MACHOs and Micro-lensing In this Starcast, MACHOs and microlensing are the primary tools discussed for mapping the cold, dark, and lonely objects that make up the majority of the universe. Mike Lewinski explains that while traditional gravitational lenses are stable over centuries, microlensing involves smaller objects like isolated black holes or free-floating planets that temporarily […]

Destination: Moon! In this episode of Starcast, hosts Jay Shaffer and Mike Lewinski discuss current space weather and a rare triple lunar alignment before diving into the ambitious 2026 lunar exploration schedule and the significant technical and human challenges of establishing a presence on the moon. Episode Links: Lunar Radiation: https://www.space.com/moon-radiation-dose-for-astronauts-measured For All Mankind: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7772588/ […]

“Essential Equipment”  This episode of Starcast features Mike Lewinski and Jay Shaffer discussing an incoming G2-G3 solar storm, the upcoming Geminid meteor shower, the discovery of life-precursor sugars like glucose in the Bennu asteroid samples, and sharing their favorite astrophotography equipment, including a sky quality meter and a budget star tracker, for a holiday gift […]

Meteorites and “Wrongs” This episode of Starcast, recorded on the anniversary of the first known person to be injured by a falling meteorite, covers an active space weather forecast featuring Sunspot 4294, news of a supermoon and the Geminids, and a deep dive into how to distinguish actual meteorites from “meteor-wrongs” using four key tests […]

Hubble Tension This week’s Starcast dives into the Hubble Tension, exploring how conflicting measurements of the universe’s expansion rate—one from the early cosmos and one from the local universe—challenge the standard model of cosmology and hint at new physics.   Episode Links: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-universe-is-decelerating-and-standard-candles-arent-so-standard-according-to-a-new-study  https://briankoberlein.com/blog/tipping-scale/  https://briankoberlein.com/blog/masering-tale/

We’ve Got Green! (Northern Lights) The Starcast for the week of November 16, 2025, covers the past week’s spectacular geomagnetic storm and aurora display, the upcoming Leonid meteor shower peak, and the successful launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on the Escapade mission to Mars.   Episode Links: Mike’s Time-Lapse: https://youtu.be/DD0fahqCMq4 Jay’s Time-Lapse: https://youtu.be/pG7XphglrhU […]

Dark Energy This week’s Starcast dives deep into groundbreaking research suggesting the universe’s expansion is actually slowing down, prompting a major reconsideration of the nature and evolution of dark energy away from the standard cosmological model. Episode Links: https://science.nasa.gov/dark-energy/ https://phys.org/news/2025-11-universe-expansion-evidence-mounts-dark.html https://www.poetry.com/poem/32878/the-great-explosion    

Dark Mass Mike and Jay discuss recent astronomical observations, including the departure of Comet 3I/Atlas and Taurid meteor activity, before diving into a detailed overview of dark matter, its historical discovery, observational evidence through gravity, and its inferred distribution in the universe as a cosmic web.     Episode Links: Taurid threat: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576525006460#sec5 Dark Matter: […]

Candle Stars The podcast episode discusses how the pioneering work of Henrietta Swan Leavitt on Cepheid variables—giant pulsating stars whose period of pulsation directly relates to their true luminosity—provided the first reliable standard candle for astronomers like Edwin Hubble to measure vast cosmic distances and understand the expansion of the universe.   Episode Links: On […]

Wayback Machine This week Mike and Jay discuss a new study about the early, warmer-than-expected universe, which leads to a deep dive into the properties of cosmic microwave background radiation and listening to the Big Bang. Also, a launch of Kuiper satellites, and an update on space weather and the night sky. Episode Links: The […]