Whenever astronomers discover something surprising, the answer often turns out to be dust. Dust obscuring our view, dust changing the polarity, dust warming things up, dust cooling things down. It’s always dust. Until it isn’t.
Our Hosts
Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
Production by
- Richard Drumm, Audio Engineer
- Ally Pelphrey, Video Engineer
17 Seasons
700+ Episodes
Ep. 676: Other Things with Rings
We’ve spent a lot of time gushing about Saturn’s rings, but there are other places with ring systems. And not just Jupiter and the ice giants, but asteroids, dwarf planets, centaurs and even exoplanets. Today we’ll gush about them.
Ep. 675: Exotic Forms of Ice
Ice is ice, right? You know, what you get when water freezes. Well, maybe here on Earth. But across the Universe, water can be squeezed together at different temperatures and pressures, leading to very different structures. Today we’ll talk about the different forms that ice can take.
Ep. 674: Asteroid Early Warning Systems
The asteroid apocalypse is one of those existential crises that keep astronomers up at night. But the DART mission showed us that we can push an asteroid off its trajectory if we have enough warning. Today we’ll talk about how humanity is building early warning systems to give us time to respond to a dangerous asteroid.
Recent Episodes
Ep. 493: Mars Update 2018
If there's one place we've learned more about in the last 10 years, it's Mars. Thanks to all those rovers, orbiters, landers which are flying overhead, crawling around the surface, and digging into the rich Martian regolith. What have we learned about Elon Musk's...
Ep. 492: Comets, Asteroids and KBO's
Another topic with plenty of updates. Since we started Astronomy Cast we've visited many smaller objects in the Solar System up close, from Ceres and Vesta to Pluto, not to mention a comet. What have we learned? We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm...
Ep 491: Exoplanet Update 2018
Finally, a big update. Have there been news in the realm of exoplanets? More news that we can possibly cover. But we'll try our best. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT / 12:00 pm PDT / 19:00 UTC. You can watch us live on here on...
Ep 490: What's New with Supernovae
Time for another update, this time we're going to look at what's new with supernovae. And once again, we've got good news, lots of new stuff to report. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT / 12:00 pm PDT / 19:00 UTC. You can watch us live on...
Ep 489: Black Hole Update
Another update episode, this time we look at what's new and changed in the research of black holes. And it's here that we find a lot of substantial new discoveries in the field, so much has been discovered since we first covered black holes a decade ago. We usually...
Ep 488: Dark Energy: 2018 Edition
The updates continue. Last week we talked about dark matter, and this week we continue with its partner dark energy. Of course, they're not really partners, unless you consider mysteriousness to be an attribute. Dark energy, that force that's accelerating the...
Ep 487: Dark Matter: 2018 Edition
Last week, we gave you an update in particle physics. This week it's time to see what's new in the world of dark matter. Spoiler alert, we still have no idea what it is, but maybe a few more ideas for what it isn't. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at...
Ep 486: Particle Physics Update
It's time for a news update. This time from the field of particle physics. It turns out there have been all kinds of new and interesting particles discovered by the Large Hadron Collider and others. Let's get an update from Pamela. We usually record Astronomy Cast...
Ep 485: Docking, Refueling, and Transferring
This episode was recorded on Wednesday, March 21 at 6:30 pm EDT / 3:3 pm PDT / 22:30 UTC. It's one thing to get to space. But once you've made it there, what do you want to do? You'll probably want to dock with another space ship, deliver cargo, refuel. Today we'll...
Ep 484: Transfer Orbits and Gravitational Assists
This episode was recorded on Tuesday, March 20 at 8 pm EDT / 5 pm PDT / 0:00 UTC Wednesday. If you want to get around in the Solar System, you'll want to take advantage of natural gravitational speed boosts and transfer orbits. Whether you're heading to the outer...
Astronomy Cast now available via Amazon's Alexa!
You can now enable the Amazon Astronomy Cast skill on your Alexa enabled device (in the US now, Canada soon)! You just log into your Alexa dashboard, go to the Skills, and look for "Astronomy Cast." Or, even easier than that, just say "Alexa, enable Astronomy Cast!"...
Ep 483: Stopping in Space
This episode was recorded on 3/8/2018 at 4:00 pm EST/ 1:00 PST/ 21:00 UTC! It's one thing to get from Earth to space, but sometimes you want to do the opposite. You want to get into orbit or touch down gently on the surface of a planet and explore it. How do...
Ep 482: Alternative Ways to Space
Getting to space is all about rockets, but people are trying to figure out other methods that could carry payloads to orbit and beyond. Railguns, airplanes, tethers and more. Today we'll talk about alternative methods of spaceflight. We usually record Astronomy Cast...
Ep 481: Rockets pt. 3 – Going Faster, Higher, Farther after Fairing Separation
We've seen rockets blast off from here on Earth. But that's only half the story. Rockets have additional stages to push them into trajectories, like transfer orbits and various orbital maneuvers. Let's talk about what happens after the rocket is long gone, beyond our...
Ep 480: Rockets pt. 2- Multi-stage Boosters
The vast majority of rockets are multi-staged affairs. Why is this? What makes this kind of rocket so successful? Today we look at the ins and outs of multi-stage rockets. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EST / 12:00 pm PST / 20:00 UTC. You can...
Ep. 479: Rockets pt. 1- What Does "Single Stage To Orbit" Really Mean?
To celebrate the launch of the Falcon Heavy, we figured it was time for an all new series, this time on the rockets that carry us to space. Today we're going to talk about why single stage to orbit rockets are so difficult to carry out. We usually record Astronomy...
Astronomy Cast Special: Q & A with Dr. Pamela Gay
Pamela will be on to answer your space and astronomy questions live, as Fraser enjoys auroras in Iceland this week! And please check out how you can help us by answering some surveys for CosmoQuest here. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EST /...
Ep. 478: Apollo 8 with Paul Hildebrandt
On Christmas Day, 1968 Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders became the first human being to see the far side of the Moon. Their mission, of course, was Apollo 8, the first time human beings had ever left Earth orbit and seen the far side of the Moon. Today we...
Ep. 477: State of Exploration: Once and Future Moon
It's been decades since humans set foot on the Moon. Well, it's time to go back, in theory. Of course, we've heard this all before. What are the plans afoot to send humans back to the Moon this time. What hardware will we use, and what other strategies are in the...
Updated Audio: Ep. 475: Fast Radio Bursts
If you got the previous version of Ep. 475 with bad audio, here's the fixed version! You know what's fun? Mysteries. Here's one: fast radio bursts. Astronomers have been detecting mysterious one-time signals from across the sky. What's causing them? Nobody knows for...