Astronomers are finding even more new extrasolar planets and they’re starting to discover entirely new categories.
Nov 23rd: Super Earths, Mini-Neptunes & Gas Dwarfs
Tag: astronomy cast
Nov 16th: Stellar Populations
How did we get from plain old hydrogen to our current diversity? It came from stars, in fact successive generations of stars.
Nov 9th: Pluto And The Icy Outer Solar System
This time we’re going to talk about Pluto, its moons, the Kuiper belt, and the other icy objects that inhabit the outer Solar System.
Nov 2nd: Sample Return Missions From Asteroids
So with a sample of asteroid Bennu firmly inside OSIRIS-REx’s return capsule, it’s time to bring this treasure home. But it’s not the only sample return mission out there, with Japan’s Hayabusa II mission also bringing asteroid debris home. So today, let’s talk about the missions and what we’ve learned so far.
Oct 26th: The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three brilliant researchers who worked out some of the secrets of black holes. Today we’re going to talk about the chain of discoveries that led to this award.
Oct 19th: Building Bigger Black Holes
Now, we know there are stellar mass black holes and supermassive black holes, but how do you get from one to the other? How do black holes get more massive?
Oct 12th: Other Kinds Of Novae
This week we gather up all the left over ways that stars partially or fully explode or don’t. Probably. Enjoy!
Oct 5th: Exploding Dwarfs
In some situations even dead stars can get exciting again, briefly becoming some of the brightest objects in the Universe. And maybe, just maybe, the last exciting thing that’ll ever happen in the Universe.
Sep 28th: White and Black Dwarfs
Stars die. At some point in the next few billion years or so our Sun is going to start heating up, using up all the fuel in its core, and then eventually die, becoming a white dwarf. It’ll then slowly cool down to the background temperature of the Universe, becoming a black dwarf. Let’s learn about this fascinating process.
Sep 21st: Venus Updates – or – Life on Venus?!?
So have you heard the news? Of course you have. Evidence of phosphene on Venus. Which could be a biosignature of life on our evil twin planet. There have been a lot of surprising stories about Venus, so let’s get you all caught up!