Death by Spaghettification!

Death by Spaghettification!

Join us for a look at today’s top story: ESO telescopes captured the last moments of a star being destroyed by a black hole in a tidal disruption event. Plus scientists are studying Bennu’s surface to get ready for next week’s touch and go sample collection, and NOIRLab begins the process of restarting telescope operations at several observatories around the world.

Play
Planetary Pandemonium: Double Dose

Planetary Pandemonium: Double Dose

Join us as we take a look back two weeks’ worth of planetary stories, including solar system research on a binary trans-Neptunian object, diamonds in meteorites, the stratification of Titan’s lakes, and how Jupiter affected Venus’ habitability. Plus we go farther into space and see how super flares affect the chances for life on exoplanets and find an exoplanet with vaporized metal in its atmosphere.

Play
Black hole signatures, planetary nebulae, and… Bennu

Black hole signatures, planetary nebulae, and… Bennu

Astrophysicists have finally figured out how to tell neutron stars apart from black holes by finding the signature of the event horizon. Another team discovered that planetary nebulae likely get their unique shapes due to binary systems. And we present some updates on the origin of rocks (and rocks and rocks and pebbles) on Bennu. Same with Ryugu, but we don’t hate Ryugu.