Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
In 2017, astronomers detected the gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from colliding neutron stars. This had been long theorized as one of the causes of a certain type of gamma-ray burst. By studying the event and its afterglow, astronomers have learned a tremendous amount about the formation of the heaviest elements in the Universe.
Last week we talked about rogue stars. This week we’re going to take things up a notch and talk about an even more extreme event. Rogue black holes. Astronomers recently discovered a supermassive black hole on an escape trajectory, leaving newly forming stars in its wake. It’s wonderful, terrible, nightmare fuel.
Most stars in the Milky Way are trapped in here with us, doomed to orbit around and around and around. But a few have found a way out, an escape into the freedom of intergalactic space. How do stars reach escape velocity, never to return?
Okay sci-fi writers, today we’re going to give you a guided tour of building planets. How they form, how they grow, and how things can go horribly horribly wrong.
Recent Episodes
Is it globular clusters or is it globular clusters? It doesn't matter, they're awesome and we're here to update you on them. Astronomy Cast will be celebrating their 500th episode the weekend of Sept 15-16, 2018. Want to join us in Edwardsville, Il? Check out our...
Another update show, this time on the various generations of stars, let's get into it. Astronomy Cast will be celebrating their 500th episode the weekend of Sept 15-16, 2018. Want to join us in Edwardsville, Il? Check out our AC500 site here to find out how! We...
Our knowledge of space is starting to match up with our ability to get out there an explore it. There are several companies working on missions and techniques to harvest minerals from asteroids. What other resources are out there that we can use? Astronomy Cast will...
Thanks to Cassini and other spacecraft, we've learned a tremendous amount about the icy worlds in the Solar System, from Jupiter's Europa to Saturn's Enceladus, to Pluto's Charon. Geysers, food for bacteria, potential oceans under the ice and more. What new things...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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!"...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...