Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Upcoming: Live Interview with Climate Scientist Michael Mann

Michael Mann, Professor Director, Earth System Science Center, Pennsylvania State University. Credit: PSU

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Join us on Friday, March 16, 2012 at 14:00 UTC for another in our series of live interviews. This week we’ll be talking with climate scientist Michael Mann, who has written a new book, “The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the Front Lines.”

Please note the different time than our usual interviews/Hangouts On Air: our interview with Mann will be at 14:00 UTC, 10 am EDT, 7 am PDT. Watch on CosmoQuest’s Hangout page, or on Fraser’s Google + page. We’ll be taking questions for Dr. Mann in the ‘chat’ areas on the Hangout.

If you can’t watch it live, we’ll post the video reply later in the day on Friday.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Weekly Space Hangout — March 8, 2012

In this episode of the Weekly Space Hangout, we talk about two different asteroid close passes, the solar storms buffeting the Earth, a recent space exploration conference, and a team of amateur astronomers flashing the space station. The regular team was there, with Phil Plait, Pamela Gay, Emily Lakdawalla, Alan Boyle, Nancy Atkinson and host Fraser Cain.

We were also joined by Ryan Kobrick – Executive Director of Yuri’s Night – to talk about the upcoming festivities on April 12.

Remember, we record this show live every Thursday at 10:00am PST / 1:00 pm EST / 1800 UTC. Join us at Cosmoquest Hangouts, or watch Fraser’s Google+ stream for the show to start.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Astronomy Cast Ep. 254: Reflection and Refraction

Light can do some pretty strange stuff, like pass through objects and bounce off them; it can be broken up and recombined. In fact, everything we “see” is actually the end result of reflection and refraction of light. Time to understand how it all works.

Remember that we record every episode of Astronomy Cast as a live Google+ Hangout on Mondays at 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST / 2000 GMT. You can watch us record the episode and even jump into the Hangout and ask us some questions. Follow Fraser on Google+ to see when it happens.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Astronomy Cast Ep. 252: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

Quantum theory is plenty strange, but one of the strangest discoveries is the realization that there’s a limit to how much you can measure at any one time. This was famously described by Werner Heisenberg, with his uncertainty principle: how you can never know both the position and motion of a particle at the same time.

We record Astronomy Cast live every Monday at 12 pm PST / 3 pm EST / 2000 GMT. If you want to join in our recording, just make sure you’ve got Fraser circled on Google+, then the show will show up in your stream. You can also watch us live at Cosmoquest.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

The Latest Exoplanet News from Kepler

We love exoplanets! And the Kepler mission is giving us more to love. Our special guest on our latest live interview via a Google+ Hangout On Air was astronomer Darin Ragozzine with the Kepler mission, sharing insight how Kepler is blowing our previous concepts on exoplanets out of the water. Darin is an ITC Fellow at the Harvard Institute for Theory and Computation. He studies the theory and dynamics of transiting exoplanets around other stars and Kuiper belt objects in the outer solar system.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Weekly Space Hangout – Mar. 1, 2012

Another week, another space roundup. This week we talk about the redefinition of the term “Earthlike”, salty soil on Mars, how you can participate in SETI, asteroid dust from Hayabusa, and the dangers of a warp drive.

Just a warning, we somehow lost the first 10 minutes or so of the video, so you’ll have to imagine Ian’s awesome description of the scientists concerned with the definition “Earthlike”, and how that might be changed. We didn’t miss too much of the conversation, though.

Remember, we record this show live every Thursday at 10:00am PST / 1:00 pm EST / 1800 UTC. Join us at Cosmoquest Hangouts, or watch Fraser’s Google+ stream for the show to start.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Next Live Interview: The Latest Exoplanet News from Kepler

Artist's conception of "Super-Earth" exoplanet Kepler-22b, which is about 2.4 times larger than Earth. Credit: NASA.

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Coming up next in our series of live interviews with astronomers and scientists is a discussion of the latest news from the Kepler mission. Joining us will be Darin Ragozzine, a postdoctoral researcher with the Kepler mission, at the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory who studies transiting exoplanets, as well as the theory and dynamics of Kuiper belt objects.

The live interview will be a Hangout on Air, and be on Friday, March 2 at 18:00 UTC, 1 pm EST, 10 am PST. To watch the Hangout on Air, circle Fraser on Google+ and watch his feed for the link to the Hangout. There you can join in on the conversation and post your questions for us.

If you aren’t on Google+, you can also watch it live on the CosmoQuest Hangouts page, where there is also a place to post comments and questions. If you can’t watch live, we’ll post a recording of the Hangout later on UT.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Interview with Mike Brown

In case you missed it, here’s our interview with Caltech astronomer Mike Brown. Mike and his team discovered Eris and many other large objects in the Kuiper Belt. We talked about Pluto and Eris, of course, but also about Mike’s other favorite objects in the Solar System like Europa and Titan.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Video: Weekly Space Hangout with Special Guest Alan Stern

If you missed it live, here’s the replay of this week’s Space Hangout. And don’t forget, on Friday, Feb. 17 at 18:00 UTC (1 pm EST, 10 am PST) I’ll be interviewing astronomer and Pluto killer (@Plutokiller) Mike Brown. To watch the Hangout on Air, circle Fraser on Google+ and watch his feed for the link to the Hangout. There you can join in on the conversation and post your questions for Mike by posting comments on the feed.

If you aren’t on Google+, you can also watch it live on the CosmoQuest Hangouts page, where there is also a place to post comments and questions. And we’ll also try to have a live feed on Universe Today. Just look for a video player in the upper right hand corner of the site and click the ‘play’ button. If you can’t watch live, we’ll post a recording of the Hangout later on UT, just like the one above.