The Nature of Nantucket

This week host Joanna Roche talks with Dr. Nia Imara an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at UC Santa Cruz specializing in the study of stars and how they were formed. Joanna talks with Nia about her path to becoming a Astronomer. Dr. Imara also discusses how she started the non-profit Onaketa back in 2020 and why it's so important to her. To learn more and to sign up for Dr. Nia Imara's...

This week host Joanna Roche talks with Gordon Jones a Stone Professor of Physics at Hamilton College . Joanna talks with Gordon about his journey to becoming a Stone Professor of Physics. Gordon also gets to tell us how he became interested in the whole world of science and physics.  Gordon is hosting a webinar next week May 10 at 7pm. To learn more and to sign up for the webinar visit  https://ww...

Join Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the constellation Draco. The constellation Draco, meaning “dragon” in Latin, is one of the most recognizable and prominent constellations in the northern sky. To find Draco, go outside after dark and look for  a winding snake-line pattern of stars between the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and next to the bright star Ve...

This week we are speaking with one of Nantucket’s premier photographers, Bill Hoenk. You can see Bill’s fantastic images at https://www.instagram.com/photohoenk/ and also purchase prints through his website at https://www.billhoenkphotography.com . To get started, I asked Bill to talk about how he washed ashore and about the path of his career as a photographer.

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the constellation Leo. Leo the Lion is best viewed during April and May. Rising shortly after dusk, and high up in the sky overhead a few hours later, Leo can be found by locating the bright star Regulus that is at the bottom of a backwards question mark formation of stars. 

This week host Joanna Roche talks with Nantucket High School math teacher Jed Williams . Jed is a Nantucket native who enjoys helping mold the minds of our teenagers right here on the island. Joanna talks to Jed about how he got interested in math, science and robotics. They also discuss the difficulties of robotics in the home and everyday living and how A.I. is becoming more capable each year. H...

Join Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses their Astronomical Observing Experience using the Keck Telescope on top of Mauna Kea.

This week host Joanna Roche talks with  Nantucket High School math teacher Jed Williams . Jed is a Nantucket native who enjoys helping mold the minds of our teenagers right here on the island. Joanna talks to Jed about how he got interested in math, science and robotics. They also discuss the difficulties of robotics in the home and everyday living and how A.I. is becoming more capable each year....

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the Lyrid Meteor shower. The Lyrid Meteor Shower will last from approximately April 15th to April 29th, peaking the evenings of the 21st and 22nd. The most meteors will be visible between midnight and dawn, but meteors can be seen as early as 9pm. 

This week host Joanna Roche talks with Izzy Gaw the Director of the Natural Science Museum for the Maria Mitchell Association . This week Joanna and Izzy discuss everything fun happening at eh Natural Science Museum here on Nantucket, including fun activities for kids, adults and families. To learn everything happening at the Natural Science Museum visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/natural-scien...

Join Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses Exoplanets and the killing of Star Trek’s Vulcan. Exoplanets are planets orbiting stars outside of our solar system. Scientists generally classify exoplanets in the categories of Gas giant, Neptunian, super-Earth and terrestrial, as they come in various sizes and compositions.

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she talk planetary alignment. This week the planets Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Venus and Mars will be lined up in an arc formation visible near the moon. The planets merely look aligned from our vantage point on Earth, but in reality are very far apart from each other. However, this phenomena is still very interesting to look at and is visi...

In this and the next two episodes of the Nature of Nantucket Podcast we’ll meet an extraordinary scientist. Dr. Ursula Goodenough is a biologist whose many distinctions include being an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.   The long-awaited second edition of her beloved book, The Sacred Depths of Nature is being released by the University of Oxford Press in early 2023. You...

Join Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the Spring Equinox. 5:24 pm on March 20th marked the Spring Equinox, also known as the vernal equinox, which marks the official start of the spring. 

Join Joanna Roche as she speaks with Dr. Amy Hinson about the Science behind Forensics and her experience teaching at Nantucket High School.  Dr. Hinson will be featured on our science speaker series Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm – you can register online at www.mariamitchell.org .

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the zodiacal light. The zodiacal light is a cone of light in the sky visible after twilight from late February to early May, peaking around the vernal equinox on March 20th. The zodiacal light is caused by light from the Sun reflecting off of dust grains surrounding the sun in the inner solar system. 

Joanna Roache and Dr. Regina Jorgenson s it and talk about  Dr. Jorgenson’s role with the Maria Mitchell Association as the Director of Astronomy . Dr Jorgenson also talks about all the cool stuff happening in our very own Nantucket sky and things that we can see for ourselves in the upcoming few months.  You can find out more at mariamitchell.org/programs-for-all

Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association discusses Charles Messier and the world-wide Messier Marathon at night the weekend before the new moon Tuesday March 21st.  

This week host Joanna Roche talks with PhD botanists Jacob Suissa and Benjamin Edward Goulet-Scott of Let's Botanize , democratizing the study of plant biology.  Follow @letsbotanize on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. 

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the asteroid 2011 AG5 . A few weeks ago asteroid 2011 AG5 came within 1.1 million miles of Earth. This asteroid is one of many Near Earth Objects (NEOs) that scientists track to make sure they pose no threat to Earth. 

Joanna Roche and Dr. Rich Blundell Sit talk and talk about  Dr. Blundell's first six months on Nantucket, the life of Maria Mitchell, and his Earth Walk & Talk which is walk through the history of planet Earth.  You can find out more at mariamitchell.org/programs-for-all

Listeners may know that Maria Mitchell was an advocate for bringing more imagination, beauty and poetry (also known as art) into the sciences. Her perspective is manifesting this summer as a special Oika Art exhibition that will culminate at the MMA gallery at 33 Washington Street and as outdoor installations around the island.  Over the past several weeks, we’ve been interviewing the cohort of ar...

Join Michele Woodland of the Maria Mitchell Association as she discusses the star Sirius. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, can currently be seen after 7pm in the southeastern part of the sky. Sirius can be found by using the three stars in Orion's belt to point to it. 

Join Joanna Roche on this week’s episode of the Nature of Nantucket podcast as she sits down with former NASA astronaut and US Navy Captain (Ret.), Daniel Bursch , to talk about his Nantucket roots. Bursch is a former Naval Flight Officer and astronaut.  He completed four missions to space, including a 196-day mission to the International Space Station from December 2001 to June 2002 as a flight e...

Fiona Powers Ozyurt of the Maria Mitchell Association discusses the new NASA  James Webb Space Telescope image of the region known as Pandora’s Cluster, located four billion light years away from Earth.