Topic: Pamela Gay
When Orbits Go Weird

When Orbits Go Weird

orbital path of transiting exoplanet TIC 241249530 b As of the day of this recording, Aug 8, 2024, more than 5600 exoplanets have been discovered orbiting more than 4000 alien stars. Within these systems we are regularly finding things our experiences with our own solar system never prepared us for. From tidally locked worlds, to hot jupiters, our universe is more creative than any of our theories predicted, and today, researchers work to sort just how each of these wild worlds can come to exist. Consider hot jupiters. So far we’ve found 300-500 worlds with a Jupiter-like size in an orbit...

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Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

Robotic arms may rescue clumsy astronauts

I have a delightfully weird tech story related to future lunar exploration. Research has shown that astronauts working on the moon are most likely to fall over when using tools, and once they fall over, getting up while wearing a space suit that restricts their motion...

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

Closer Look: The cost of the climate of academia

We are recording this episode about a week in advance of our normal recording date. This is because our producer Ally Pelphrey and I will be at the Balticon science fiction and fantasy convention over Memorial Day weekend and I’m then flying to Orlando where I’ll be...

Hubble Resolves star formation

Hubble Resolves star formation

Image credit: NASA / ESA One of the things I personally enjoy most about working in astronomy is the way yesterday’s empty star fields and faint smudges resolve into spectacular vistas and amazing nebulae as we build better telescopes and find the time to point them...

Geology points to the path most chosen

Geology points to the path most chosen

One of the most common questions faced by those of us who study other worlds is this, “What good is studying planets when we have issues here on Earth?” Well, it turns out Earth happens to be a planet and sometimes geology can tell us really cool things about...

Closer Look: The 2024 Carrington Event

Closer Look: The 2024 Carrington Event

On Wednesday, May 8, community member ThirdRock Astronomy brought to my attention a massive sunspot that was growing to resemble the Sunspot that produced the 1859 Carrington Event, which lit the skies with aurora and powered the telegraph grid with induced current. ...

Mars was a badly made Earth 2

Mars was a badly made Earth 2

How a wet Mars may have appeared based on MOLA data. Credit: Ittiz When we look out across the Universe, or even just our Solar System, we are only seeing a moment in the fast history of space. We see a galaxy fully formed with spiral arms and a nice little bar. We...

JWST measures alien weather

JWST measures alien weather

Temperature map of WASP-43b provided by NASA's JWST One of JWST’s raison detres is studying the atmospheres of exoplanets - alien worlds orbiting far off stars. In a new paper in Nature Astronomy, we get spectacular evidence that JWST will achieve its goals. The...