Podcaster: Host : Fraser Cain ; Guest : Dr. Rory Barnes, Alessondra Springmann, C.C. Petersen, & Moiya McTier
Title: Weekly Space Hangout : Guest: Dr. Rory Barnes Discusses VPLanet
Link: Cosmoquest: http://cosmoquest.org
You can watch the video in:
Description: Today’s story:
- Transit of Mercury, worst annular eclipse EVER!
- Yerkes Observatory may be saved!
- 2014 MU69 has a new name! Take THAT Nazis!
- Hayabusa 2 on its way home.
- 60 more StarLink satellites. :^(
Host: Fraser Cain
Special Guest:
Special Guest: This week we welcome Dr. Rory Barnes to the Weekly Space Hangout. Rory is an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington. He is also a member of NASA’s Virtual Planetary Lab as well as the University of Washington’s Big Data program. He studies the habitability of exoplanets with astrophysical, geophysical, and atmospheric computer models.
In August 2019, Rory released VPLanet, an open source, virtual planet simulator that links physical processes together and enables phenomena from one region of a planetary system to be tracked throughout its entire system. Eventually, it is hoped that this will help determine if an exoplanet is capable of supporting life.
VPLanet currently includes two modules which model the internal and magnetic evolution of terrestrial planets’ characteristics. However, being open source and designed for easy growth, researchers are able to write additional physical modules which can be easily integrated with VPLanet in essentially a “plug & play” manner.
To learn more about Rory, his research, and other projects, visit: https://faculty.washington.edu/rkb9/
To learn about the other programs and scripts Rory has written, visit: https://github.com/RoryBarnes
To read all about VPLanet, visit https://phys.org/news/2019-09-vplanet-virtual-planet-simulator-distant.html
The source code for VPLanet is available on GitHub: https://github.com/VirtualPlanetaryLaboratory/vplanet
Regular Guest:
Alessondra Springmann ( http://www.sondy.com/ & @sondy )
C.C. Petersen ( http://thespacewriter.com/wp/ & @AstroUniverse )
Moiya McTier ( https://www.moiyamctier.com/ & @GoAstroMo )
Today’s sponsor: Big thanks to our Patreon supporters this month: Dustin A Ruoff, Frank Tippin, Brett Duane, Jako Danar, Joseph J. Biernat, Nik Whitehead, Timo Sievänen, Steven Jansen, Casey Carlile, Phyllis Simon Foster, Tanya Davis, Rani B, Lance Vinsel, Steven Emert, Barbara Geier
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End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Planetary Science Institute. Audio post-production by Richard Drumm. Bandwidth donated by libsyn.com and wizzard media. You may reproduce and distribute this audio for non-commercial purposes. Please consider supporting the podcast with a few dollars (or Euros!). Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. This year we will celebrates the Year of Everyday Astronomers as we embrace Amateur Astronomer contributions and the importance of citizen science. Join us and share your story. Until tomorrow! Goodbye!