365 Days of Astronomy - Weekly Edition
This weekly podcast is part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, compiling each week's episodes from the daily 365 Days of Astronomy podcast into a single omnibus edition. Hosted by Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay, it explores a wide range of astronomy topics, including celestial events, space science, and amateur observing. Each episode brings accessible explanations and interviews with astronomers and researchers. It's designed for anyone interested in the universe, from novices to seasoned stargazers.
Episodes
Ep. 804: Mission Tech Series: Fairings, Docking & Airlocks
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Oct 3, 2026. Mission Tech Part 3. Instead of sending up an entire space station for every mission, you can just send up a tiny can filled with astronauts. But that takes docking. And today we’re gonna talk about what it takes to connect two spacecraft together. How to keep a cargo safe to get into orbit, and
Ep. 803: Mission Tech Series: Engines & Stages
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed on October 3, 2026. Today our series continues with our deep dive into rockets, their engines & stages. We fall into the tyranny of the rocket equation and discover what it takes to escape Earth’s gravity and head off into deep space. We removed all ads from the show. We need to get to 1,500 patrons to keep it this
Ep. 802: Mission Tech Series: Rocket & Spacecraft 411
Streamed live on Sep 21, 2026 Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Today we begin a new series on rockets and spacecraft, dealing with each of their components. It’s a big job, so it’ll take us a bunch of episodes to get through. Today let’s do an introduction about what we’re gonna talk about in this series: rockets from tip to tail, soup to nuts.
Ep. 801: The Beginning & End of Everything - Part 2
Streamed live on Sep 7, 2026. Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast Today we do the sequel to our 2-part series. We jump to the end of the Universe, and all the major moments that will occur from now until the heat death of the Universe. The end of everything. - The fate & future of the
Ep. 800: The Beginning & End of Everything - Part 1
Streamed live on Sep 7, 2026. Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast To celebrate our 20th season, we thought we’d go back right to the beginning… of everything. Let’s wind the clock back to the earliest moments of the Universe, where we’ll measure time in fractions of a second. As the fou
Ep. 799: Heavy Lift Rockets
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live June 22, 2026. The Saturn 5 was a monster, capable of sending humans and a lander to the Moon and bringing them back again. But the number of heavy lift rockets since then has gotten pretty sparse. Now, with tens if not hundreds of thousands of satellites in the works, giant new space telescopes and multi-ton l
Ep. 798: Our Summer Media List
Streamed live on Jun 15, 2026. Well, we’re just a couple of weeks away from summer hiatus and so it’s time to give you some homework. Here’s our list of stuff we’ve been reading watching and playing. This should fill the Astronomy-Cast-shaped hole in your media landscape. On the plane, on the beach, from the passenger seat in a car, summer is a time for escaping into a good book, video, or game. F
Ep. 797: Summer in Space
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live June 10, 2026. We’re about to take a much needed 2 month hiatus. But just because we’re not here doesn’t mean space stops existing and doing things. Today, let’s give a preview of the big events due to happen in space this summer so you can prepare yourself and make sure you don’t miss a thing! From meteors to m
Ep. 796: Oceans & Organics on Mars
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Jun 1, 2026. Mars is cold & dry today, but the evidence is growing that it used to be warmer & wetter. with seas & oceans that covered large parts of its surface. With the additional findings of the chemicals for life, the search for life on Mars is getting pretty interesting! New results from Perseverance an
Ep. 795: Expanse Science
Streamed live on May 10, 2026. This is the final episode of our series on sci-fi universes. And this week we will tackle “The Expanse”. Now we’ve got fusion drives, Proto-matter, g-forces! Listen up, belta lawda! Let's look at the science of our own possible (with a side of aliens) future. This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast In this episode, we'd like to
Ep. 794: Stargate Science
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on May 10, 2026. We continue our ad-hoc miniseries through sci-fi franchises. This week we’ll talk about Stargate, worm holes, mind parasites and self-replicating bots. There’s a lot to talk about! This show is supported through people like you on Patreon.com/AstronomyCast In this episode, we'd like to thank:
Ep. 793: Star Trek Science
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live May 4, 2026. Today we continue our mini-series; evaluating the science of various sci-fi franchises. We did Star Wars last week, this week tackle Star Trek. From transporters to warp drives, from phasers to photon torpedos. Let’s tackle what Star Trek gets right and wrong about science. Let's look at the science
Ep. 792: Star Wars Science
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live April 29, 2026. May the fourth be with you! Isn’t that what people say on the international holiday known as Star Wars Day? Today we’re gonna talk about the science in everyone’s favorite sci-fi fantasy stories. Which of it is real, and which is essentially magic? Let’s find out! Let's look at the science of a g
Ep. 791: Chang'e Sample Return
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Apr 20, 2026. Last week we talked about samples from other worlds delivered to Earth by meteorites. But sometimes you’ve gotta do the job yourself. Visit the far off place and bring the samples home. And today we’re gonna talk about China’s Chang’e sample return program. How they’ve delivered rocks from diffe
Ep. 790: Meteorites From Other Worlds
Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live April 17, 2026. Even though humanity has returned samples from a fraction of the worlds in the solar system, the cosmos has delivered many more without us having to lift a finger. Meteorites. We have meteorites from the Moon, Vesta and even Mars! What have we learned about these rocks from other worlds? Spac
Ep. 789: What Happens When a Planet's Star Dies
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Mar 30, 2026. A star like the Sun only lasts about 10 billion years and it becomes a red giant and finally a white dwarf. This is catastrophic for some of the planets, consumed by the expanding red giant star. But most survive. What happens next in the long, slow cooling to the background temperature of the U
Ep. 788: Life’s Molecules Form in Space
Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( @frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( @CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Mar 23, 2026. The theory of evolution how life takes on its wildly different forms. But how did life get started in the first place? It appears the Universe has been making life’s molecules in space for billions of years, setting up the conditions for life… everywhere? One of humanity's fundamental questi
Ep. 787: Evolved Stars (They're not dead yet!)
Streamed live on Mar 16, 2026. Main sequence stars spend most of their time being… normal. Fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. Producing radiation. But as their stockpiles of hydrogen run out they switch to other fuels, starting to climb the ladder of the periodic table of elements. And this is when things get weird. As we get more and more observations of the cosmos, our understanding get
Ep. 786: Wolf-Rayet Stars
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Mar 9, 2026. You think the Sun is a terrifying ball of fire and fury? Wait until you learn about today’s topic: Wolf-Rayet stars! These are massive, dying stars hurling their outer layers out into space before detonating as supernovae. Big stars live brief lives, and Wolf-Rayet stars are the punctuation mark
Ep. 785: Magnetars
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest ) Streamed live March 6, 2026. Magnetars are a special type of neutron star with physics that defy comprehension. Magnetic fields so powerful they could strip you apart at an atomic level. But, where do they come from? So many mysteries to uncover about magnetars. Back in December 2004, a gamma rays washed out cameras and zot
Ep. 784: Pulsar-Powered Science
Streamed live on Feb 16, 2026. Pulsars are dead stars and fascinating in their own right, but astronomers can use their predictable rotation for exploring the cosmos in a series of amazing ways. We can detect gravitational waves, navigate the solar system, test general relativity and find exoplanets. Pulsars are the time keepers of the sky, with their precise ticking allowing researchers to track
Ep. 783: Cataclysmic Variable Stars
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest) Streamed live on Feb 16, 2026. There are many types of variable stars. Today we’re gonna talk about cataclysmic variable stars, which are the result of a white dwarf stealing material from a companion star. And this whole process makes supervillain Pamela happy. Gravity is the weakest force, but on the scales of stars, it is
Ep. 782: Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients
Streamed live on Feb 13, 2026. Modern astronomy has found that the Universe can surprise us. Here’s one which astronomers have called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients. They’re kinda like supernovas, they’re kind of like gamma ray bursts, but they’re not like them. So what are they? In the distant Universe, are blue light flashes, bright and hard to understand. These objects, uncreatively name
Ep. 781: Awakening Black Holes
Streamed live on Feb 2, 2026. One long standing mystery in astronomy were the quasars. Incomprehensible energy blasting out of a point-like source, billions of light years away. We now know these are actively feeding supermassive black holes, which can turn off and on in a startlingly short period of time. Today: When black holes awaken! Our Universe is filled with sleeping monsters. And sometimes
Ep. 780: When Asteroids & Comets Attack!
Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest ) Streamed live on Jan 26, 2026. We live in a cosmic shooting gallery. It’s not a matter of “if” but “when”! Dinosaurs, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. But seriously, folks, it’s raining rocks & ice out there! How seriously should we take it? What happens when a variety of different objects hit the Earth? Different kind
Ep. 779: Milankovitch Cycles
Streamed live on Jan 12, 2026. Hosted by: Fraser Cain (@frasercain ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (@CosmoQuest ) Humans live short lives, and from our perspective the seasons are something that come and go with perfect regularity. But astronomers know the terrible truth! And that there are cycles that slowly shift over tens of thousands of years, shifting the cycles and the Earth’s climate. Today we’ll t
Ep. 778: Dyson Swarms
Streamed live on Jan 5, 2026. Freeman Dyson asked a fascinating question. What would it look like if a civilization was using all the energy coming from their star? And what form would this take? This introduced the concept of a Dyson Sphere, or more realistically, a Dyson Swarm surrounding a star. But if you’re skeptical about the concept, you’re in good company. This show is supported through
Ep. 777: The Eddington Limit
Streamed live on Dec 29, 2025. How big can a star get? This is a calculation made by one of the original pioneers of modern astronomy, Sir Arthur Eddington. And it’s named after him, the Eddington Limit. Now, astronomers are finding examples of giant black holes early in the Universe, calling into question some of Eddington’s assumptions. Let’s explore this fascinating concept! Why are stars spher
Ep. 776: The Matter - Antimatter Dichotomy
Streamed live on Dec 22, 2025. Shortly after the big bang there were almost exactly the same amounts of matter and antimatter in the Universe, but there was just enough of a difference that we live in a matter-dominated Universe. But it didn’t have to be that way! Explaining this mystery has been one of the great mysteries in astronomy, and today we’ll see if there’s been any progress! Why is the
Ep. 775: The Hydrogen 21-cm Line
Streamed live on Dec 15, 2025. Atomic hydrogen is the raw material for stars, but there’s a problem. It’s cold & dark, but it can do a very rare trick, releasing a photon in a very specific wavelength, known as the 21 centimeter line. And thanks to this wavelength astronomers have mapped out star forming regions across the Milky Way, the Universe and into the Dark Ages! This forbidden transition o
Ep. 774: How Does Bad Science Happen?
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Streamed live on Nov 8, 2025. [Editor's Note: Fraser says "Episode 773" at the head of the show. Not to worry, he was just confused. They recorded a few episodes out of sequence. I fixed the issue in the regular non-FullRaw episode.] Scientific expertise is under attack on all fronts with concerns coming from politicians and the public. While most of t
Ep. 773: What Would You Do With $1 Billion For Astronomy?
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Streamed live on Nov 9, 2025. We are powerless fans of space exploration. But what if some fool gave us the authority and funding to make our space dreams a reality? Someone asked us what we’d do with a billion dollars. What missions? Which telescopes? But what if we had more? 100 Billion! A trillion! All the monies! You keep asking, and this week we a
Ep. 772: 2025 Gift Guide
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Streamed live on Nov 9, 2025. It’s time once again for our annual gift giving guide. We’ve got recommendations for books, movies, TV shows, games and of course astronomy gear to satisfy the space nerds in your family. The Christmas season is almost upon us, and with it comes excuses to inject science into the lives of those you love... or ask for them
Ep. 771: Comet Tails
Streamed live on Nov 8, 2025. With the arrival of the comet 3I/Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System), the world is getting a crash course in comets, their behavior, and of course their tails. Today we’re going to talk about comets and their tails, why they exist, how they grow, why they can be different colors and how they can be sometimes point AT the Sun. Comets are one of the
Ep. 770: The Ethics of Mars Exploration
Streamed live on Nov 3, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. It is arguable that humanity now has the technological ability to live on Mars. It would be done at enormous expense and sacrifice, and there are some tricky problems that we haven’t solved yet. Although we could live on Mars, should we? There is a famous quote from Jurassic Park: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with
Ep. 769: Little Red Dots
Streamed live on Oct 20, 2025. New instruments bring new mysteries, and when James Webb came on line it uncovered a collection of strange, compact, bright objects shifted deeply into the red end of the spectrum. These were dubbed “Little red dots” or LRDs. And the astronomical community continues to puzzle over what they are. When JWST first peered into the distant past, it discovered the early un
Ep. 768: Comets' Unpredictability
Streamed live on Oct 13, 2025. So it’s been decades since we’ve seen a bright comet in the sky. And actually there was a pair — Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake. And then, silence! And unmet promises by the Universe to give us a bright comet. Comets are unpredictable, and they arrive precisely when they intend to. Is it time again for a bright comet? If you asked us in January if 2025 was going to have any
Ep. 767: Black Holes in Extreme Circumstances
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Streamed live on Oct 6, 2025. You can only describe a black hole by its mass and its spin. And maybe it’s charge. But allow us to propose a new criteria: the personal experience. Some black holes have seen things… Experienced the laws of physics at their most extreme. And today we’ll tell their stories. The more of the sky we observe, the more bizarre s
Ep. 766: How Spacecraft End
End-of-Life Planning for Your Spacecraft! Streamed live October 1, 2025. Your spacecraft has reached the end of its mission. You’ve done everything you can to keep it operational, but now it’s time to say goodbye. How do space agencies deal with spacecraft to shut them down gracefully, protect future missions and life on other worlds. So, the time has come to see your mission across the Rainbow Br
Ep. 765: Rockets vs The Environment
Streamed live on Sep 22, 2025. We don’t launch a lot of rockets every year, so their impact on the environment is minimal compared to other forms of transportation. But that number is steadily increasing with rates that we’ll have to take seriously. What’s the current and future impact of rockets on the environment Rocket facilities are often surrounded by wildlife preserves and they always fly th
Ep. 764: Cleared For Launch!
Streamed live September 17, 2025. This week, we look at the process behind rockets getting licensed to launch, and everyone around the pad getting notified to stay away as T-0 approaches. (Can you say "errant boat"?) We have a saying around here: “One does not simply book a return trip from a rocket launch.” That’s because they are an intensely complex chain of events that need to go right before
Ep. 763: Interstellar Comets
Streamed live Sep 8, 2025. Welcome to the first episode of our 19th season! This week we look at objects coming from other solar systems that come passing on by our Sun. During the summer hiatus the 3rd interstellar object was discovered: Comet 3I/ATLAS! So now we have 3 different interstellar interlopers to compare & contrast. What are we starting to learn about other star systems from this small
Ep. 762: Science in Crisis - NASA’s New Budget
Streamed live on Jun 30, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Normally we try to end the season on a high note. But there’s unfolding news that we just HAVE to cover before we leave you for the summer. NASA’s new budget is here, and it’s 25% smaller. We’ll cover what the changes are and try to understand the implications. It's a bad decade to be a researcher. We're going to look at w
Ep. 761: It's Here! The Vera Rubin Observatory
Streamed live June 25, 2025. The time has come. The mighty Vera Rubin Observatory has finally come on line and delivered its “first light” images. And by Pamela’s rules that means we get to talk about it! So let’s do that! After decades of waiting, we have images from Vera Rubin Observatory! SUPPORTED BY YOU This Episode is made possible thanks to our Patrons on Patreon. Join at the Galaxy Group
Ep. 760: What to Look For This Summer
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Streamed live on Jun 16, 2025. It’s almost time for our annual summer hiatus, but before we go, we wanted to direct you towards all the fun and space stuff we’ll be enjoying this summer. We’ve got meteor showers, planets, rocket launches, TV shows, movies! Here’s what’s good. In a couple of weeks, we'll go on hiatus, but we want to make sure you are rea
Ep. 759: The Commercial Space Program
Streamed live on Jun 9, 2025. Humanity has turned its focus back to the Moon, sending a fleet of spacecraft to the lunar surface. Some are run by the government, but there’s a whole new group of commercial landers bearing instruments to the lunar surface. Is this the future of lunar exploration? Space used to be a place occupied by government-funded and military missions, but today, we're seeing t
Ep. 758: Non-Roving Rovers
Streamed live on May 26, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Some of our favorite robots are rovers currently roving around the surface of the Moon & Mars. But there’s some pretty tricky terrain out there and engineers are scheming up clever ways to explore other worlds inspired by life that crawls, slithers, hops and flies. As we explore more surfaces and more complex surfaces thro
Ep. 757: CubeSats
Streamed live on May 19, 2025. Computers are getting smaller, faster and more capable, which has enabled an entirely mew class of satellites: CubeSats. A mission small enough that you can hold it in your hands, and yet powerful enough to even travel to other planets and send messages home. Every year, our electronics seem to get smaller and more powerful, with today's smart watches being more f
Ep. 756: SphereX
Streamed live on May 12, 2025. NASA’s newly launched SphereX mission is up & operational and has completed its initial checkout and “first light”. Everything looks good! And now it’s starting its science operations. And that’s good enough for Pamela! And THAT means we can talk about it. So let’s do that! There's a new space telescope in town (or at least in LEO). Let's check out what it's looking
Ep. 755: Intermediate Mass Black Holes
Streamed live on May 5, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. There are stellar-mass and supermassive black holes. But very little evidence of anything in between. Where are all the intermediate-mass black holes that should be the building blocks of the biggest ones? Actually, the science has been accelerating rapidly and we now know of hundreds of them. The question marks in our und
Ep. 754: K2-18b
Streamed live on Apr 28, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay You’ve heard the news! Astronomers are reporting the discovery of biosignatures at K2-18b. Is this proof of life or should we all be more skeptical? It's in the news and people are claiming aliens... but is it aliens? Let's see what the data actually says. SUPPORTED BY YOU This Episode is made possible thanks to our Pat
Ep. 753: Why is the Moon's South Pole So Interesting?
Streamed live on Apr 21, 2025. I’m sure you’ve heard that all eyes are on the Moon’s southern pole. This is where various NASA and Chinese missions are targeting. What makes this region so special and what are the special challenges that explorers will face. From TV shows to real-world missions, it seems like everyone just wants to explore the Moon's South Pole. But why? Learn here! SUPPORTED B
Ep. 752: Should We Go to the Moon or Mars Next?
Streamed live on Apr 16, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay There is an ongoing debate on where NASA should go next with humans: to the Moon or Mars. (Or maybe an asteroid or one of Mars’ moons). We are on the verge of sending humans back to the Moon. At the same time others would prefer we focus our exploration on Mars. It’s a tough choice because there are costs and benefits to b
Ep. 751: Vacuum Energy
Streamed live on Apr 7, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Even empty space isn’t empty. It’s filled with the quantum fluctuations of spacetime itself. Which can be measured with famous experiments like the Casimir Effect. There is a surprising amount of energy in space itself, which has led to some interesting theories about how the future of the Universe might evolve. You can't
Ep. 750: Supernova Early Warning System
Streamed live on Mar 31, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay When enormous stars detonate as supernovae they release a burst of neutrinos that can be the first sign of a coming explosion. Now, astronomers have built a network to watch for that flash of neutrinos, and help direct their telescopes for when the sky show begins. Supernovae explosions occur in stages, with neutrinos bein
Ep. 749: Dark Energy Changing Over Time
Streamed live on Mar 24, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay The Hubble Tension is a vexing problem, with astronomers measuring the expansion of the Universe at different points in its history and getting different results. Errors have mostly been ruled out, which leaves the potential for new physics. Has the strength of dark energy been changing over time? We thought Dark Energy wa
Ep. 748: Fast Radio Bursts
Streamed live on Mar 17, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. For the briefest of moments, some dead stars can flash brighter than their entire galaxy (in Radio light) and then live to do it again and again. It’s time for an update on fast radio bursts, a phenomenon we’ve only known about for a few decades. In this time astronomers have learned a tremendous amount them. They’re not
Ep. 747: Rogue Planets
Streamed live on Mar 10, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Most planets orbit stars. That’s the rule, right? Well, maybe not. In fact the vast majority of planets could be floating freely through the Milky Way. Today we’re gonna talk about rogue planets. Sometimes planets just go rogue. Let's learn about planets living free from stars.
Ep. 746: Dust Storms
Streamed live Feb 24, 2025. We have dust storms on Earth and of course the famous dust storms on Mars. There are even dust storms on Titan. What causes these storms and how do they work differently on the worlds in the solar system. But what about the exoplanets? The bane of solar panels, humans, and robots, dust storms have a way of picking up steam (or at least dust) all over the solar system.
Ep. 745: How We Know If Asteroids Will Attack
Streamed live Feb 20, 2025. I’m sure you’ve heard the news, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a tiny chance of hitting Earth in 2032. How do astronomers discover these dangerous asteroids, measure their future impact risk and track the changes over time? When should we panic? New asteroids are found every day, and every day we learn that those asteroids don't have any murderous intentions. But how do we learn
Ep. 744: Lunar Time
Streamed live on Feb 10, 2025. What time is it? OK, fine, what time is it on the Moon? The Moon orbits the Earth, so it doesn’t fall into a specific time zone. Also, there’s lower gravity on the surface of the Moon, which changes the rate that clocks tick. Well… It’s time to introduce Lunar Time. When are you when you are on the Moon? Researchers are putting together definitions! Hosted by: Frase
Ep. 743: What Else Can We Learn From Gravitational Waves?
Streamed live on Feb 3, 2025. Just a few years ago LIGO detected the first direct evidence of gravitational waves coming from colliding black holes. And there you have it. Boom! Black holes collide! But that wasn’t all we learned from gravitational waves, nor will we learn. Sure, the masses of merging black holes are nice to know, but what else can we learn from gravitational black holes? Hosted
Ep. 742: Atmospheric Gravity Waves
Streamed live on Jan 27, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Gravity Waves ... not gravitational waves ... move atmospheres and make pretty clouds. Have you ever looked up into the sky and seen bizarre cloud formations that look like waves on the ocean? These are gravity waves. Not to be confused with gravitational waves, and they’re caused by a balance of buoyancy and gravity. And
Ep. 741: Technosignatures
Streamed live on Jan 20, 2025. Pollution will ultimately give away a society. SUPPORTED BY YOU This Episode is made possible thanks to our Patrons on Patreon. Join at the Galaxy Group level or higher to be listed in our YouTube videos. Thanks to: Andrew Poelstra, BogieNet, Brian Cagle, David, David Truog, Ed, Gerhard, Schwarzer, Jeanette Wink, Siggi Kemmler, Stephen Veit
Ep. 740: Sneaky Stars!
Streamed live on Jan 13, 2025. Why stars can’t be trusted! If you’re an astronomer you depend on accurate observations of stars, but there’s a problem. Stars are sneaky! Changing in size, brightness, color, they hide their chemistry, their age and even their companions from all but the cleverest observers. Stars explode precisely when they intend to. Betelgeuse took a brightness plunge, T CrB refu
Ep. 739: Drones!
Streamed live January 9, 2025. From little Ingenuity to the future Firefly and all our Earth Science fliers, let's look at the buzzy scientists. NASA’s Mars Ingenuity helicopter showed us how wonderful a flying science platform can be on another world. Soon there’ll be a helicopter flying on Titan, but there are many other flying robots that’ll be helping us with all our science needs.
Ep. 738: Looking Ahead to 2025
What can we hope (or dread) to see in 2025? Last week we talked about the 2024 strangeness. Now we’re gonna talk about the upcoming space stories for 2025 that we’re looking forward to. It’s a nice mix of new rockets, new missions and new fly-bys. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay
Ep. 737: Weird Science Stories From 2024
Streamed live December13, 2024. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. 2024 was a strange year! I’ll let your imagination take flight and consider how 2024 was weird for you. But, for space and astronomy we had some interesting, revolutionary, unsettling and downright weird stories pop up. Today let’s talk about them.
Ep. 736: Gift Guide 2024
Streamed live on Dec 2, 2024 Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay It’s time for our Holiday Gift Guide, where we suggest ideas for presents for the space fans in your life! What books are we reading? What games are we playing and what telescopes are we admiring? SUPPORTED BY YOU !!! This Episode is made possible thanks to our Patrons on Patreon. Join at the Galaxy Group level or higher t
Ep. 735: Albert Einstein
Streamed live on Nov 25, 2024. Last week we talked about the Einstein probe. So this week it is only natural that we talk about the man himself, Albert Einstein. He revolutionized the field of physics, played a vital role in the early 20th century and struggled to unite the forces of the Universe at the end of his career. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay SUPPORTED BY YOU! This Episod
Ep. 734: The Einstein Mission
Streamed live on Nov 11, 2024. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Another day, another space telescope! Today we’re looking at the newly launched Einstein Probe. A collaboration between the Chinese Space Agency and the European Space Agency. The mission has been operating since January searching the cosmos for short, bright flashes of X-rays. SUPPORTED BY YOU This Episode is made pos
Ep. 733: Euclid Of Alexandria
Streamed live on Nov 5, 2024. Last week we talked about the mission. This week we’ll talk about Euclid of Alexandria, the ancient Greek mathematician who inspired the mission. Let’s learn about his life and the ground breaking work that made so much of our modern mathematics possible. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay.
Ep. 732: The Euclid Telescope
Let's look at the Euclid Space Telescope. The Euclid 208-Gigapixel image! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ZCsUfgLRQ
Ep. 731: Neil Gehrels
Streamed live on Oct 21, 2024. Let's look at the man whose name is carried by the Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay.
Ep. 730: The Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope
Streamed live October 15, 2024. Let's look over the long life of the Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope as it watches for the multi-spectral flashes of high energy explosions.
Ep. 729: The James Webb Space Telescope
Streamed live on Sep 30, 2024. Let's talk about that giant telescope that's changing everything. We have been waiting our entire careers to make this episode on the James Webb Space Telescope, AKA the JWST. This historic Observatory was launched just a couple of years ago and it's already overturning our understanding of the early Universe star formation and exoplanets!
Ep. 728: Solar Scientist Eugene Parker
Streamed live on Sep 23, 2024. Last week, we talked about the Parker Solar Probe. As always, we like to talk about the person who inspired the mission. What makes this amazing and different is that Eugene Parker was there to watch the launch of the mission that shares his name. Why is he so influential on solar astronomy?
Ep. 727: Parker Solar Probe
Streamed live on Sep 16, 2024. Let's look over the long life of the Parker Solar Probe as it explores the Sun and nearby worlds. The Sun! It’s that ongoing thermonuclear explosion that’s happening right over there! And although the Sun is necessary for life on Earth, we still have questions! So NASA has sent the Parker Solar Probe to visit the Sun up close, to get us some answers.
Ep. 726: Looking Back Over The Summer
Streamed live Sep 9, 2024. We made all sorts of predictions, and some of the stuff we didn't know about last July, somehow, we still don't know about as we set up this episode on September 3! Join us for the first episode of Season 18 as we review all the crazy space science that happened during our Summer Hiatus.
Ep. 725: Looking Ahead
Streamed live on Jun 24, 2024. Normally Pamela refuses to think about the future. But today, on our final episode before hiatus, she’s throwing out those rules. It’s like the PURGE! Here’s what we’re excited about for the future. Especially for the next couple of months until we return in September.
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