Astronomy Cast

Ep. 509: Fiction to Fact: 3D Printers

By susie on December 7, 2018 in Physics, Science

The technology of 3D printing is taking off. From tiny home-based 3D printers to larger manufacturing. And of course, 3D printing is going to space with the International Space Station and beyond. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT / 12:00 pm PDT / 19:00 UTC. You can watch us live […]

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Ep. 508: 2018 Holiday Gift Guide

By susie on November 29, 2018 in People

We did it, we made it to the end of another year. Once again it’s time to wonder what gifts to get your beloved space nerds. We’ve got some suggestions. Some are brand new this year, others are classics that we just can’t help but continue to suggest. Let’s get into it. We usually record […]

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Ep. 507: From Fiction to Fact : Ion Drive

By susie on November 23, 2018 in Missions, Space Flight

Ion engines are a mainstay of science fiction, featured in both Star Trek and Wars. But this is a very real technology, successfully used on several missions out there in the Solar System right now. How do they work and what are the limits? We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT […]

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Ep. 506: It’s not Aliens, Unless it’s Aliens

By susie on November 15, 2018 in Aliens

There was no live video for this one, so here’s the audio! The Full Raw version isn’t much different this week – it just lacks the music and intro! Did you hear that astronomers from Harvard think that the interstellar asteroid Oumuamua was actually an alien solar sail? Is it aliens? Of course it’s not […]

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Ep. 505: Seismology

By susie on November 8, 2018 in Planetary Science

We’re always interested in the surface features of the planets and moons in the Solar System, but that’s only skin deep. It turns out, these worlds have an interesting inner life too. Thanks to the science of seismology, we can peer into our planet and learn how it works… inside. And we’re about to take […]

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Ep. 504: Radar, Lidar, and Sonar

By susie on November 5, 2018 in Planetary Science

To really study something, you want to reach out and touch it. But what can you do if you’re separated by a huge distance? You reach out with electromagnetic or sound waves and watch how they bounce back. Thanks to radar, sonar and lidar. We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 3:00 pm EDT […]

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Ep. 503: Gravity Mapping

By susie on October 24, 2018 in Forces, Physics

The Earth looks like a perfect sphere, but down here on the surface we see that there are mountains, rivers, oceans, glaciers, all kinds of features with different densities and shapes. Scientists can map this produce a highly detailed gravity map of our planet. And it turns out, this is very useful for other worlds […]

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Ep. 502: No Touching: Determining Composition of Worlds Remotely

By susie on October 12, 2018 in Planets

How do you know what something is made of if you can’t reach out and touch it? How do we know what planets lights years away have in their atmosphere? What about the rocks all around Curiosity? Or the geysers coming out of Europa and Enceladus? Scientists have a few handy tricks. This episode was […]

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Ep. 501: Water Worlds Revisited

By susie on October 5, 2018 in Planetary Science

We’re not learning that the vast majority of potentially habitable worlds out there are actually icy moons like Europa and Enceladus. Good news, there are hundreds, if not thousands of times more of them than worlds like Earth. Bad news, they’re locked in ice. What have we learned about water worlds and their potential for […]

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Ep. 500: Live Celebration!

By susie on September 12, 2018 in Live Shows, Meetups, The Show

Welcome to episode 500 of Astronomy Cast. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’re going to look back 500 years into the past to see what we learned about the Universe. And then we’re going to look 500 years into the future. Astronomy Cast celebrated their 500th episode on Sept 15-16, 2018. We broadcast from our […]