syzygy

In this rather delayed episode, we say farewell to an old friend: the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico, tragically destroyed at the start of December 2020 after 57 years of solid service. Wiping a fond tear from her eye, Emily recalls the scientific highlights and cultural importance of this great telescope dish.

Syzygy Merch! Get it at the store.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

You might be interested in a new, sciencey podcast: Science, possibly — science-adjacent stories by Chris Stewart and James Lees.

Things we talk about in this episode:

Sample-return missions

Video of Arecibo’s final moments — Nature

#WhatAreciboMeansToMe on Twitter

Arecibo’s scientific legacy

The SETI Institute

The Arecibo Message

Syzygy Merch! Get it at the store.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

The Blanets paper

On Interstellar and real physics

Black hole photo from 2019 

The Snow (or Frost) Line

The recent Squeezar paper

S2’s orbit around the supermassive black hole in our galaxy 

New speed and distance record holder S4714 

Syzygy Merch! Get it at the store.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

As of 2020, 57 women have won a Nobel Prize (Marie Curie got two — Physics and Chemistry!) That’s 57 — compared to 870 men and 25 organisations. We should celebrate those who have won, and try harder to recognise, encourage and reward women across the sciences — and all facets of human endeavour.

Female Nobel Laureates

The 2020 Nobel Prize announcement video

The Nobel Foundation’s 2020 Physics Prize page

The Physics Nobel Prize since 1901

A short history of black holes

Minute Physics video series on Special Relativity

Royal Institution video introduction to General Relativity

Schwarzschild and his radius

Quasars and AGN

Roger Penrose
Penrose tiling

MC Escher

Escher’s impossible constructions

Star S2 orbiting the black hole at super speed

ESO video of S2’s orbit

Andrea Ghez’s experiment

Reinhard Genzel

Sagittarius A*

Speckle imaging

Active and Adaptive Optics

An article on quantum gravity

Syzygy Merch! Get it at the store.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

The Phosphine on Venus paper

Lead scientist Jane Greaves explains (video)

Another good video about phosphine (Periodic Videos)

Venus and the runaway greenhouse effect

Extremophiles on Earth

Biosignatures

The Pigeon, the Antenna and Me (video)

Missions to Venus

First photos from Venus

Parker Solar Probe mission

BepiColombo’s Venus fly-by

How hot is the surface of Venus again?

Syzygy Merch! Get it at the store.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

Going to Mars:

China’s mission

UAE mission

USA mission

Books:

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book

Cosmic Revolutionary’s Handbook

Pods:

Astronomycast

Liftoff

Films:

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy everything else

Galaxy Quest

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Dish

Hidden Figures

TV:

Cosmos, Sagan edition

Cosmos, Updated

Space (Hyperspace), with Sam Neil

Space Force

Orbit

YouTube:

Emily’s drain-unblocking fave, post 10

Dr Pimple Popper (warning: not for the squeamish!)

Crash Course Astronomy

Deep Sky Videos

Sean Carroll’s Biggest Ideas in the Universe

Web & Apps:

Stellarium

Gaia Sky

Cats in Space Quoting Scientists

Lunar Loo Challenge

Also worth checking out:

Star In A Box

Ryugu Trek

Exoplanet Travel Bureau

If the Moon Were 1 Pixel

Astro gear:

Syzygy’s own merch

Emily’s Pinterest

STARtorialist

Galaxy on Glass

NASA valentines

Fabric & quilting:

Robert Kaufman Science Fair

Stargazer

Andover Colour Theory

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

Comet NEOWISE

Spotting NEOWISE in the sky: North America, the UK

The USA’s going to Mars

So is the UAE

And so is China

The CNO Neutrino research (PDF slides from talk)

Nature article about the research

The Borexino experiment

Neutrinos, sneaky things

Fusion inside stars

PP Chain reaction

The CNO cycle

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talk about in this episode:

ESO release on the research

The ALMA telescope observations of 2017

ESO video zooming into the stettar disc

The SPHERE instrument

The Snow Line, a.k.a. the Frost Line

The Extremely Large Telescope

The cancelled Overwhelmingly Large Telescope

Telescope names by xkcd

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Special Event! Syzygy Live at the Festival of Ideas — Friday 12 June, 8-9pm UK time. All the details at the website.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talked about in this episode:

Neutron stars and pulsars

Videos on neutron stars from Kurzgesagt: video 1, video 2

Most precise pulsar, more stable than an Atomic clock

The Crab Nebula pulsar

Video on the Supernova of 1054

P-dot disgram

The Ideal Gas Law

Equations of state

LIGO

Gravitational wave evidence for neutron star mergers

Veritasium video on neutron star mergers

Special Event! Syzygy Live at the Festival of Ideas — Friday 12 June, 8-9pm UK time. All the details at the website.

Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypod

Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypod

Things we talked about in this episode:

The BBFH paper

Nucleosynthesis

P-P chain reaction

The Hot CNO cycle

Margaret Burbidge obituary, 5 April 2020

Geoffrey Burbidge obituary, 6 Feb 2010

William Fowler

The Nobel Prize 1983

Frank Hoyle

Hoyle and the Big Bang

Panspermia