Computers are a big part of astronomy, but mostly they’ve been relegated to doing calculations. Recent developments in machine learning have changed everything, giving computers the ability to do jobs that humans could only do in the past.
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Ep. 636: Blowing Bubbles
We think of space as a vacuum, but there are regions of different density. There are winds blowing from stars and other objects that clear out vast bubbles in space, and look absolutely fantastic in pictures. And might have been critical for Earth to even exist in the first place.
Ep. 635: Jets: When Magnetic Fields Fling Things
As astronomers look out across the Universe, they see various objects spewing jets of material light years into space. What causes these jets, and what impact do they have on the Universe.
Ep. 634: Milky Way’s Mergers & Acquisitions
The Milky Way is a vast grand spiral today, but how did it get this way? Astronomers are starting to unravel the history of our galaxy, revealing the ancient collisions with dwarf galaxies, and how they came together to build the Milky Way.
Recent Episodes
Ep. 225: Ice in Space
A huge part of the Solar System is just made of ice. There are comets, rings, moons and even dwarf planets. Where did all this ice come from, and what impact (pardon the pun) has it had for life on Earth? Ep. 225: Ice in Space Jump to Shownotes Jump to Transcript Show...
Ep. 224: Orion
Most people know how to find two constellations: the Big Dipper, and Orion the Hunter. You can teach a small child to find Orion, and at the right time of year, they'll find it in seconds. There's so much going on in this spectacular constellation, from the star...
Ep. 223: The Transit of Venus
Since the planet Venus is closer in to the Sun than Earth, there are rare opportunities to see it pass directly in front of our parent star. This is known as a planetary transit, and thanks to the geometry of the Earth and Venus, they only happen a couple of times a...
Ep. 222: The Decadal Survey
In episode 198 we explained how space missions are chosen, and introduced the Decadal Survey. Since the time we recorded that episode, the full Decadal Survey for planetary science has been released, explaining the science goals for planetary geologists over the next...
Ep. 221: Geomorphology
When we look around our planet, we see a huge variety in landforms: mountains, valleys, plateaus, and more. Continents rise and fall over the eons, providing geologists with a history of the planet's evolution. The study of these changes is known as geomorphology, and...
Ep. 220: Mass Extinction Events
The Earth seems like a safe place, most of the time. But we have evidence of terrible catastrophes in the ancient past. Times when almost all life on Earth was wiped out in a geologic instant. What could have caused so much devastation? And will something like this...
Ep. 219: Planck Mission
Another mission named after a famous physicist. This time we're looking at the Planck mission, designed to study the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation over the entire sky. Like the previous WMAP mission, this will help astronomers understand the first moments...
Ep. 218: Max Planck
It's time for another action-packed double episode, where we meet a man and his mission. This time around its German physicist Max Planck, considered to be the father of quantum theory - he was later granted a Nobel Prize for just that discovery. Let's take a trip...
Ep. 217: Stellar Classification
Have you ever heard an astronomer utter these words? Oh be a fine girl and kiss me. They're not being romantic, they're trying to remember the different ways to organize stars, as detailed nicely on a Hertzsprung–Russell diagram. Let's learn what all those letters...
Ep. 216: Archaeoastronomy
The Sun, Moon, stars and planets are visible to the unaided eye, and so they have been visible to astronomers since before recorded history. Some of the earliest records we do have tell us what the ancient astronomers thought about the heavens, and how they used the...
Ep. 215: Light Echoes
Just as sound can echo off distant objects, light can echo too. And the echoes of light bouncing off stellar remnants, black hole accretion disks, and clouds of gas and dust provide astronomers with another method of probing the distant cosmos. Download Ep. 215: Light...
Ep. 214: Space Tourism
Have you ever wanted to go to space, but lacked the... everything... to be an astronaut? A whole new industry of space tourism will take you where you need to go. There are new companies offering zero-G flights, sub-orbital flights, and there have even been paying...
Ep. 213: Supermassive Black Holes
It's now believed that there's a supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of every galaxy in the Universe. These monstrous black holes can contain hundreds of millions of times the mass of our own Sun, with event horizons bigger than the Solar System. They're the...
Ep. 212: GPS Navigation
Last week we talked about the old way navigators used to find their way around the planet; by looking at objects in the sky, and doing some tricky math. The new navigation system, of course, is the Global Positioning System, and it helps you find your spot on the...
Ep. 211: Celestial Navigation
Before there was GPS, navigators had to rely on the Sun and the stars to find their way around the Earth. It's easier than it sounds, if you've got the right instruments, clear skies, and a really accurate clock. Let's examine the history of celestial navigation,...
Ep. 210: Mars Exploration Rovers
The twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been crawling around the surface of Mars since early 2004 - years longer than they were expected to live. And what they have discovered there on Mars has given scientists their best understanding of...
Ep. 209: Exotic Life
We don't like to cover news on Astronomy Cast, but sometimes there's a news story that's interesting, complicated, and rapidly unfolding - and it happens to cover an area that we haven't talked much about. So today we thought we'd talk about the discovery of...
Ep. 208: Spitzer Space Telescope
Last week we talked about Lyman Spitzer, and this week we'll take a look at the orbiting observatory that bears his name: the Spitzer Space Telescope. Designed to see into the infrared spectrum, Spitzer has returned images of objects that were previously hidden to...
Ep. 207: Lyman Spitzer
Time for another action-packed double episode of Astronomy Cast. This week we focus on the Lyman Spitzer, a theoretical physicist and astronomer who worked on star formation and plasma physics. Of course, this will lead us into next week's episode where we talk about...
Ep. 206: Fission
Last week we talked about fusion, where atoms come together to form heavier elements. This week, everything comes apart as we talk about nuclear fission. How it occurs naturally in the Universe, and how it has been harnessed by science to produce power, and...