Astronomy Cast

Astronomy Cast 577: Mars in Opposition by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Every 2 years or so Mars lines up nicely with the Earth. It takes only 2 minutes to communicate with the rovers. You can see the polar ice caps in a small telescope. And it's the best time to send your spacecraft to the Red Planet. Oct 3rd: Moon & Mars conjunction, 1.1° separation. Oct 6th: Mars opposition. Dec 21st: Jupiter/Sa...

Astronomy Cast Ep. 576: Summer Stargazing Special by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay It's time once again for Astronomy Cast to go on hiatus. You've got a couple months on your own to explore the night sky. But before we say goodbye, we'd like to make a few suggestions.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 575: Observing The Moon by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay As amateur astronomers, we curse the Moon every month. Seriously! Why doesn't someone get rid of that thing! This week, something occurred to us. What if we actually pointed our telescopes at the Moon? What would we see? The Lunar "X" that Fraser talked about will be visible this Friday, June 26th! So go out with binoculars...

Astronomy Cast Ep. 574: Trojan Asteroids by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We imagine the asteroid belt as a place where all the rocks hang out in the solar system. But there are 2 huge bands of asteroids that orbit the Sun with Jupiter called the Trojans. And soon we may actually get a chance to see them up close!

Astronomy Cast Ep. 573: Exoplanet Atmospheres Not only have astronomers discovered thousands of exoplanets, but they're even starting to study the atmospheres of worlds thousands of light years away. What can we learn about these other worlds and maybe even signs of life.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 572: Twists in Planet Formation by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We're all looking to the next generation of exoplanetary research where we get planets directly. But astronomers are already making great strides in directly observing newly forming planets help us understand how our solar system might have formed.

Streamed live on May 22, 2020. So we're familiar with regular binary stars. Two stars orbiting each other. Simple. Of course the Universe has come up with every combination of things orbiting other things, and this week we look at some extreme examples.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 570: Discovering Comets Discovering comets is one of the fields that amateurs can still make a regular contribution to astronomy. But more and more comets are getting found by spacecraft, automated systems and machine learning. This week we'll talk about how comets are discovered and how you can get your name on one!

Every year, more and more people are making their way to space. Some private citizens have already gotten their astronaut wings, paying for a trip to space out of their own pocket. What are the ethical implications of this as the costs of spaceflight come down?

The key to surviving in space will be learning how to live off the land. Instead of carrying all your fuel, water and other resources from Earth, extract them locally from your destination. It's called In Situ Resource Utilization, and if we can figure it out, it'll change everything.

567: When Satellites Need a House Call Astronomy Cast 567: When Satellites Need a House Call by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Space is really far away, so when you send a satellite out into the void, that's pretty much the last you're going to be able to work on it. And if anything goes wrong, too bad, you're out a satellite. But a new test has shown that it's possible to actually visit and fix a s...

566: When Comets Fall Apart Astronomy Cast 566: When Comets Fall Apart by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay As everyone knows, the Universe owes us a bright comet. There have been a lot of promising candidates, but in the end, they always fail to live up to our expectations. Comets keep on breaking up with us.

565: When Worlds Collide Astronomy Cast 565: When Worlds Collide by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay So much of our Solar System has been shaped by enormous collisions early on in our history. Seriously, the nature of every planet in the Solar System has some evidence of massive impacts during some point in its history.

564: Mini Moons Astronomy Cast 564: Mini Moons by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Last month astronomers announced that they had detected a tiny asteroid that had been captured by the Earth's gravity well and had been sharing our orbit for a few years. Today, let's talk about the smallest moons in the Solar System.

563: White Dwarf Mergers Astronomy Cast 563: White Dwarf Mergers by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay White dwarfs are usually about 60% the mass of the Sun, so it was a bit of a surprise when astronomers found one that was almost exactly twice that. What happens when white dwarfs merge?

562: Dealing with COVID-19 and the Changes it will Bring Astronomy Cast 562: Dealing with COVID-19 and the Changes it will Bring by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay Pamela and Fraser discuss the implications of COVID-19 and it's changes on the world, and what we all can do during this time.

561: Remembering Katherine Johnson Astronomy Cast 561: Remembering Katherine Johnson by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We lost a bright star here on planet Earth last week. NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away at the age of 101, after an incredible career of helping humans land on the Moon. If you saw the movie Hidden Figures, you'll know what I'm talking about.

560: Betelgeuse Astronomy Cast 560: Betelgeuse by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay You might be surprised to hear that we've never done an episode of Astronomy Cast featuring Betelgeuse. Well, good news, this is that episode. Let's talk about the star, why it might be dimming, and what could happen if it explodes as a supernova.

559: The Surface of the Sun Astronomy Cast 559: The Surface of the Sun by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay A brand new telescope has completed on Maui's Haleakala, and it has just one job: to watch the Sun in unprecedented detail. It's called the Daniel K. Inouye telescope, and the engineering involved to get this telescope operational are matched by the incredible resolution of its first images.

558: Supernova SN 2006gy Astronomy Cast 558: Supernova SN 2006gy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay We've been following this story for more than a decade, so it's great to finally have an answer to the question, why was supernova 2006gy so insanely bright? Astronomers originally thought it was an example of a supermassive star exploding, but new evidence provides an even more fascinating answer.

557: Red Dwarfs: Friend or Foe Astronomy Cast 557: Red Dwarfs: Friend or Foe by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay On the one hand, red dwarfs are the longest lived stars in the Universe, the perfect place for life to hang out for trillions of years. On the other hand, they're tempestuous little balls of plasma, hurling out catastrophic flares that could wipe away life. Are they good or bad places to li...

556: Multi Messenger Astronomy Astronomy Cast 556: Multi Messenger Astronomy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay For the longest time astronomers could only study the skies with telescopes. But then new techniques and technologies were developed to help us see in different wavelengths. Now astronomers can study objects in both visible light, neutrinos, gravitational waves and more. The era of multi-me...

555: Satellite Constellations and the Future of Astronomy Astronomy Cast 555: Satellite Constellations and the Future of Astronomy by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay The other big issue at the AAS was the challenge that astronomy is going to face from all the new satellite constellations coming shortly. There are already 180 Starlinks in orbit, and thousands more are coming, not to mention the other...

554: Big Telescope Controversy in Hawai'i Astronomy Cast 554: Big Telescope Controversy in Hawai'i by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay This week we're live at the American Astronomical Society's 235th meeting in Honolulu, Hawai'i. We learned about new planets, black holes and star formation, but the big issue hanging over the whole conference is the protests and politics over the new Thirty Meter Tele...

553: What To Look Forward To In 2020 Astronomy Cast 553: What To Look Forward To In 2020 by Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay It's hard to believe it, but we survived another trip around the Sun. Now it's time to take the whole journey all over again, but with new news. Let's take a look at some of the space and astronomy stories we're looking forward to in 2020.