What do brown dwarfs teach us about stars? What do they teach us about planets? What keeps them warm, and how long do they live?
Oct 16th: Why Are Brown Dwarf Stars So Weird?
Ask A Spaceman Archive
Oct 2nd: What makes all the light?
What are the many sources of light in the universe? Why is a spectrum so important?
Sep 28th: Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence
Paul reads from chapter 10, The Cosmic Web, of his upcoming book “Your Place in the Universe”.
Sep 18th: Is the Drake Equation useful?
What does the Drake Equation teach us about extraterrestrial civilizations? What does it NOT teach us? Is it even science?
Sep 4th: How Do Magnets Work?
What’s the connection between motion and magnetism? How can something like a black hole have a magnetic field?
Aug 21st: Why Do We Need Cosmic Inflation?
What was going in the very early universe? How does inflation provide the seeds of larger structures?
Aug 7th: Why do we need cosmic inflation? (Part 1)
What are some weaknesses with the standard Big Bang model? What are the horizon and flatness problems? How does accelerated expansion solve these?
Jul 17th: How does dark energy accelerate the universe?
What is the cosmological constant? How is the expansion of the universe related to quantum fields? How does a vacuum energy produce accelerated expansion?
Jul 3rd: Can Entangled Particles Communicate Faster than Light?
What is a quantum state? How can two particles share the same state? What is entanglement, and does it really allow for faster-than-light communication?
Jun 19th: What Awoke the Cosmic Dawn?
Were the dark ages really dark? What is a perturbation, and how did they grow in the early universe?