Questions Show: Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: are we all going to die in 2012 when the solar system passes through the galactic plane? Did Venus make the Moon? And what will extraterrestrials see when the Sun is dead and gone? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show.

Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System
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Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars

Last week we looked at the complete life of the Sun, birth to death. But stars can be smaller, and stars can get much much larger. And with a change in mass, their lives change too. Let's start the clock again, and see what happens to the smallest stars in the Universe; and what happens to the largest.

Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars
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Questions Show - Running Out of Gravitons and Hitting the Brakes at Light Speed

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: if forces are communicated through particles, can we run out? If you were traveling at light speed, when would you know to stop? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show.

Running Out of Gravitons and Hitting the Brakes at Light Speed
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Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun

We've talked about the Sun before, but this time we're going to look at the entire life cycle of the Sun, and all the stages it's going to go through: solar nebula, protostar, main sequence, red giant, white dwarf, and more. Want to know what the future holds for the Sun, get ready for the grim details.

Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun
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Questions Show - light speed, Andromeda galaxy, dark matter and black holes

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: will reaching light speed destroy the Universe? When is Andromeda going to look really, really cool with the unaided eye? Why didn't dark matter all turn into black holes? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show.

Show - light speed, Andromeda galaxy, dark matter and black holes (17.07MB)
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Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars

Look around you. Breathe in some air. Everything you can see and feel was formed in a star. Today we'll examine that long journey that matter has gone through, forged and re-forged in the hearts of stars. In fact, the device you're using to listen to this podcast has some elements formed in a supernova explosion.

Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars
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Questions Show - Black Hole Surfaces, Magnetic Field Strengths, and the Speed of Gravitons

As you know, we wanted to answer listener questions regularly, but we found it was taking away from the regular weekly episodes of Astronomy Cast. So we've decided to just split it up and run the question shows separately from the regular Astronomy Cast episodes. If this works out, you might be able to enjoy twice the number of Astronomy Cast episodes. So if you've got a question on a topic we cover in a recent show, or you just have a general astronomy question, send it in to info@astronomycast.com. Either by email, or record your question and email in the audio file.

Questions Show - Black Hole Surfaces, Magnetic Field Strengths, and the Speed of Gravitons
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Ep. 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything

At the earliest moments of the Universe, there were no separate forces, energy or matter. It was all just the same stuff. And then the different forces froze out, differentiating into electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. Today we'll look at the problem that has puzzled physicists for generations: is there a single equation that explains all the forces we see in the Universe. Is there a theory of everything?

Ep. 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything
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Student Questions Show: Leelanau School

This is our forth installment in our series of student questions shows and these questions come to us from Leelanau High School.

Thanks to GLAST, Astronomy Cast is now able to provide equipment to send to high school teachers who want to Pamela and Fraser to do a special questions show just for their class. We will be making this shows available on the feed on days other than Monday (that's still reserved for your regularly scheduled Astronomy Cast).

To find out how your class can participate, check out our new Education page for details or drop us an email to info@astronomycast.com

Questions Show for Leelanau High School (17.74MB)
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Ep. 105: The Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces

After a quick Dragon*Con break, we're back to our tour through the fundamental forces of the Universe. We've covered gravity and electromagnetism, and now we're moving onto the strong and weak nuclear forces. We didn't think they'd really need to be separate episodes, so we're putting them together. And then we'll cap the whole series with the quest for the theory of everything.

Ep. 105: The Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces
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