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. 344: The Rings of Saturn
There’s so much we know about Saturn’s beautiful rings, and ...
There’s so much we know about Saturn’s beautiful rings, and yet, there’s so much we don’t know. Morgan Rehnberg, a PhD student at the University of Colorado, Boulder and works with the Cassini mission. Morgan joins Fraser to talk about Saturn’s amazing ri
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Ep. 343: The Universe is Trying To Kill You
We always say that the Universe is trying to kill ...
We always say that the Universe is trying to kill you, but we thought we’d really hammer the point home. Dr. Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy joins Fraser Cain for a very special episode of Astronomy Cast. Join us as we hammer out all the ways the Universe w
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Ep. 342: Sunsetting Spacecraft
Everything dies, including our technology. But when we've hurtled a ...
Everything dies, including our technology. But when we've hurtled a few thousands pounds of robotic instrumentation to another planet, it gets a little difficult to shut it down and clean up. What do we do when a mission has reached the end of its useful
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Ep. 341: 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
Pamela has a day job, remember? As an astronomer? Recently ...
Pamela has a day job, remember? As an astronomer? Recently the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference occurred in the The Woodlands, Texas. Pamela and guest astronomer Sondy Springmann will let us know about the big announcements made at this year's
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Ep. 340: Wernher von Braun
When the United States helped defeat Germany at the end ...
When the United States helped defeat Germany at the end of World War II, they acquired the German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He had already developed the German V2 rocket program, and went on to design all the major hardware of the US rocket prog
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Ep. 339: Space Conspiracy Theories
Yes, we actually landed on the Moon. No, aliens didn’t ...
Yes, we actually landed on the Moon. No, aliens didn’t crash land at Roswell. What is it about space exploration that leads to so many conspiracy theories? We’ll try to get to the bottom of these conspiracy theories, poke holes in their ridiculous ideas a
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Ep. 338: Copernicus
It’s safe to say that the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus ...
It’s safe to say that the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus shook up the whole Universe. Well, our understanding of our place in the Universe. It was Copernicus who came up with the heliocentric model, placing the Sun at the center of the Solar System
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Ep. 337: Photometry
There's a lot you can learn by just staring at ...
There's a lot you can learn by just staring at an object, watching how it changes in brightness. This is the technique of photometry, and it has helped astronomers discover variable stars, extrasolar planets, minor planets, supernovae, and much more.
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Ep. 336: Units of Measure
How heavy is a kilogram, how long is a second? ...
How heavy is a kilogram, how long is a second? How warm is a degree? We measure our Universe is so many different ways, using different units of measurement. But how do scientists come up with measurement tools which are purely objective?
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Ep. 335:Photoelectric Effect
Pop quiz. How did Einstein win his Nobel prize? Was ...
Pop quiz. How did Einstein win his Nobel prize? Was it for relativity? Nope, Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for the discovery of the photoelectric effect; how electrons are emitted from atoms when they absorb photons of light. But what is it? Let’s
