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. 283: Stellar Motion
Our Universe appears timeless and unchanging, the stars taking their ...
Our Universe appears timeless and unchanging, the stars taking their nightly flight across the sky. But over long periods of time, you realize that our local region, and even the entire Milky Way is in constant motion. The constellations we see today wou
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Ep. 282: Seasons
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These are the seasons we ...
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These are the seasons we experience here on Earth as our planet completes an orbit around the Sun. But what’s going on? Why do we experience such different temperatures and weather over the course of 365 days? Do other
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Ep. 281: Explosions in Space
We've all seen the classic science fiction space explosions, full ...
We've all seen the classic science fiction space explosions, full of flames and loud sounds. Beautiful on the screen but, totally lacking in any kind of... science. What's wrong with science fiction? What would chemical and nuclear explosions really look
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Ep. 280: The Cosmological Constant
In order to allow for a static Universe, Albert Einstein ...
In order to allow for a static Universe, Albert Einstein introduced the concept of the Cosmological Constant Lambda to make the math work out. Once it was discovered that the Universe was actually expanding, he threw the number out calling it his "biggest
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Ep. 279: The Hubble Constant
When Edwin Hubble observed that distant galaxies are speeding away ...
When Edwin Hubble observed that distant galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, he discovered the reality that we live in an expanding Universe. Hubble worked to calculate exactly how fast this expansion is happening, creating the Hubble con
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Ep. 278: Animals in Space
We always think about humans in space, but the cold ...
We always think about humans in space, but the cold hard reality is that animals have always been first in space. First to fly, first to orbit, and sadly, first to die. Let’s learn about how our animal companions have been our trusty partners in space exp
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Ep. 277: Orbit
When an object is orbiting the Earth, it’s really falling. ...
When an object is orbiting the Earth, it’s really falling. The trick, described in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. There are several different kinds of orbits, and they are good for different reasons.
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Ep. 276: XMM-Newton
The Earth’s atmosphere keeps us alive and blocks x-ray radiation ...
The Earth’s atmosphere keeps us alive and blocks x-ray radiation from reaching the surface. In order to understand the universe at the higher energy levels you need to launch a space telescope like the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton Telescope. Let’s l
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Ep. 275: Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton has been called "the greatest and most influential ...
Isaac Newton has been called "the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived." That sounds about right. He unlocked our modern understanding of gravity and laws of motion, dabbled in optics, philosophy... even alchemy. He was also known to hav
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Ep. 274: Vesta
There’s some topics on Astronomy Cast that we wait until ...
There’s some topics on Astronomy Cast that we wait until we are good and ready, until the science is all in. The Dawn mission has completed it’s mapping operations at asteroid Vesta and it’s now moving on to Ceres. This gives us a great opportunity to tak
