of this two-part series, we predict the (short-term) fate of the solar system, exoplanets, and the culture of astronomy a decade down the line. Kiersten and Will both focus on planets, one close to home and the other (hopefully) not too far away. We then get futuristic forecasts from six guest astronomers working around the world, who paint us an exciting (and slightly troubling) picture of new-wave astrophysics, covering everything from the role of machine learning to a crisis in publishing, with discoveries of Earth-like exoplanets in between!  

Stay tuned for Part II, in which Alex and Sabrina will talk about the more distant universe and eight more guest astronomers describe the future of their fields.

Astrobites:

astrobites.org/2023/02/13/earth-as-an-exoplanet/

astrobites.org/2021/05/08/where-to-find-biosignatures-on-mars-a-case-for-clays/

Space sound:

https://eos.org/articles/nasas-perseverance-rover-records-the-first-sounds-of-a-dust-devil-on-mars

Imaginable book: janemcgonigal.com/2021/12/17/imaginable-how-to-see-the-future-coming-and-feel-ready-for-anything-even-things-that-seem-impossible-today/

Superforcasting book:

wsp.wharton.upenn.edu/book/superforecasting/

In our second episode taking another in-depth look into community college, we start off by hearing about Sabrina’s experiences. She tells us about her journey from attending high school abroad to starting community college. Kiersten also interviews , Prof. Andria Schwortz, a physics and astronomy professor at Quinsigamond Community College. Join us on an adventure to Europe, community college, and with a second love story sprinkled in. Don’t forget to check out our associated astrobites beyond post!

Prof. Andria Schwortz twitter: https://twitter.com/aschwortz

Equity image link: https://healthcity.bmc.org/policy-and-industry/health-equity-vs-health-equality-whats-difference

Did you know that half of our astro[sound]bites co-hosts went to community college? We’re here to talk about our experiences and work towards breaking the stigma! This is our first episode in this two part series which features Kiersten’s trajectory from community college into a brilliant exoplanet scientist. Next, Alex interviews Dra. Natalie Nicole Sanchez, an NSF MPS-Ascend postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Observatories and Caltech, whose interest in astrophysics was sparked while studying art at community college. Join us on a whirlwind tour of engineering, love affairs, and artistic endeavors - and stay tuned for an associated astrobites post!

Link to Dra. Sanchez’s twitter: https://twitter.com/the_n_nicole

This episode is all about magnetic fields because we couldn’t stay away from such a polarizing topic! Alex takes us on a journey to the center of a star where we find how intense its magnetic field actually is. Along the way, Kiersten brings up a blast from the past with a sonification that had its own record release. To wrap up, Sabrina tells how we can use radio waves to find an exoplanet with a magnetic field because cosmic rays and solar winds don’t sound like a pleasant time for us humans. 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2022/07/19/

https://astrobites.org/2022/09/08/

In this episode, the gang catches multiplicity mania and learn about sextuple systems of stars, galaxies, and planets. Sabrina brings us an astrobite that resonates with us all (or maybe none of us), Will the Fourth carries the torch in studying the hierarchical Castor system, and Alex speeds through a requiem for high-redshift galaxies taken from us too soon. 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2021/09/30

https://astrobites.org/2022/11/07

https://astrobites.org/2022/02/26 

Compact Object Merging with its Companion Star Triggering a Supernova: 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/astronomy-star-swallow-black-hole-supernova-cosmology

Space sound: https://vimeo.com/621744665

A transient radio source consistent with a merger-triggered core collapse supernova: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abg6037

In-Vitro Is Not The Only Reason Older Women Have More Twins:

https://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20060222/older-women-more-likely-to-have-twins

We’re back with more of the most important papers in our subfields. Sabrina tells us how Karl, an engineer at Bell Labs, became the father of radio astronomy and stole her heart through time and space. Kiersten couldn’t pick just one paper so she choses a review article and gives it a favorable review on our own little a[s]b revue program.

The gang really struggles on the space sound and then decides it just might be okay to peak in grad school.

Papers:

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1933PA.....41..548J

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/428383/pdf

Space sound: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/19/5065

Episode 63: Our Take on Landmark Papers Part I

In this week’s episode, we take a deeper look into Alex and Will’s research through two landmark papers in their field. Will pulls out a strip chart to teach us about how Neptune’s atmosphere looked in the 1960s (and why it’s still important today). Alex gives us a deeper look into explosive transients and presents a paper on supernovae from the early 1970s that reveals the power of fermi estimation and a little intuition. Meanwhile, Sabrina kicks off a conversation about the ethics of research and faces the reality of not being able to check every line of source code from the simulations she uses. See you next episode for Kiersten and Sabrina’s turn!

Link to sonification competititon: https://astrosoundbites.com/astrosoundbites-sonification-challenge-2022/

Papers:

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1969A%26A.....2..398K

https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1973A%26A....29..393D

Space Sound: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3x0sBCQ_c8

Acoustic dispersion (and its connection to laser beams and FRBs):

https://www.npr.org/2016/12/21/506305383/why-does-a-frozen-lake-sound-like-a-star-wars-blaster

Halloween is in the air! Get ready for a spoooooky episode where we take a stroll through the haunted side of the Universe. Alex takes us on a trek through a graveyard to investigate the skeletons the Milky Way is hiding - and no, we’re not talking about the candy! Then Will tells us a ghost story about the old blue monsters hiding under our extragalactic beds, but don’t worry too much. He reassured us that they only eat dust. 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2022/06/22/galactic-skeletons/

https://astrobites.org/2022/09/27/did-blue-monster-galaxies-in-the-early-universe-sweep-away-their-dust/

Space Sound: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfFoUWm3NDA

The gang is back! In this episode, we take a trip to the largest and the smallest astronomical scales to learn about all the exciting new ways that JWST is transforming the field in its first 100 days. Sabrina zooms out to find some sparkly galaxies and catch a glimpse into the  dazzling high-redshift Universe. Then Kiersten zooms into JWST’s first directly imaged exoplanet to figure out why it’s making us all so hungry. We round out the episode with an interview from York University Professor Sarah Rugheimer, who tells us all about the science to get excited about in the years to come.

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2022/09/06/sparkling-stars/

https://astrobites.org/2022/09/01/jwsts-first-directly-imaged-exoplanet/

Space Sound: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=49&v=La9DB-bcy5Y&feature=emb_title

We’re herded into a crowded auditorium for a press conference held by our very own Sabrina Berger. The breaking news? We’re going on break! But not just that, we’re launching our second sonification challenge! This challenge is focused on using sound for instruction, so submit a sound that teaches us about an astronomy concept in two minutes or less. Click the link below for details. To get inspired, we hear from Jendaya Wells, a music major at Lincoln University and a member of the team using sonification to explore data from the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory! Both her and her sonifications are very bright. 

Links:

Astro[sound]bites Sonification Contest: https://astrosoundbites.com/astrosoundbites-sonification-challenge-2022/

Rubin Rhapsodies: https://lsst-tvssc.github.io/RubinRhapsodies

Sound Effects: https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk