Spacepod

Dr. Quan-Zhi Ye tries an unusual frappuccino and explains how meteor showers are related to comets. He tells the story of how he became interested in comets and asteroids, and fills us in on some of his recent research.

Dr. Jessie Christiansen returns to the show to talk about newly discovered exoplanets! She explains why this planetary system was devilishly difficult to observe with ground-based telescopes, and how one of the planets poses a puzzle.

Dr. Raymond Francis talks about a rock-vaporizing laser and the software that controls it. He describes how he and colleagues programmed a computer to make choices like a geologist would, allowing the Curiosity rover to do more science on Mars.

Dr. Bethany Ehlmann returns to talk about Ceres. She tells us what certain types of silicates have in common with phyllo dough, and explains how traces of ammonia on Ceres hint at unusual history for this dwarf planet.

Dr. Tiffany Meshkat describes direct imaging of exoplanets, which astronomers have used to discover enormous, young planets. She also talks about WFIRST, a mission under development that would be able to find and characterize exoplanets.

Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos talks about how he discovered the driest place on Earth— a region in the Atacama Desert not far from where he grew up. He explains how he collects and studies microbial life that live in these extremely dry regions.

Dr. Michele Koppes stops by to talk about her glacier research on planet Earth. She describes how a melting glacier triggered a staggeringly large landslide in 2015, and how glaciers can match even humans in their ability to transform the landscape.

Dr. David Ciardi talks about Vega, a bright star that's "been a part of human lore forever." Dr. Ciardi and his colleagues discovered that Vega has a nearby ring of dust, implying the presence of planets. He also describes an encounter with a giant inflatable bumblebee at Palomar Observatory.

John Dailey explains how he uses his software engineering skills to discover asteroids at IPAC/Caltech. He helps solve problems inherent to working with astronomical data, such as the challenge of reading in and out huge volumes of data from hard drives.

Dr. Ingrid Daubar stops by to talk about HiRISE, a camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft that takes amazing images of the Martian surface. She explains how she uses these images to search for fresh craters, and how you (yes you!) suggest areas of the planet for this camera to image. (Correction to episode: Mars' atmosphere is 0.6% that of Earth, not 6%)