Space and astronomy news
Last week we examined the largest wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum: radio. This week we get a little smaller… but not too small! And look at the next step in the spectrum, the submillimeter. Astronomers have only recently began exploiting this tiny slice of the spectrum, but the payoff has been huge.
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This week we wonder if you can made a black hole by accelerating a mass, but then can you un-make it again? Will the Earth ever be tidally locked to the Sun? And can dark matter crush an unsuspecting space ship?
If you’ve got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to [email protected] and we’ll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Click here to download the episode.
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
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Astronomers are very resourceful. When it comes to light, they use the whole spectrum – from radio to gamma rays. We see in visible light, but that’s just a tiny portion of the spectrum. Today we’re going to celebrate the other end of the spectrum; the radio end, where photons really stretch out their wavelengths.
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This week we wonder if the Universe is going to collapse and then expand again, how satellites can have such different velocities, and the size of the observable Universe.
If you’ve got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to [email protected] and we’ll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Click here to download the episode.
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Questions Show- Transcript and show notes.
When it comes to telescopes, bigger is better. But bigger is more expensive. Way more expensive. To keep the costs reasonable while improving the sensitivity of their instruments, astronomers use an amazing technique called interferometry. Instead of building a single huge telescope, you can merge the light from several telescopes to act like a much larger telescope. It’s a technique that has already revolutionized Earth-based observing – but just wait until it gets into space…
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Interferometry – Transcript and show notes.
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We did a wildly popular three part series about the center, size and shape of the Universe. But every good trilogy needs a 4th episode. This week we look at age of the Universe. How old is the Universe, and how do we know? And how has this number changed over time as astronomers have gotten better tools and techniques?
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How Old is the Universe? – Transcript and show notes.
Just wanted to wish all the Universe Today readers a happy 2009, and invite all of you to listen to the first episode of the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. The first voice you’ll hear will be … me! (well, after Pamela Gay’s introduction and George Hrab’s incredibly rockin’ theme song!) I’m part of the group of folks working behind the scenes, “making sure audio makes it from our community to your computer everyday of 2009” — to quote Pamela’s part of the podcast. The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast will publish one podcast per day, for all 365 days of 2009. The podcast episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the world. There are still dates open if you’d like to participate. Check out the website! If you’ve never done a podcast before, don’t worry — everything you need to know on how to get started is on the website. But if you choose to participate by just listening, that’s OK, because we need listeners, too! If you need a reminder to listen every day of 2009, you can follow the podcast’s Twitter, which will send out a tweet each day of the day’s topic, inviting you to listen in. And make sure you check out all the other International Year of Astronomy events, too. If you can’t find any near you, consider organizing an event, whether it be a star party or an informational event. The sky is the limit!
Want to subscribe? Links for iTunes or RSS
Listen in and enjoy!
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With Christmas just around the corner, we thought we’d investigate a mystery that has puzzled historians for hundreds of years. In the bible, the birth of Jesus was announced by a bright star in the sky that led the three wise men to his birthplace. What are some possible astronomical objects that might look like such a bright star in the sky? And were there any unusual events that happened at that time?
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The Christmas Star – Transcript and show notes.
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Space is totally inhospitable. If the freezing temperatures don’t get you, the intense radiation will kill you. Or the vacuum, or the lack of breathable atmosphere, or meteoroid impacts. Well… you get the idea. That’s why most space exploration is done by hardy robots. They don’t need to eat, drink or breathe. They get their energy from the Sun, and they’ve proven they’ve got the right stuff to explore every planet and major moon in the Solar System. Let’s hear it for the space robots.
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Robots in Space – Transcript and show notes.
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This week we find out the distance between Betelgeuse and Bellatrex, how astronomers measure distance between objects, the possibility that an object could mess up the Earth’s orbit, and the reason for different sizes of stars. If you’ve got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to [email protected] and we’ll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Click here to download the episode.
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Distance in Space, Changing Earth’s Orbit, and Different Sized Stars – Transcript and show notes.