Space and astronomy news
With the successful touchdown of the Phoenix Lander, NASA is continuing its quest to find evidence of past and present water on Mars. This week we discuss the geologic history of Mars, and explain why NASA thinks the story of water on Mars is so important. And how this ties into the search for life on the Red Planet.
Click here to download the episode
The Search for Water on Mars – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
You’ve heard me say it 90 times: “How we know what we know.” But how do we know how we know what we know? So astronomers like all scientists use the scientific method. Without the scientific method we’d probably still think the Earth is flat, only a few thousand years old and the center of the universe. But with the scientific method everything changes. From biology, to chemistry, to physics, to astronomy it is impossible to count the number of changes that have happened to human society because of changes brought about from the scientific method. In this episode we tell you about what the scientific method is, how you can use it to improve your life, and discuss why gravity isn’t just a theory.
Click here to download the episode
The Scientific Method – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Since the dawn of humanity, astronomers have wished to destroy the atmosphere. Oh sure, it’s what we breathe and all, but that stupid atmosphere is always getting in the way. Since destroying the atmosphere is out of the question, astronomers have figured out how to work with it. To distort the mirror of the telescope itself though the magic of adaptive optics.
Click here to download the episode
Adaptive Optics – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Our understanding of the cosmos has been revolutionized by the Hubble Space Telescope. The breathtaking familiar photos, like the Pillars of Creation, pale in comparison to the astounding amount of science data returned to Earth. Hubble’s getting old, though, serviced several times already, and due for another mission later this year. Let’s relive the historic observatory’s amazing life so far, and see what the future holds.
Click here to download the episode
The Hubble Space Telescope – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Hopefully you’ve all recovered from part 1 of this set, where we make you sad about the future of the humanity, the Earth, the Sun and the Solar System. But hang on, we’re really going to bring you down. Today we’ll look far far forward into the distant future of the Universe, at timescales that we can barely comprehend.
If you haven’t heard it, here’s a link to Part 1.
Click here to download the episode
The End of the Universe Part 2: The End of Everything – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
This is a show we wanted to do since we started Astronomy Cast but we always thought it was too early. We wanted you to know that we’re positive, happy people with enthusiasm for astronomy and the future. It’s time for some sadness. It’s time for a grim look to see what the future holds for the Universe. This week we stay close to home and consider the end of humanity, the Earth, the Sun, and the entire Solar System. Next week we’ll extend out to the very end of the Universe.
Click here to download the episode
The End of the Universe Part 1: The End of the Solar System – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Our senses can only detect a fraction of the phenomena happening in the Universe. That’s why scientists and engineers develop detectors, to let us see radiation and particles that we could never detect with our eyes and ears. This week we’ll go through them all, so you can understand how we see what we can’t see.
Click here to download the episode
Detectors – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a spacecraft off the Earth and into space. And how managers at NASA can actually navigate a spacecraft to another planet? And how does a gravity assist work? And how do they get them into orbit? And how do they land? So many questions…
Click here to download the episode
Getting Around the Solar Spider – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
Have you ever heard that photons behave like both a particle and a wave and wondered what that meant? It’s true. Sometimes light acts like a wave, and other times it behaves like a little particle. It’s both. This week we discuss the experiments that demonstrate this, explain how scientists figured it all out in the first place. What does wave/particle duality have to do with astronomy? Well, everything, since light is the only way astronomers can see out into the Universe.
Click here to download the episode
Wave Particle Duality – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.
We’re polluting every corner of our own planet, so it only makes sense that we’ll take our trashy habits out into space with us. This week we look at the myriad of ways we’re messing up space, from the trash orbiting the planet to the radiation we’re leaking out into space.
Click here to download the episode
Space Junk – Show notes and transcript
Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.