The 365 Days of Astronomy

http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/AstroCast-070326.mp3

From March 26, 2007.

This week we’re talking about asteroids. And not just any asteroids, but Near Earth Objects. How do astronomers find these things, why are they buzzing around the Earth, what are the chances we’ll actually get hit, and what would happen if we did get hit? How could we stop them?

Near Earth Objects:

• Near Earth Objects – Official NASA website
• Torino Impact Hazard Scale
• Near Earth Objects Information Centre
• The NEO Page – links on NEOs from Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.
• NASA on the Prowl for Near-Earth Objects

Dealing with the Threat:

• How to Fight an Asteroid – Alan Boyle
• Action plan for killer asteroids

Programs:

• Near Earth Object Search Program
• Using the LSST to observe NEOs
• Planetary Society Offers $50,000 Prize for Asteroid Tagging Designs
• Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search

Dinosaur Killer?

• It Took More Than an Asteroid to Kill the Dinosaurs
• Yucatan Asteroid Didn’t Kill Dinosaurs, Study Says

Also Mentioned:

• Phil “the Bad Astronomer” Plait’s blog and video podcast, Q & BA
• The Universe Today weekly podcast and daily space news feed. Please note, production of this podcast is on hold until Fraser finishes school this semester, but back episodes are still available.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006.

Today's 2 topics:

- I discover 2015 YV1, a 250' diameter asteroid. It's not a potentially hazardous object, thankfully!

- My Catalina Sky Survey teammate and grad student Carson Fuls discovered 480' diameter asteroid 2015 YY9, which IS potentially hazardous!

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Adaptive Optics systems are used on telescopes around the world to remove the blurring produced by Earth’s atmosphere. In this podcast, Megan Nieberding talks about Robo AO, a robotic adaptive optics system that has been installed on the 2.1 meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Robo AO has discovered 5 out of 6 (not 4 out of 5) of the known quadruple star systems.

Megan Nieberding is an astronomy graduate of the University of Arizona and an observing assistant on Kitt Peak’s 2.1 meter telescope where she runs the Robo AO system.

Rob Sparks is a science education specialist in the EPO group at NOAO and works on the Galileoscope project (www.galileoscope.org), providing design, dissemination and professional development. He also pens a blog at https://halfastro.wordpress.com/.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

https://youtu.be/6Ajc7SQ7RFo?t=5h19m8s

Special guest: Brian Ventrudo, Publisher of One Minute Astronomer.

"The Search for the First Stars" is the topic.

http://oneminuteastronomer.com/ & http://cosmicpursuits.com/

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Some weighty issues. Or not...

A somewhat frustratingly-high level of research on the ISS is directed towards investigating the effect of microgravity on people. It is somewhat frustrating because no-one in the space exploration business seriously believes that human beings are going to be exploring the cosmos in microgravity.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Paul Hill, Ralph Wilkins and Jenifer Millard host. Damien Phillips and John Wildridge produce.

The Discussion: Jeni’s astronomy research yields its first results in the hunt for exoplanet phase variation and we revisit our Star Wars podcast extras with a listener’s book review.

The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have:

An ‘Earthlike' planet detected by ESO around our nearest stellar neighbour

The upcoming launch of OSIRIS Rex to sample an asteroid

That bump in the data at CERN turns out to be a false hope

That alien megastructure story just won’t foxtrot oscar

The Cassini spacecraft spots methane filled canyons on Saturn’s moon Titan

A meteorite lands in Yorkshire garden. Real or fake? (Hint: It rhymes with "bake"…)

Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month’s topic, picked at random from Paul’s festering Hat of Woo: Area 51 – the remote and secret installation in the Nevada desert where sanity gets dissected and reason is left to die.

Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we get a question that probes certainty in science and how high certainty discoveries can still turn out to be wrong:

Why when the Bicep two team found the evidence for primordial gravitational waves did they claim it was a five sigma result, and later wasn't it shown the result was not accurate? I thought a five sigma had a 1 in 350million chance of being wrong! There has to be something I don't understand about the sigma scale or the Bicep results? Rodney Cuthbertson.

www.awesomeastronomy.com

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Dr. Paul Matt Sutter hosts.

What’s going on under the ice of Europa? What keeps it so warm down there? Are the oceans pure or have the right chemistry for life? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!

Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter

All episodes: http://www.AskASpaceman.com

Follow on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PaulMattSutter

Like on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PaulMattSutter

Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/PaulMattSutter

Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, physics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE!

Big thanks to my top Patreon supporters this month: Justin Gealta, Jerry, Tim Feaver, Helge Bjorkhaug, Alan McClintock, Tim Rattray, Ray Sutter, MIchael Clanton, Bill Smith, Lars Hammer, David Ciaverella, Silvan Wespi, and David Berger!

Music by Jason Grady and Nick Bain.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

http://media.libsyn.com/media/astronomycast/AstroCast-070115.mp3

From Jan 15, 2007.

The sudden brightening of Comet McNaught has reminded us what a treat it can be to see a comet with the unaided eye. A diffuse ball with a long tail stretching across the sky. There’s nothing else in the night sky that can compare to a bright comet. But what are these objects, where do they come from, and what can they tell us about the formation of the Solar System?

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006.

Today's 2 topics:

- Blinky, AKA 2015YJ, was discovered by the Catalina Sky Survey team.

- Blinky follow-up observations reveal that it is likely a solid object and a collision fragment of a larger body.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!

Welcome to Observing With Webb, where the armchair astronomer figures out what they’re looking at, why it’s so cool, and what they should check out next.

PLANETS...well, the ones visible with your naked eye

Planets you can see around Sunset – Venus (W), Saturn (SW), Mars (S)

Planets you can see throughout the night – None

Planets you can see in the Morning – Mercury (E – end of the month)

Mercury – You might just be able to catch Mercury up to an hour and half before sunrise in the final week of September.  Look E after 5:50am, when it rises up to about 15˚ by sunrise, which is about 7am.

Venus – Look W after sunset, and Venus will be only about 10˚ above the horizon, but very bright.

Mars & Saturn – Look SSW after sunset and bring a sky map of Scorpius.  Saturn and Mars start out the month about 6˚ apart, with Mars to the left of Saturn, and Saturn about 6˚ above the star Antares. Throughout the month, Mars moves away to about 20˚ from Saturn and Antares at the end.  Both are visible until about 10:30pm, when they set in the W.

Jupiter – Don’t even try.  It’ll be back for mornings in October.

Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness!

http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.

Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!)

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/

Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].

While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site:

https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace

Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!