Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
The Earth is teeming with life, both in the upper atmosphere to kilometers underground. There’s no question that our planet has life. But is our planet itself alive? This is a question posed back in the 1970s as the Gaia hypothesis, and it got its share of criticism. Some new ideas have been proposed to bring this hypothesis to the modern era.
There are general-purpose telescopes and missions that astronomers can use to study specific objects. And there are survey missions that look at the entire sky, which astronomers can use to answer questions about the Universe. We’ve talked about surveys in the past, but the landscape is changing fast so it’s time for an update.
Knowledge moves forward, and so, we must move with it. Today we’ll give you an update on some of the most fascinating, and fast-changing topics in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology.
Although humans have never actually been to Mars, explorers have simulated many aspects of Mars missions here on Earth. There are missions under the ocean, on the tops of volcanoes, in the harsh Canadian north, and even in bed that simulate the limitations of spaceflight, and teach us many of the lessons to prepare us for the real thing.
Recent Episodes
If you want to see one of the strangest places in the Solar System, look no further than Io, Jupiter's inner Galilean moon. The immense tidal forces from Jupiter keep the moon hotter than hot, with huge volcanoes blasting lava hundreds of kilometres into space. Ep....
On June 30th, 1908 "something" exploded over the Tunguska region of Siberia, flattening thousands of square kilometres of forest, and unleashing a force that rivalled the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. What was it? What could unleash that kind of...
When you hear of a looming asteroid strike, do you wonder what to do? Should you go into your underground bunker, evacuate the state, or leave the planet? Fortunately, astronomers have developed the Torino Scale - a handy measurement that incorporates both the risk of...
Time for part 3 of our tour through the hobby of astrophotography. You've set up your gear, taken some clear images. Now we're going to help you turn that raw data into the kind of amazing photographs you see in books and on the web. Ep. 241: Astrophotography, Part 3:...
In the first episode, we talked about the gear you'll need for your expensive astrophotography hobby. This week we continue our discussion, and talk about the techniques you'll use to get those amazing photographs. Bring a hot drink, and get ready for some cold...
No matter how good your telescope is, you're never going to see the same detail and colours as the photographs. To take amateur astronomy to the next level, you really need to attach a camera to your telescope. Welcome to the hobby of astrophotography. Fair warning,...
The Sun looks like a harmless burning ball of fire in the sky: warm, life-giving and forever unchanging. But we know better, don't we. It's really a massive ball of churning hydrogen plasma, encased in twisting magnetic field lines, speckled with sunspots, and...
To help you out with your halloween parties, we've collected together the spooky sounds of space. Every piece of audio we're about to play might sound like it comes from a terrifying nightmare dimension, but it's really just a natural space phenomena. Ep. 237: Spooky...
At least once a week we get an email claiming that Einstein was wrong. Well you know what, Einstein was right. In fact, as part of his theories of Special and General Relativity, Einstein made a series of predictions about what experiments should discover. Some...
What can we say about Einstein? Albert Einstein! Lots, actually. In this show we're going to talk about the most revolutionary physicist… ever. He completely changed our understanding of time, and space, and energy, and gravity. He made predictions about the nature of...
This is an impromptu episode of Astronomy Cast that we recorded during Dragon*Con 2011. Pamela was scheduled to speak with a panel about strange things in space, but she ended up being the only person there. So Fraser jumped in, and this was what we did. We mostly...
The Moon is a stark reminder that we actually live in a Universe filled with stars and planets and moons. The changing phases of the Moon show us the relative positions of the Earth, the Sun and the Moon as they interact with one another. Let's learn about the...
Radar is one of the those technologies that changed everything: it allows boats and aircraft to "see" at night and through thick fog. But it also changed astronomy and ground imaging, tracking asteroids with great accuracy, allowing spacecraft to peer through Venus'...
In last season's thrilling cliff hanger, we talked about astronomer superhero Galileo Galilei. Will a mission be named after him? The answer is yes! NASA's Galileo spacecraft visited Jupiter in 1995, and spent almost 8 years orbiting, changing our understanding of the...
It's hard to imagine a more famous astronomer than Galileo Galilei. He's widely recognized as the very first person to point a telescope at the skies and then study what he saw. Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, and much more. But it was...
And now we finish our trilogy of Saturnian astronomers and missions with a look at the Dutch astronomer and mathematician, Christiaan Huygens. It was Huygens who discovered Titan, and figured out what Saturn's rings really are, so it makes sense that a probe landing...
Last week we talked about the Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. This week we'll talk about the mission that shares his name: NASA's Cassini Spacecraft. This amazing mission is orbiting Saturn right now, sending back thousands of high resolution images of the ringed...
Another two parter, coming at you. This week we talk about the Italian astronomer, Giovanni Domenico Cassini, best known for discovering Saturn's moons and the biggest division in Saturn's rings. Cassini made many other important discoveries in the Solar System, and...
We wanted to spend a few shows talking about some of the most recognizable constellations in the night sky. We've chatted about Orion the Hunter, but now we're going to talk about the Big Dipper, also known as Ursa Major, or the Great Bear - apologies to our southern...
How's the weather? Maybe a better question is... why's the weather? What is it about planets and their atmospheres that create weather systems. What have planetary scientists learned about our Earth's weather, and how does this relate to other planets in the Solar...