Walkabout the Galaxy

By Joshua Colwell, Adrienne Dove, and James CooneyComedy Science Natural Sciences

Walkabout the Galaxy episodes

March 09, 2022 When Galaxy Clusters Collide
Even the emptiness between galaxies is filled with enough energy over those vast expanses to generate shock waves and giant structures when clusters of galaxies collide. We explore this, the lives of galaxies, and some intriguing results about activity on the asteroid Ceres.
50 min
March 02, 2022 How Smart Is Your Planet?
We learn how binary star systems may create a second family of planets, Saturn's aurora may be powered by the ringed planet's high speed winds, and how thinking of planetary intelligence may guide future searches for extraterrestrial life.
52 min
February 23, 2022 Psyche-ology and Generally Crazy Relativity
A remarkably accurate test of general relativity confirms that not only does time run slower at your feet than at your head, but it runs slower at your eyes than your eyebrows. Plus, Psyche loses some of its metallic sheen, and we have spacewalk trivia and much more.
46 min
February 16, 2022 Hot Fusion and Crashing Satellites
Sustained fusion reactions with a net production of energy may be getting closer, and a whole bunch of space junk is definitely getting closer. A long-standing mystery of Jupiter's aurorae has been resolved. Catch up on all the space news and hear the surprising history of satellite debris with the astroquarks.
52 min
February 09, 2022 A Bouncy Universe
How special is the Earth for having a large Moon, and what can it teach us about where to look for habitable planets? In this episode we explore new research on what kind of planets are likely to get helpful moons like our own, and then we take a look at the idea of an infinitely cycling, but not repeating universe.
51 min
February 02, 2022 IWOW
Mimas, the heavily battered "death star" moon of Saturn, may harbor a sub-surface ocean of liquid water like its neighbor, Enceladus. Water may have flowed on the surface of Mars more recently than previously thought, and there's a new denizen in the menagerie of peculiar pulsars. Learn all about it and test your pulsar trivia knowledge.
45 min
January 19, 2022 The Local Solar Bubble and Another Dusty Star
The Astroquarks assemble to examine the mysterious of a star that is blocked out perhaps by a giant dust cloud. Meanwhile, the Sun is passing through a Local Bubble in the Milky Way that has triggered star formation all around us. Join us for all this, rainbow trivia, and more.
46 min
January 12, 2022 Lagrange Points Everywhere
We welcome 2022 with a look at the future home of the James Webb Space Telescope - Earth's L2 Lagrange point, and an exploration of Lagrange points around the solar system. New research suggests the geysers of Enceladus may originate in a slush pool rather than the moon's ocean, and what would it mean if there were antimatter stars? All this and more can be found on this episode of Walkabout with your happy hosts, the astroquarks.
45 min
December 22, 2021 Q-Balls!
One of our favorite cosmological mysteries is why there is any stuff in the universe. We're here because there was a tiny fraction more matter than antimatter created. We learn about a new observational test for one theory of why that happened, and it has to do with gravitational waves and Q-Balls! Find out what they are and learn about an odd planet and giant stellar flares closer to home.
49 min
December 15, 2021 Eggshell Planets and the Inexorable Growth of Black Holes
We take a deep dive into toffee planets with The Planetary Guy, Dr. Paul Byrne, who helps us explore the myriad types of exoplanets that might be lurking out there, including some with eggshell crusts and toffee interiors. And gravitational waves have yielded another secret, confirming Stephen Hawking's Black Hole Area Theorem. Find out all about it, and black hole trivia, on WtG.
47 min