Welcome to Astronomy Cast, the most popular astronomy-related podcast. Just look at what listeners have to say about it:
Astronomy Cast is out of this world! It's hard to believe that it's free! This is an absolute must for any amateur astronomer or anyone interested in astronomy or cosmology. The hosts, Pamela and Fraser, are fun to listen to, extremely knowledgeable, and are able to explain difficult subject matter with great analogies. Bravo!
"Very interesting and almost "easy" for amateurs to listen and understand"
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The surface of Io, resurfaced by volcanoes.
You're familiar with volcanoes, eruptive vents where hot magma escapes the Earth's interior – sometimes with disastrous effects. But did you know that volcanoes have shaped many of the planets and moons in the Solar System, not just our own Earth? And just in the last few years astronomers have discovered there are cold volcanoes on some of the icy objects in the outer solar system.
Artist's impression of an experiment to test entanglement
One of the most amazing aspects of quantum mechanics is quantum entanglement. This is the strange behavior where particles can become entangled, so they're somehow connected to one another – no matter the distance between them. Interact with one particle and the other reacts instantly; even if they're separated by billions of light-years.
How can you get a Galileoscope of your very own? What happens to time inside a black hole? And what exactly is energy anyway?
If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
What starting telescope equipment does the Astronomy Cast team suggest? How much energy does a black hole generate? And how do we measure time outside the Earth?
If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Last week we took a peek into the tiny world of quantum mechanics, and its unintuitive, but very accurate mathematical predictions. And although we all appreciate the physics lesson, you're probably wondering what this all has to do with astronomy. Well, today we bring it all home and explain how quantum mechanics has given astronomers one of the most powerful tools they have to study the nature of the cosmos.
What if the Moon wasn't tidally locked to the Earth?
What would happen if the Moon wasn't tidally locked to the Earth? What happens to all that mass and energy disappearing into a black hole? And how can we explain the space station's crazy orbit?
If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Einstein, one of the founders of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the study of the very tiny; the nature of reality at the smallest scale. It's a science that defies common sense, and delivers no helpful analogies. And yet it delivers the goods, making scientific predictions with incredible accuracy. Let's look into the history of quantum theory, and then struggle to comprehend its connection to the Universe.
Are new stars dark until their photons reach the surface? How fast do neutrinos travel? And what’s the story with Hawking Radiation?
If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.
Evolution of the large scale structure of the Universe. Image credit: NASA
This week we’re going to think big. Bigger than big. We’re going to consider the biggest things in the Universe. If you could pull way back, and examine regions of space billions of light-years across, what would you see? How is the Universe arranged at the largest scale? And more importantly… why?
How do planets get their atmospheres? What would happen to the Earth if the Moon just disappeared? And what’s that strange glow we see after sunset?
If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a future show. Please include your location and a way to pronounce your name.