Launching satellites from Earth is counter-productive. You’ve got to make a satellite that can handle Earth gravity, then the brutal flight to space, then deployment in orbit. What if you could build your spacecraft in space?
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Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
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- Richard Drumm, Audio Engineer
- Ally Pelphrey, Video Engineer
17 Seasons
700+ Episodes
2018 Winner Parsec Award
Ep. 684 – Too Big, Too Soon: Massive Early Galaxies Defy Expectations
One of JWST’s top jobs is to peer deeper into the Universe than ever before, watching as the first galaxies came together. Surprisingly, astronomers found galaxies that seemed much more mature than expected, much earlier than it was believed possible. What’s going on and what does it mean for cosmology?
Ep. 683: Cosmic Dawn
After the cosmic microwave background radiation was released, the Universe returned to darkness, cloaked in this clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium. Gravity pulled these vast clouds into the first stars, and then the first galaxies. This is Cosmic Dawn, and JWST will help us probe this mysterious time.
Ep. 682: Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies and Dark Matter
Astronomers first noticed the strange behaviors of rotating galaxies almost 100 years ago, suggesting there’s an invisible dark matter hold them together with gravity. Or maybe we just don’t understand how gravity works at the largest scales. Observations are much better now, and astronomers have found examples of galaxies that almost entirely made of dark matter. Does this tell us anything?
Recent Episodes
Ep. 514: Planetary Protection Protocols
As we send rovers and landers to other worlds, we have to think about the tiny microbial astronauts we're sending along with us. In fact, NASA is so concerned about infecting other worlds that it has established the planetary protection protocols. Just to be safe. In...
Ep. 513: Stellar Fusion
The Sun. It's a big ball of fire, right? Apparently not. In fact, what's going on inside of the Sun took us some time and knowledge of physics to finally figure out: stellar fusion. Let's talk about the different kinds of fusion, and how we're trying to adapt it to...
Ep. 512: Direct Imaging of Exoplanets
Finding planets is old news, we now know of thousands and thousands of the places. But the terrible irony is that we can only see a fraction of the planets out there using the traditional methods of radial velocity and transits. But the new telescopes will take things...
Ep. 511: Predictions for 2019
We did it, we made it through 2018 in space. Now let's look forward to the incredible launches, discoveries and astronomical events happening in 2019. In this episode we mentioned donations and tours. Click to learn more! Download MP3| Download Raw Show with Q&A|...
Ep. 510: 2018 – Year in Review
2018 was an incredible year in space news. Rockets launched, landers landed, spacecraft were born and died. We learned tremendous new things about Universe around us, and today we're here to look back fondly over the last 12 months to review the year in space that...
Astronomy Cast has won a Parsec Award!
After many years as a finalist, Astronomy Cast has finally won in the Fact Behind the Fiction category of the 2018 Parsec Awards, joining the ranks of other fantastic podcasts such as Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria, HubbleCast, the Planetary Society'sPlanetary...
Ep. 509: Fiction to Fact: 3D Printers
The technology of 3D printing is taking off. From tiny home-based 3D printers to larger manufacturing. And of course, 3D printing is going to space with the International Space Station and beyond. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT / 12:00 pm...
Ep. 508: 2018 Holiday Gift Guide
We did it, we made it to the end of another year. Once again it's time to wonder what gifts to get your beloved space nerds. We've got some suggestions. Some are brand new this year, others are classics that we just can't help but continue to suggest. Let's get into...
Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive
Ion engines are a mainstay of science fiction, featured in both Star Trek and Wars. But this is a very real technology, successfully used on several missions out there in the Solar System right now. How do they work and what are the limits? We usually record Astronomy...
Ep. 506: It’s not Aliens, Unless it’s Aliens
There was no live video for this one, so here's the audio! The Full Raw version isn't much different this week - it just lacks the music and intro! Did you hear that astronomers from Harvard think that the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua was actually an alien solar...
Ep. 505: Seismology
We're always interested in the surface features of the planets and moons in the Solar System, but that's only skin deep. It turns out, these worlds have an interesting inner life too. Thanks to the science of seismology, we can peer into our planet and learn how it...
Ep. 504: Radar, Lidar, and Sonar
To really study something, you want to reach out and touch it. But what can you do if you're separated by a huge distance? You reach out with electromagnetic or sound waves and watch how they bounce back. Thanks to radar, sonar and lidar. We usually record Astronomy...
Ep. 503: Gravity Mapping
The Earth looks like a perfect sphere, but down here on the surface we see that there are mountains, rivers, oceans, glaciers, all kinds of features with different densities and shapes. Scientists can map this produce a highly detailed gravity map of our planet. And...
Ep. 502: No Touching: Determining Composition of Worlds Remotely
How do you know what something is made of if you can't reach out and touch it? How do we know what planets lights years away have in their atmosphere? What about the rocks all around Curiosity? Or the geysers coming out of Europa and Enceladus? Scientists have a few...
Ep. 501: Water Worlds Revisited
We're not learning that the vast majority of potentially habitable worlds out there are actually icy moons like Europa and Enceladus. Good news, there are hundreds, if not thousands of times more of them than worlds like Earth. Bad news, they're locked in ice. What...
Ep. 500: Live Celebration!
Welcome to episode 500 of Astronomy Cast. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we're going to look back 500 years into the past to see what we learned about the Universe. And then we're going to look 500 years into the future. Astronomy Cast celebrated their 500th...
Ep. 499: What is the proposed Hubble-Lemaitre Law?
We started out Astronomy Cast with the controversial decision to de-planet Pluto. And here we are, more than a decade later, at the brink of recording our 500th episode when another big decision is coming down from the IAU: whose name goes on the concept that our...
Astronomy Cast's Dr. Pamela Gay inducted into 2018 Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame
The 2018 Hall of Fame inductees will be inducted on July 24 at the Academy of Podcasters' Hall of Fame Ceremony, during the Podcast Movement Conference in Philadelphia. CosmoQuest's own principal investigator Dr. Pamela Gay will be inducted for her work over the past...
Astronomy Cast: On Hiatus until September 2018
Astronomy Cast will be on hiatus for July and August. Don't worry, we'll be back in September, and will be gearing up for our 500th episode! Astronomy Cast will be celebrating their 500th episode the weekend of Sept 15-16, 2018. Want to join us in Edwardsville, Il?...
Ep. 498: Dwarf Galaxy Update
The Milky Way has gobbled up dozens of dwarf galaxies and added them to its structure. Today we're going to look at the ongoing hunt for the wreckage of past mergers. And what we've discovered about dwarf galaxies in general. Welcome to our last episode before our...