exocast

On the 36th episode of exocast: Andrew roves the conference hall at the Astrobiology Science Conference. Hannah goes through the ABCs of spectroscopy, And Hugh covers this month’s news including new solar system missions Dragonfly & Comet Interceptor, new occurrence rates, plus the new exoplanets (such as PDS-70b, Teegarten’s star b & c) which took the Exoplanet Archive over 4000 alien wor...

On the 35th episode of exocast we welcome special guest Dr Thomas Haworth into the virtual Exocast Studio. Hannah talks with special guest Dr Thomas Haworth about planet formation in extreme environments and the role the stars play in shaping their planets. Hugh covers the ins and outs of how exoplanets can be detected using Direct Imaging Andrew reports from the Exocast news desk on this months e...

On the 34th episode of Exocast: Hugh is joined by Dr. Raphaëlle Haywood , Sagan Fellow at Harvard College Observatory, and expert in disentangling the signal of planets and their host stars in radial velocity surveys; Andrew explores the depths of time, taking a virtual trip back to the formation of the planet and solar system using radioactive isotope abundances; Hannah takes a look at some hot-o...

On the 33rd episode of Exocast: Andrew is joined by NASA Ames’ Dr. Jessie Dotson – K2 project scientist, former head of Kepler’s Guest Observer office, and planetary defence specialist; Hannah tours our solar system’s Ice Giants and looks for comparisons in the world of exoplanets; Hugh takes a look at some hot-off-the-press exoplanet discoveries from March 2019; And Jessie adopts the newly-confir...

On the 32nd episode of Exocast: Hannah is joined by Dr Joanna Barstow, UCL’s exoplanetary atmosphere expert, recent astro-mum, and huge fan of “JWST: The Musical”*. Hugh transfers the podcast to TRAPPIST-1 and asks the question: “How many of the Solar System’s planets would we detect?” Andrew covers the enormous hit that was Kepler-107c’s density, new TESS planets, the NASA Archive’s 4000th exopla...

On the 31th episode of Exocast: Hugh is joined in the virtual exocast studio by Science Journalist Lee Billings a writer for Scientific American and author of “5 billion years of Solitude”. Andrew dives into waterworlds inside and outside of our solar system and what we can learn about habitability. Hannah takes a look at what exoplanet news had been released over the past months and highlights th...

On the 30th episode of Exocast: Andrew is joined in the virtual exocast studio by Dr Jessie Christiansen from Caltech/NExSci to talk a little about her work on exoplanet demographics, catalogs, public outreach, and citizen science. Hannah provides an overview of last month’s #exocup, giving us a run down on the stats, the winners, losers, surprises and lessons learned. Hugh takes a look at what ot...

On the 29th episode of Exocast: Hannah is joined by Professor Sarah Hörst from Johns Hopkins University to talk about her lab and working on haze production for solar system planets and beyond. Hugh discusses the concept of Exomoons following the recent potential discovery. Andrew takes a look at the exoplanet news for the past month, and introduces the new format for the Exocup2018! And Sarah add...

On the 28th episode of Exocast, returning from a month’s break : Hugh is joined by Daniel Angerhausen from the University of Bern/Blue Marble Space to talk exoplanet science with  SOFIA  and high-altitude balloon experiments. Andrew introduces the concept of technosignatures in time for the first NASA Technosignatures Workshop , held at the end of September, and chats a little more with Daniel who...

In the 27th episode of Exocast : Michael Gully-Santiago joins Andrew for a chat about his work on instrumentation, and with the K2 guest observer office (https://keplerscience.arc.nasa.gov/). Hannah reports back from the Exoplanets II meeting in Cambridge (https://www.exoplanetscience2.org/), where she takes to the conference floor to speak to the attendees about some of their favourite exoplanet...

In the 26th episode of Exocast : Natasha Batalha joins Hannah for a chat about PandExo  (the Exoplanet ETC for HST and JWST) and her work on Martian climate modelling. Hugh discusses all things radial velocity: history, current, and future prospects. Andrew covers all of June’s exoplanet news; And Natasha adds “Hannah’s special planet” HAT-P-26b to our gang of Adopted Planets

In the 25th episode of Exocast: Jessica Spake joins us to chat about the first detection of exoplanetary Helium – around the planet Wasp-107b Andrew covers whether alien biology could exist in a Shadow Biosphere here on Earth. Hannah covers all of May’s exoplanet news; And Jess invites an old friend to the exocast adopted planets – 51 Pegasi b, the first exoplanet detected around a sun-like star.

In the 24th episode of Exocast: Andrew chats with special guest Rus Belikov about direct imaging and Alpha Cen ; Hannah dives into the lakes of Titan to take us on a scuba diving adventure through alien worlds; And Hugh takes us through the latest in Exoplanet news; Finally, as always, we adopt a planet into our exocast family. This week selected by our guest Rus who chose Ross-128b, welcome to th...

In the 23rd episode of Exocast: Hannah and Hugh join us from the UK Exoplanet Meeting; Hannah chats with special guest Dr Jayne Birkby about her work on high resolution spectroscopy; Hugh talks about the Gaia mission and what it means for exoplanets; Andrew covers all of this months exciting exoplanet news; And we invite our guest to add to the exocast adopted planets , so welcome WTS-2b to the ex...

In the 22nd episode of Exocast: Andrew talks about the concept of panspermia; Hugh discusses how astronomers can observe the changing phases of exoplanets; And Hannah covers the exoplanetary news including discoveries from K2 and new open-source science for exoplanet spectroscopy. And Hugh adds the cold transiting jupiter Kepler-167 e as the newest adopted Exocast planet .

In the 21st episode of Exocast: Hannah talks about planet formation; Andrew discusses the potential habitability of planets on eccentric orbits; Hugh disseminates a backlog of exciting exoplanet news from the past two months including discoveries, planet characterization, and community debate; Andrew adds the eponymous Kepler-21b as the newest member of the Exocast adopted planets gang;

In the 20th episode of Exocast we discuss all things #ExoCup What is the ExoCup? How was it conceived? What was the result? Why was it so stressful for the Exocast crew? We take a voxbox from some members of the exoplanet community on their opinions of the ExoCup (inc. Dr. Jessie Christiansen, Dr. Nikole Lewis, Dr. Natalie Batalha, Dr. Abhi Rajan); Andrew reports on the months interesting exoplane...

In the 19th episode of Exocast: Andrew continues his 2-parter on research into the origins of life; Hugh details all the numerous way that computers & software is used in astronomy, from Microsoft to MCMC to Machine Learning; Hannah reports on two whole months worth of interesting exoplanetary news; Hugh adopts Proxima Centauri b, the solar system’s closest cousin, into the Exocast family ; An...

In the 18th episode of Exocast, we chat to Sasha Hinkley , a direct imaging expert at the University of Exeter: “Spotlights & fireflies” – what it means to be able to directly image planets and how we do it. Why direct imaging may not have the numbers compared to other detection techniques, but can give us so much more information on each planet The future of direct imaging instruments, includ...

In the 17th episode of Exocast: Andrew introduces us to the origins of life studies in the first of a two-part segment. Hannah talks about Global Circulation Models (GCMs) and why they matter for exoplanets. Hugh reports on the latest exciting exoplanetary news, including alien stratospheres, new exoplanets from RV studies, and exo-comets. Andrew adopts GJ 667Cc into the misfits that are the Exoca...

In the 16th episode of Exocast: Hugh  discusses exoplanet science in the era of extremely large telescopes. Hannah  brings us up to speed with the outcomes of the recent James Webb Space Telescope workshop held at the Space Telescope Institute at the beginning of July. Andrew reports on the latest exciting exoplanetary news, including a potential exomoon candidate, some worrying disclosures from t...

In the 15th episode of Exocast: Andrew  revisits the signals life may or may not leave in a planet’s atmosphere, taking in recent results from the NExSS biosignature workshop. Hugh details the pros & cons of NASA’s upcoming planet-hunting machine, the Transiting Exoplanet Satellite Survey, or TESS, mission. Hannah covers the breaking news, including a host of new results from the Kepler missio...

In the 14th episode of Exocast Hannah takes us back to basics and introduce the composition and chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres. Andrew covers some recent updates from astrobiology, the field of study that aims to figure out if there’s life on any the exoplanets we’ve discovered, or on some of the worlds closer to home. Hugh takes us through the latest in exoplanetary news, including the newest...

In the 13th episode of Exocast Hugh talks about planets in binary systems – are two stars better than one? Hannah discussed the importance of brown dwarfs as the intermediary between planets and stars. Andrew takes us through the latest in exoplanetary news, including the newest discoveries, investigations, and notable events in exoplanets this month. and Hannah adopts WASP-12b with it’s ruby clou...

In the twelfth episode,  Exocast-12b : Andrew details highlights of the recent UK exoplanet meeting. Hugh and Andrew play “Just an Arcminute” with UK exoplanet scientists. Hannah sits in at the exocast newsdesk to cover news including new data on the Trappist-1 system, unusual clouds closer to  home, and new brown dwarfs at the boundary of planets & stars. And Hugh chooses Kepler-47ABc, a rare...