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. 225: Ice in Space
A huge part of the Solar System is just made ...
A huge part of the Solar System is just made of ice. There are comets, rings, moons and even dwarf planets. Where did all this ice come from, and what impact (pardon the pun) has it had for life on Earth?
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Ep. 224: Orion
Most people know how to find two constellations: the Big ...
Most people know how to find two constellations: the Big Dipper, and Orion the Hunter. You can teach a small child to find Orion, and at the right time of year, they'll find it in seconds. There's so much going on in this spectacular constellation, from t
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Ep. 223: The Transit of Venus
Since the planet Venus is closer in to the Sun ...
Since the planet Venus is closer in to the Sun than Earth, there are rare opportunities to see it pass directly in front of our parent star. This is known as a planetary transit, and thanks to the geometry of the Earth and Venus, they only happen a couple
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Ep. 222: The Decadal Survey
In episode 198 we explained how space missions are chosen, ...
In episode 198 we explained how space missions are chosen, and introduced the Decadal Survey. Since the time we recorded that episode, the full Decadal Survey for planetary science has been released, explaining the science goals for planetary geologists o
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Ep. 221: Geomorphology
When we look around our planet, we see a huge ...
When we look around our planet, we see a huge variety in landforms: mountains, valleys, plateaus, and more. Continents rise and fall over the eons, providing geologists with a history of the planet's evolution. The study of these changes is known as geomo
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Ep. 220: Mass Extinction Events
The Earth seems like a safe place, most of the ...
The Earth seems like a safe place, most of the time. But we have evidence of terrible catastrophes in the ancient past. Times when almost all life on Earth was wiped out in a geologic instant. What could have caused so much devastation? And will something
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Ep. 219: Planck Mission
Another mission named after a famous physicist. This time we're ...
Another mission named after a famous physicist. This time we're looking at the Planck mission, designed to study the Cosmic Microwave Backgorund Radiation over the entire sky. Like the previous WMAP mission, this will help astronomers understand the first
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Ep. 218: Max Planck
It's time for another action-packed double episode, where we meet ...
It's time for another action-packed double episode, where we meet a man and his mission. This time around its German physicist Max Planck, considered to be the father of quantum theory - he was later granted a Nobel Prize for just that discovery. Let's ta
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Ep. 216: Archaeoastronomy
The Sun, Moon, stars and planets are visible to the ...
The Sun, Moon, stars and planets are visible to the unaided eye, and so they have been visible to astronomers since before recorded history. Some of the earliest records we do have tell us what the ancient astronomers thought about the heavens, and how th
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Episode 215: Light Echoes
Just as sound can echo off distant objects, light can ...
Just as sound can echo off distant objects, light can echo too. And the echoes of light bouncing off stellar remnants, black hole accretion disks, and clouds of gas and dust provide astronomers with another method of probing the distant cosmos.
