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.
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Ep. 194: Dwarf Planets
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto out of ...
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto out of the planet club. But they also started up a whole new dwarf planet club, with Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres as charter members. Let’s find out what it takes to be a dwarf planet, and
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Ep. 193: Astronomy with the Unaided Eye
We talk a lot about telescopes here on Astronomy Cast, ...
We talk a lot about telescopes here on Astronomy Cast, but you really don't need any special equipment to appreciate what the night sky has to offer. Just head outside with some sky charts, maybe a planisphere, some friends and hot chocolate, and you're g
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Ep. 192: Chandra X-Ray Observatory
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is the third of NASA's Great ...
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory is the third of NASA's Great Observatories, sent into space aboard the space shuttle to view the Universe in high energy X-ray radiation. This is the territory of supernovae, supermassive black holes and neutron stars; some o
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Ep. 191: Chandrasekhar
The first half of the 20th Century was a productive ...
The first half of the 20th Century was a productive time for astronomy, with theorists working out much of the science that we take for granted today. One of these astronomy stars was Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who determined the maximum mass of a white
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Ep. 190: Kepler Mission
Last week we studied Kepler the man, and this week ...
Last week we studied Kepler the man, and this week we take a look at Kepler, the mission. Launched in March, 2009, this is a spacecraft designed to search for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. Let's take a look at the history this mission, the laun
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Ep. 189: Johannes Kepler and His Laws of Planetary Motion
Nicolaus Copernicus changed our understanding of the Universe when he ...
Nicolaus Copernicus changed our understanding of the Universe when he rearranged the Solar System to put the Sun at the center, with the Earth becoming just another of the planets orbiting it. But the movement of the planets didn't really match the theory
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Ep. 188: The Future of Astronomy
We spent 5 episodes telling the story of astronomy so ...
We spent 5 episodes telling the story of astronomy so far, how we got from the work of the Babylonians to the modern discoveries made in the last decade. But now we want to look forward, studying the current space missions and experiments to uncover the m
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Ep. 187: History of Astronomy, Part 5: The 20th Century
Many of the modern ideas in astronomy happened in just ...
Many of the modern ideas in astronomy happened in just the 20th century: dark matter, the Big Bang, inflation, quasars, black holes. So many discoveries in one important century.
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Ep. 186: History of Astronomy, Part 4: The Beginning of Modern Astronomy
With our proper place in the Universe worked out, and ...
With our proper place in the Universe worked out, and some powerful telescopes to probe the cosmos, astronomers started making some real progress. The next few hundred years was a time of constant refinement, with astronomers discovering new planets, new
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Ep. 185: History of Astronomy, Part 3: The Renaissance
Now we reach time with names that many of you ...
Now we reach time with names that many of you will be familiar: Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus. This is an age when the biggest names in astronomy used the best tools of their time to completely rearrange their understanding of the Universe, putting the Eart
