The advent of satellite constellations has proven challenging for optical and radio astronomers. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently announced the formation of the IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. This podcast discusses the founding of the center and its mission.
A group of undergraduate students from University of Chicago discover the early universe’s brightest gravitationally lensed galaxy. Learn the fascinating story of how this gravitational lens was discovered and what we can learn about the early universe from this discovery on today podcast.
Modern astronomical cameras capture data in a format called a FITS which cannot be opened by many common image processing programs. Today, Robert Hurt (IPAC) talks about FITS files, the history of FITS Liberator, how you can use FITS Liberator 4 to create your own images and some sources of astronomical data.
The Hubble Constant tells us how fast the universe is expanding. However, different methods of measuring the Hubble Constant give different results. In this podcast, NOIRLab’s John Blakeslee describes data his team has collected to help resolve this discrepancy.
Red supergiants are massive stars at the end of their lives. In this podcast, Dr. Emma Beasor discusses recent research that attempts to explain the red supergiant problem.
Scott Shepperd normally studies objects in the distant solar system. But today he will tell the fascinating tale about the discovery of the fastest moving asteroid currently known
Extensive studies of a recent GRB show the dividing line between short and long is not clear as this “long” GRB was exceptionally short!
Finding Earth-sized planets around other stars is a very exciting area of astronomical research. Recently a team lead by Dr. Katie Lester followed up data from the TESS satellite using the International Gemini Observatory and the WIYN 3.5 meter telescope at Kitt Peak. They found that we may be missing many Earth-sized worlds orbiting binary stars. This podcast explores how they reached this interesting conclusion and how we may go about finding these worlds in the future.
Xiaohui Fan discusses the discovery of the most distant supermassive black hole and quasar discovery and what we can learn from these objects about the early history of the universe.
The first total lunar eclipse in over 2 years will take place on May 26th. This total lunar eclipse will be visible from all three of NOIRLab’s sites with different viewing conditions. In this podcast, learn about how and when you can observe this exciting celestial event!