Astronomy Cast
Astronomy Cast offers you a fact based journey through the cosmos. Each week Fraser Cain (Universe Today) and Dr. Pamela Gay (SIUE / Slacker Astronomy) take on topics ranging from the nearby planets to ubiquitous dark matter.
Visit Show Website http://www.astronomycast.com/Recently Aired
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Ep. 294: The Arecibo Observatory
The mighty Arecibo Radio Observatory is one of the most ...
The mighty Arecibo Radio Observatory is one of the most powerful radio telescopes ever built – it’s certainly the larger single aperture radio telescope on Earth, nestled into a natural sinkhole in Puerto Rico. We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of th
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Ep. 292: The Oort Cloud
The very outer reaches of the Solar System is a ...
The very outer reaches of the Solar System is a region of space known as the Oort Cloud, which may extend as far as a light-year from the Sun. We only know about the Oort Cloud because that's where long-period comets come from, randomly falling into the i
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Ep. 291: Shockwaves
As a meteor crashed into the atmosphere above Russia, the ...
As a meteor crashed into the atmosphere above Russia, the world discovered the importance of shock waves; how they're caused and how they propagate through the atmosphere. Today we'll discuss the topic in general and find many examples where shock waves c
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Ep. 290: Failed Stars
If you get enough hydrogen together in one place, gravity ...
If you get enough hydrogen together in one place, gravity pulls it together to the point that the temperature and pressures are enough for fusion to occur. This is a star. But what happens when you don't have quite enough hydrogen? Then you get a failed s
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Ep. 289: Cherenkov Radiation
Sure, our atmosphere protects us from a horrible Universe that's ...
Sure, our atmosphere protects us from a horrible Universe that's trying to kill us, but sometimes it prevents us from learning stuff too. Case in point, the atmosphere blocks highly energetic particles from reaching our detectors. But there's a way astron
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Ep. 288: Phases of Matter
As we quickly learn with water, matter can be in ...
As we quickly learn with water, matter can be in distinct phases: solid, liquid, gas and plasma; it all depends on temperature. But why do different materials require different temperatures? And what's actually happening to the atoms themselves as the mat
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Ep. 287: E=mc^2
It’s mind bending to think about this, but the light ...
It’s mind bending to think about this, but the light in your house, and the house itself are really the same thing. Matter and energy are interchangeable. This was the amazing revelation made by Albert Einstein, with his famous formula: E=mc^2. This is th
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Ep. 286: How to Debunk an End-of-the-World Myth
Everyone is always predicting the end of the world. Someone’s ...
Everyone is always predicting the end of the world. Someone’s going to tell you that this the year that it’s all going to end… the end of planet Earth… and they’re always wrong. But, someone will eventually be right. Planet Earth is doomed, lets figure o
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Ep. 285: How the World Will Really End
Have you checked out the internet lately? Apparently there is ...
Have you checked out the internet lately? Apparently there is some kind of rogue planet causing pole alignment and a killer solar flare that will set off a chain reaction turning the whole universe into strange-matter……. after an alien invasion.
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Ep. 284: Optics
Astronomy depends on bullying light. We reflect it, refract it, ...
Astronomy depends on bullying light. We reflect it, refract it, bend it, and near it through complex manipulations of light. Though optics we bring we bring the distant universe to our eyepiece.
