The Skyentists

In the tenth episode of "The Skyentists" astronomers Kirsten Banks and Ángel López-Sánchez share their excitement about the BIG second data release of Gaia. Gaia, which is a small satellite owned by the European Space Agency (ESA), has just provided detailed astrometric and photometric information of around 1.7 billion stars! For many of these stars Gaia has also obtained accurate measurements of the parallax, which is key to derive the distance to the stars. But this is not as easy as it sounds, because everything out there is moving. How is it done? You have to listen the episode to know! For our "What's Up!" segment we talk about the red giant star Arcturus, also known as Alpha-Boo. And we have feedback, yeah! We answer some few questions from our listeners and encourage everyone to sign the petition to continue producing the science fiction TV show "The Expanse".

In this episode our Skyentists Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Bank discuss all the flavors of auroras: what are they, how are they produced, what their colors are telling us, and where to see them. From Sydney? Well, it seems it would be possible for time to time... if it wasn't because of the nasty problem of the light pollution! Thanks Kiama is very close to Sydney, auroras have been seen recently from there! On the second part of this episode, as part of the "What's Up" section, we travel to the Carina Nebula and to the very intriguing massive star Eta Carinae... don't miss observing it with your telescope while you can, as it might explode as a hypernova soon! We don't have feedback in this episode, but hopefully will receive plenty for next fortnight. Do you have a question for us?

In this episode "The Skyentists", astronomers Kirsten Banks and Ángel López-Sánchez, talk again about galaxies and discuss the mysterious component in all of them: the dark matter. In all galaxies for sure? Very recently it has been announced that a little, faint, fuzzy, low-luminous dwarf galaxy named as NGC1052-DF2 doesn't have any dark matter! Our Skyentists talk about these news and explore what might be happening in this intriguing object. For our "What's Up!" segment we discovered that M 83 is not only a very famous nearby spiral galaxy but something else...

The planets are coming! That's right, during the next months Jupiter, Mars and Saturn will be the "stars" of the night sky. But in this episode our Skyentists Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Bank talk just about Jupiter: its breathtaking view through small telescopes, its shrinking Great Red Spot and its very dynamical atmosphere. They also discuss some of the new amazing discoveries that the spacecraft Juno is getting there, including a new understanding of the structure of the giant planet and the very intriguing storm systems in its poles. Following our poll in Twitter, this episode also has plenty of feedback (thanks!), providing interesting insights about the original classification of galaxies by Edwin Hubble and the meaning of "early type" and "late type" galaxies. Ah, yes, remember: the planets are coming!

In this episode we find a very busy Kirsten, who has been abducted by Twitter, and a still sleepy Ángel, just back from his busy observing nights at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. But they are starting a journey to talk about the amazing contributions to astronomy, science and culture that many women have done in the past. Many of these women have been forgotten for centuries, but luckily we're recovering their names and their works now: Enheduanna, Aglaonice of Thessaly, Maria Kirch, Caroline Herschel, Annie Cannon and Cecilia Payne. Kirsten and Ángel also emphasize the great scientific work that the "Harvard Computers", a very talented group of women, performed a century ago. Their contributions were key to the big astronomy discoveries in the 20th Century. For the "What's Up!" segment they recommend to try to photograph the Horsehead Nebula, discovered in 1888 by Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming. A bit of feedback today, but they are still waiting for your astro-questions!

The number of galaxies out there? Yep, something around that figure... trillion of galaxies! A very sleepy and astro-jet lagged astrophysicist Ángel López-Sánchez and young but very wise astronomer Kirsten Bank jump into the realm of galaxies! They define their basic properties and classification and discuss the names given in the famous "Hubble Tuning Fork". The "What's Up!" section is dedicated to our all-time favourite nearby dwarf galaxy: the Large Magellanic Cloud. And they also talk about supernova explosions, those coming from the death of massive stars: SN 1987A and SN2016gkg. The latest supernova was discovered by an amateur astronomer, who saw in real time how the light of the supernova appeared in the images he was taking with his new camera. No feedback today (did we say Ángel was very sleepy?) but more to come soon!

In this episode "The Skyentists", astronomers Kirsten Banks and Ángel López-Sánchez, provide their thoughts about the successful first launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket by Space X and the brilliant? idea of Elon Musk of sending a Tesla Roadster car to Mars... because that is exactly what happened... or not? For the "What's Up" segment they talk about the beautiful Pleiades stellar cluster, not to be confused by Ursa Minor! And, yeah, they got some feedback! Although that is still not enough so please continue providing your comments about your favorite star cluster, your thoughts about the launch of the Falcon Heavy... or just your astro-questions!

Today the "The Skyentists", astronomers Kirsten Banks and Ángel López-Sánchez, describe the famous Orion Nebula in the "What's Up!" section and use it to jump into the basics of how stars are born in galaxies... But first they provide some feedback about the infamous "Super Blue Blood Moon"... that is, last week's lunar eclipse. The impression is that many people around the world were confused about what was really happening because of the hype given by the media. They also answer the question of naming the stars of the Southern Cross but also request your feedback, including answering the question "what is your favorite star cluster?".

In this second and extra-long (51 minutes) episode of "The Skyentists", astronomers Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Banks discuss all around naming moons: Supermoon, Red Moon, Blue Moon, Harvest Moon, Micromoon, Black Moon and many more... even inventing a new kind of moon! The excuse for doing this: the "Super Blue Red Moon" happening the night of the 31st January to the 1st of February 2018. They also introduce the "What's Up!" section describing the Southern Cross and inviting listeners to provide the names of the 5 brightest stars in the constellation. And just a warning: this episode also contains an interesting musical surprise!

"The Skyentists" are astronomers Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Banks, who are crazy enough to try to start a new Astronomy podcast reaching millions of listeners. In the first episode of this "nerd out" experiment, Kirsten and Ángel introduce themselves before jumping into black holes... all without any kind of script!