Have you ever noticed that significant space and astronomy events seem to happen during holidays? It’s not a coincidence, there’s actually a reason why. Today we’ll talk about some of the key events that happened during holidays.
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Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
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Ep. 648: Summer Observing
Summer is officially, astronomically here. And for folks in the Northern Hemisphere, that means it’s the perfect time to head outside and see what’s happening in the sky. Today we’ll give you a good list of things to keep an eye out for, with or without a telescope.
Ep. 647: Best Sci-Fi Beach Reading
Summer is here and that means finally tackling your huge list of books piled up on your bedside table and filling up your Kindle. What books do we recommend for some fun reads?
Ep. 646: Long Term Future in Space
We always say that we’re living in golden age of space and astronomy, but it feels like things are just accelerating. What does the long-term future hold for our place in the Universe?
Recent Episodes
Ep. 283 Stellar Motions
Our Universe appears timeless and unchanging, the stars taking their nightly flight across the sky. But over long periods of time, you realize that our local region, and even the entire Milky Way is in constant motion. The constellations we see today would be very...
Ep. 282 Seasons
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These are the seasons we experience here on Earth as our planet completes an orbit around the Sun. But what's going on? Why do we experience such different temperatures and weather over the course of 365 days? Do other planets...
Ep. 281 Explosions in Space
We've all seen the classic science fiction space explosions, full of flames and loud sounds. Beautiful on the screen but, totally lacking in any kind of... science. What's wrong with science fiction? What would chemical and nuclear explosions really look like? What...
Ep. 280 Cosmological Constant
In order to allow for a static Universe, Albert Einstein introduced the concept of the Cosmological Constant Lambda to make the math work out. Once it was discovered that the Universe was actually expanding, he threw the number out calling it his "biggest blunder"....
Ep. 279 Hubble Constant
When Edwin Hubble observed that distant galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, he discovered the reality that we live in an expanding Universe. Hubble worked to calculate exactly how fast this expansion is happening, creating the Hubble constant - which...
Ep. 278: Animals in Space
We always think about humans in space, but the cold hard reality is that animals have always been first in space. First to fly, first to orbit, and sadly, first to die. Let's learn about how our animal companions have been our trusty partners in space exploration, and...
Ep. 277: Orbit
When an object is orbiting the Earth, it's really falling. The trick, described in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, is how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. There are several different kinds of orbits, and they are good for different reasons. From...
Ep. 276: XMM-Newton
The Earth's atmosphere keeps us alive and blocks x-ray radiation from reaching the surface. In order to understand the universe at the higher energy levels you need to launch a space telescope like the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Telescope. Let's learn about...
Ep. 275: Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton has been called "the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived." That sounds about right. He unlocked our modern understanding of gravity and laws of motion, dabbled in optics, philosophy... even alchemy. He was also known to have a bit of a...
Ep. 274: Vesta
There's some topics on Astronomy Cast that we wait until we are good and ready, until the science is all in. The Dawn mission has completed it's mapping operations at asteroid Vesta and it's now moving on to Ceres. This gives us a great opportunity to take a detailed...
Ep. 273: Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
In Episode 24 we presented the concept of the Fermi Paradox. In short: Where are all the aliens? Today we're going to examine the theoretical solutions to this problem. Maybe they're out there, but just don't want to talk to us. Maybe it's too hard to communicate?...
Ep. 272: Abiogenesis
The Theory of Evolution provides a rich explanation for why we see the diversity of life here on Earth. There are so many lines of evidence, from genetic drift to the fossil record. But how did life start? How did things go from a collection of raw materials to the...
Ep. 271: Who Does What in Space and Astronomy
In past, if you looked up into the sky, you were an astronomer. But everything has gotten so complicated. Now we have astrophysicists, and cosmologists, planetary geologists, and even exobiologists. Who does what, and how do they all interact with one another. If you...
Astronomy Cast at Dragon*Con 2012: Space Money
We've probed the deepest recesses of the universe, landed spacecraft and humans on other planets and moons but, face it, all of this exploration is expensive. Just a single spacecraft can cost billions. So, who pays for all this stuff? Astronomy Cast at Dragon*Con...
Ep. 270: Inertia
An object at rest tends to stay at rest. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. Isaac Newton dismantled the traditional idea that objects would tend to slow down over time, and described the concept of inertia: the amount an object will resist changes in its...
Ep. 269: Mass
Last week we talked about energy, and this week we'll talk about mass. And here's the crazy thing. Mass, matter, the stuff that the Universe is made of, is the same thing as energy. They're connected through Einstein's famous formula - E=mc2. But what is mass, how do...
Ep. 268: Energy
Our entire civilization depends on energy: getting it, converting it, burning it, and conserving it. But how do physicists think about energy? How do they measure and quantify it. And what is energy's special relationship with mass? Ep. 268: Energy Jump to Shownotes...
Ep. 267: Infinities
Forever is a funny thing. Today we're going to talk about infinities. That's right, all the different kinds of possible infinities. How you add them, subtract them, and use them to think about the scale of the Universe. Ep. 267: Infinities Jump to Shownotes Jump to...
Ep. 266: Archimedes
It's time to look deep into history to the birthplace of modern mathematics - Ancient Greece. And the most famous mathematician of the time was Archimedes. We use many of his mathematical theories and inventions to this day; others are steeped in legend and mystery....
Ep. 265: Arthur Eddington
We can thank Arthur Eddington for much of our current understanding of stars. He provided some of the breakthrough concepts that explain what's going on, deep inside the hottest places in the Universe. Sadly, the spacecraft associated with his name wasn't so...