Ep. 453: Favorite Things We've Done These 10 Years


10 years of Astronomy Cast… wow. It’s been a long, fun journey. What are some of our favorite episodes and adventures over the decade we’ve been doing this show.
We usually record Astronomy Cast every Friday at 1:30 pm PDT / 4:30 pm EDT/ 20:30 PM UTC (8:30 GMT). You can watch us live on here on AstronomyCast.com, or the AstronomyCast YouTube page.
If you enjoy our show and would like to help us out, please go and fill out this short survey. It helps our sponsor Casper Mattresses support us better. Thank you!
If you would like to support Astronomy Cast, please visit our page at Patreon here – https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast. We greatly appreciate your support!
If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!
We are getting very excited for the AstronomyCast Solar Eclipse Escape, where you can meet Fraser and Pamela, plus WSH Crew and other fans. Right now we’re at capacity and have over 50 people on the waiting list, so we’re closing the waiting list to new additions, but we’ll let you know if there are any opportunities to attend as we get closer to the event.

Download the show [MP3] | Jump to Shownotes | Jump to Transcript


This episode is sponsored by: Casper.

Show Notes

Video collaboration from Fraser and Sergio Botero

Transcript

Transcription services provided by: GMR Transcription

Fraser: Hey, everyone. Fraser here. Once again, this episode of Astronomy Cast is brought to you by our good friends at Casper Mattresses.
Of course, I’ve now been sleeping on a Casper mattress for almost two years now and still like it. In fact, I went into a mattress store just to kind of look around and it’s crazy. They’re not as comfortable and they’re way more expensive. So, once again, I’m glad I’ve got two Casper mattresses in the house and I really appreciate their support in sponsoring Astronomy Cast.
Of course, you can order a Casper mattress risk-free. They send it in this really cool box that sort of, again, defies the laws of physics. You don’t know how they broke space-time to get a mattress in there. Try it for a hundred days. If you don’t like it, return it. They’ll pick it up free in Canada or the United States.
So, if you want to get a special $50.00 off your Casper mattress, go to casper.com/astro and use the promo code: Astro.
Thanks again, Casper!
Astronomy Cast Episode 453: Favorite Things We’ve Done Over Ten Years
Welcome to Astronomy Cast, our weekly facts-based journey through the cosmos, where we help you understand not only what we know, but how we know what we know.
My name is Fraser Cain. I’m the publisher of Universe Today. With me is Dr. Pamela Gay, the director of Technology and Citizen Science at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the director of CosmoQuest.
Hey, Pamela. How are you doin’?
Pamela: I’m doing well. How are you doing, Fraser?
Fraser: I’m doing super-well. This is the penultimate show.
Pamela: It is – but only of the season. We are coming back. As long as there’s, like, no catastrophes, we are coming back in September. So, we are ending our tenth season. Isn’t that –
Fraser: Ten seasons. All those people, who were, like, jumping on the ol’ podcast bandwagon. It was like, “Heard about this thing called pod” – and the hilarious thing is you were podcasting years before we even started Astronomy Cast.
Pamela: With Slacker Astronomy, we launched on Valentine’s Day in 2005 and Adam Curry had to add science and technology as a category in the podio directory because there weren’t any before us.
Fraser: Now, I am sad to say, today, that we don’t have any new patrons to thank, who’ve come on board on the $10.00 level and above. So, I’m just going to thank last week’s patrons again – to double-thank. In fact, I’m going to thank a bunch of them.
Pamela: Well, you should thank all of the $10.00-level patrons.
Fraser: I don’t have the list in front of me but –
Pamela: I will pull up the list. You blather while I pull up the list.
Fraser: Can you?
Pamela: I can thank people.
Fraser: You thank the $10.00 –
Pamela: I can do this.
Fraser: Alright. I’m ready.
Pamela: You have to entertain people while I look it up.
Actually, tell everyone, while I’m looking this up, your favorite story about how our show got started – because you were the one that picked the first topic and we could not have had a better first topic.
Fraser: Do you mean how Astronomy Cast actually – We’ve already started the show, haven’t we?
Pamela: Yes.
Fraser: You’re breaking all the rules today. Okay.
Pamela: I am.
Fraser: Okay. So, you want to know how Astronomy Cast, like, happened?
Pamela: Yeah.
Fraser: Okay, sure.
So, back in 2007, like you, the podcast thing had gotten super-exciting and I was listening to a ton of podcasts already. And I wanted to make one but I knew that I was really busy. So, I wanted to figure out a way to do a podcast with somebody, where I didn’t have to do a lot of preparation work in advance.
So, I reached out to Phil Plait, of course. And Phil Plait and I had already – you know, very good friends; we had already merged our communities together into the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum, AKA BAUT. And I was like, “Hey, Phil. Do you want to do a podcast where we just, like – just yak every week about astronomy?” And Phil was – he was already beyond busy and he was like, “Man, I would love to but I am so busy already and I know that I can’t commit to something like that on a regular basis. But I know somebody who would be better than me, in fact.” And he mentioned that he knew you.
Now, how did you know Phil?
Pamela: So, we actually know each other from before he was The Bad Astronomer. He was a PhD astronomer working at Goddard. He went from Goddard – I don’t know if there was an intermediate step that I’ve forgotten – but he ended up working at Sonoma State University in Lynn Cominsky’s group and we were both at the High Energy Astrophysics Conference in Las Cruces; we were both at AAS meetings. And we were the weirdoes who were PhD scientists and journalists writing blogs. And there was –
I remember there was one time we were both live-blogging side-by-side in a NASA Town Hall as fast as our little fingers could type and it was: Who could post this to Word Press faster? It was totally friendly competition because we both have our own spin on things.
And so, we knew each other from that side of things, when we were both working off of federal grants. And he was the smart one and he’s now making his own way in the world with far less paperwork to fill out.
Fraser: And so, you talked to him and had – you know, so he was familiar with what you were doing. And so, I suggested the show to him. He’s like, “Nope. Can’t do it but talk to Pamela because she was doing Slacker Astronomy.” And I was familiar with Slacker Astronomy and I didn’t realize that you guys had kind of wrapped up Slacker Astronomy.
Pamela: So, we were just wrapping up Slacker Astronomy because I was moving from Boston to Edwardsville and one of the other members was just starting graduate school. And so, there was a whole lot of transitions going on. We were handing the show over to Michael Koppelman, who did a great job with it for several years. And it was time for new things.
And this show came along – and I can now thank the people who are keeping the show going along.
Fraser: Oh. Well, let’s take a second now. Before we get to that thrilling next part of the story, why don’t you go ahead and thank some people?
Pamela: Okay. So, I would like to thank: Clem Unger, Joe – Oh, boy –
Fraser: Ahh, how do like this, hmm?
Pamela: Joe Kouveras, Chad Colopy, Greg Guthman, Frank Tippin, Arthur Latz-Hall, Tracy Anne, James Polley, Les Howard, Paul D. Disney, Tim Shu, Paul Skuse, Brian Kilby, David Power, Gordon Dewis, Bart Flaherty, Tyrone Fong, Margot Robinson, Kenneth Ryan, Anitusar – I’m gonna go with Anitusar – Chauncey Wilson, Silvan Wespi, Helge Bjorkhaug – I’m sorry, Hel. I’m sorry. I will get that right some day.
Fraser: I don’t think we can.
Pamela: Bill Hamilton, Charles White, Matt Woods, Joe Green, David Truog.
You are our $10.00 and up and up and up patrons and thank you. You allow us to plan for the future when you donate to us through this continuing donation system.
Fraser: So, back to our story.
I talked to you – and so, Phil gave me your email address and I reached out to you. And I knew you already had the chops, so I pitched the format to you and the funny thing is that – And if you go back, right to the back of the beginning of Astronomy Cast, the format is essentially untouched from the moment we developed it. And the gist was, you know, I really enjoyed Slacker Astronomy but –
Pamela: It was scripted.
Fraser: It was scripted and you could hear it. You could tell that there was sort of – you had your part, they had their part; everyone was doing their parts. And although – you know, I do the Guide to Space videos and they’re scripted. But with that interplay, with that interaction, it never sounded totally human to me.
And so, that was sort of part of it. It was like I clearly – and there were some other podcasts that were sort of these conversations that I really enjoyed. There was the Slate Political Gabfest, is one of my favorite podcasts. I was listening to it for the whole time. And they have this sort of natural conversation. And that sort of came out around the same time – a little before us.
Pamela: And Security Now was a big one as well.
Fraser: Security Now – that’s right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Security Now, that’s right; with Leo Laporte and – Oh, no. I forget the name of the security researcher. There ya go – Collin Jones. Steve Gibson is the name of the other person on Security Now. That’s exactly it. I don’t know if they still do the show.
But, yeah – that was exactly it. Leo Laporte was knowledgeable, enthusiast, amateur and was interviewing an expert about this topic and I really enjoyed that format. And so, that was sort of – you know, we Frankensteined a bunch of these ideas together and proceeded.
And I – what was that? I reached out to you and within days?
Pamela: It was a week –
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: – between the first conversation and recording. And we got amazingly lucky because the world kind of decided to throw out an awesome first topic.
Fraser: Right. Our first topic was why Pluto wasn’t a planet.
Pamela: And this was because we pretty much decided to start doing the show about the same day that Pluto stopped being a planet.
Fraser: Yeah. So, literally, just with – It was fresh news back in 2007, when we –
Pamela: ’06.
Fraser: ’06, sorry – when we started Astronomy Cast.
And so, we picked that topic and then, there was just an unlimited number of topics that we could go after – and did.
Pamela: And we kept trying experiments as we went. For a while, we tried doing strictly question shows, where we had people send us in questions because we were doing this back, before there was really the technology to do any of this to a live audience.
So, we were talking over Slack. I had my little M-Audio Podcast Factory; you had your system.
Fraser: We didn’t have Slack back then.
Pamela: Not Slack, Skype. We were using Skype, the other S-word.
Fraser: That’s right. We recorded the show on Skype, yeah.
Pamela: And so, we were talking in Skype; recording in GarageBand – even you were on a Mac in those days. And we just kept going.
And I know, for me, one of the scariest programming changes we made was when you were, like, “Let’s do this with live video” and I was like, “I do not know how I feel about this.”
Fraser: Well – and so, the going with the live video, that was all about the Google Plus roll-out.
So, Google Plus rolled out in 2011 and there was this idea of Hangouts. And so, we started to play around with Hangouts, just kind of privately and with fans, and people were sort of using Hangouts to try and sort of see what it’s like to have a live video discussion – which no one had ever done, right?
And so, then, we did that and then, Google released this idea called Hangouts On Air. And so, we used the Hangout to do the show and we would invite all of our – up to ten people – to come and join us inside the Hangout while we did the show. And all they had to do was be quiet while we recorded our episode and then, once it was done, we’d stick around for, you know, another half hour and answer their questions. But it was only for ten people.
Pamela: And we got lucky because we – between what we were doing with Astronomy Cast, what you pioneered with Let’s Go Look at the Moon and the Virtual Star Parties and both of us trying to make the Google Plus platform a success – we caught the eye of Vic at Google and he really did a lot of work to open the doors for us to be one of the first groups to get access to Hangouts On Air, when it was invitation-only, and get us verified and allow us to just do the stuff – We had so many experiments over the years that failed.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: Do you remember when we tried doing enhanced podcasts?
Fraser: Yes. Yeah. So, just an idea.
So, this was probably a year or two years into doing this, iTunes had this enhanced podcast format that you could use where, while the podcast was going on, you could display pictures on the screen of your iPod.
Pamela: This is pre-iPhone, folks.
Fraser: Pre-iPhone – barely, yeah. I mean, so you could be listening on your iPod and we selected a bunch of pictures to go along with the episode. And so, while you were listening, you could be – it’s almost like seeing a slide show of interesting images that were associated. Totally flopped.
Pamela: And it took me six hours an episode to do the graphics and it totally flopped.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: We did that, like, five times.
Fraser: Yeah, yeah. And then – and nobody wanted to see them and you could tell that nobody was watching them. We tried, like, low-res versions of it. We did – like, for people who were living with very bad internet. So, that was pretty funny.
And then – But I think, yeah. Being able to do the live shows sort of changed everything, just because we could actually be doing the show and interacting with the fans and talking with them, and we’re able to kind of mash the question show back into the live show – back into the recording of Astronomy Cast. And so, if you show up while we do the show live – every Friday at 12:00 p.m. Pacific – you can just hang out with us and talk before and after we actually do the show. So, the show is actually an hour long.
And I guess our more recent advancement is that we added the whole raw feed, if you want; you get if it’s a podcast.
Now, we had never met for the first while.
Pamela: It’s true. So, we had talked a bit when we did our, basically, Council of Doom podcasts over on Slacker; where we reached out to all of the astronomy New Media people and we were like, “Hey! Will you join us for an hour and we’ll talk?”
And so, we’d done that but we didn’t really know-know each other. Then we started podcasting and we were Slacking all the time and I got to know your kids and – but it was always two people talking through video.
Fraser: Now, whenever Pamela says “Slack”, just replace that with the word “Skype”.
Pamela: Oh, dang it!
Fraser: Yeah. It’ll be alright.
Pamela: This is sort of like that episode where I kept screwing up Neptune and Newton. Those are also not the same thing.
Fraser: Stewart Butterfield, you’re welcome. Okay.
Pamela: So, we were talking through Skype. And it was finally the summer of 2007 that we were in Austin, Texas. No, it was – sorry. Winter meeting, 2008 – so, January 2008.
So, we’d been going for a year and a half, at that point, and there was a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, and we had funding from the National Science Foundation to test our ability to live-blog the conference and explain to the world everything that was going on, back before Twitter was a thing.
Fraser: But we also tried to live-stream the video, right?
Pamela: We did.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: So, our National Science Foundation funding allowed us to madly type; it allowed us to stream all of the press conferences and the awards. And so, there was a whole crew of us. It was you, me, Phil; I had three students. And we were all down in Austin, meeting for the first time while sharing a hotel suite. And it was just one of those crazy experiences.
And it was like we’d known each other forever and it wasn’t the first time we met, although it was, actually, I think one of the first times I saw your face. And I was so confused because you just – you didn’t look like radio-voice guy.
Fraser: Right. And now, I think it’s funny; like, when people see my picture, they don’t think they know what I’m going to sound like. And when people hear what I sound like, they don’t think they know what I’m going to look like. But now, I think, because I do so much video, everyone is accustomed to both my haunting visage and my screeching sound together, to sort of bring the whole package home.
But it’s true. It’s funny how – Well, remember we were at Dragoncon, like, I think a year after and we were in line and talking to each other. And someone, right in front of us, turned around and went, “Are you Fraser and Pamela?”
Pamela: Yes! And this has happened to us multiple times over the years, where, up until just a year or so ago when we started doing everything on video, we were just two voices that put people to sleep each night.
Fraser: Ohh, that’s true. So, we get this email all the time and – you know, like, “Oh, I really love the show” and, you know, “I hope this doesn’t make you mad but I like to just listen to it to go to sleep.” And I understand that.
Pamela: We do.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: We really do. I fall asleep to some podcasts as well.
Fraser: Yep. Me too.
And so, I guess that’s the question, right? Like, which are the podcasts that you just can’t bring yourself to play when you’re trying to go to sleep because you want to hear every second of it? So –
Pamela: Right.
Fraser: Yeah. So, we had met. Now, we’ve – over the course of the ten years, though, we’ve had a chance to do a bunch of pretty fun adventures.
Pamela: It’s true.
So, we try and tie all of our adventures to science. We’ve gone to a number of AAS meetings and there was one time that I was in Seattle and you came down with your kids on the way to Disney. But I think the end-all, be-all was we went on a cruise – which is how we know so many of you out there in the audience – to go to the Mayan ruins on the day the Mayan calendar ended.
Fraser: Yeah. Yep.
Pamela: This was the first time you told me that I do something that apparently I’d been doing for years.
Fraser: Yes.
Pamela: And you want to let the audience in on what you failed to ever tell me I was doing?
Fraser: Sure.
So, I’m hoping that half the audience has noticed this. But Pamela is innocently filthy-mouthed. So, she says stuff that can be taken out of context so badly all the time that normally, when you’re hanging out with your friends, you would make a bunch of jokes when a person accidentally says something. I have to sort of shut up and just ignore and just pretend that she didn’t say that because I don’t want to call attention to the thing she just said. But yeah, it’s pretty funny that you do that.
Pamela: And so, since then, some of the folks out there that – We’ve gotten to become really good friends with some of the people that we know because they were listening to this show. And two of them up in Sacramento, whose names I won’t out because I don’t know if they want me to – So, to my Sacramento friends, they don’t let me get away with that but unfortunately, we’re not together face to face enough to actually change my ways.
Fraser: Yeah. So, I think the point is, is that when you hear her – and just completely not intentionally – saying something that has, you know, two meanings, feel free to send her a tweet. Yeah.
Pamela: It’s true.
And you weren’t on Twitter –
Fraser: No.
Pamela: – for the longest of times.
Fraser: Yeah. Yes.
Pamela: But now you are.
Fraser: Well, kind of. I battle social media and I find that it’s a tough thing – I’m a total grazer by – naturally, right? And so, I will sit there and update Reddit and update Reddit and see if there’s a new email and all this kind of thing. And, at the same time, it is devastating to my productivity. And I have – I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do. I got a full plate. And so, I tend to have to turn that stuff off and not be around it.
I actually, purposefully – Oh, man. What was it? So, it was during the George Bush presidency and I was – the second election. And I must’ve spent half of my time watching news, updating blogs, listening to political podcasts. And, like, I’m a Canadian. Like, what do I care who your president is? But – we care right now. And I realized that it was toxic to my brain. Like, I had to just not – I just had to shut it all down.
And so, now, I don’t read any news. I don’t really read Twitter. I don’t read – I never read Facebook. I don’t do any of that. And the important news still finds its way back to me. I did re-subscribe to a couple of my favorite political podcasts so I can sort of stay on top of that. Like, I really enjoy the Slate political podcast and I really enjoy On The Media. And so, those sort of keep me connected but, apart from that, I really can’t.
And so, no – I’m amazed that you can have conversations with people on social media. I can’t do it.
Pamela: This is why I do our Office Hours for Astronomy Cast – and those will be going throughout the entire summer – is I find my sanity in getting to share words with humans. Because one of the things that I think always surprises our audience is I’m the PhD astronomer but I, like, maintain our website and write software and code. And you actually completed your CS degree while we were recording the show and you spend your entire day working with words.
Fraser: Yes.
Pamela: So, when my brain is like, “Oh, dear God. The only words I currently know are ‘select’, ‘for’, ‘count’, ‘sum’ – ”
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: I’m like, “I shall take a social media break and talk to our audience.”
I had a great conversation yesterday on our Weekly Space Hangout Crew Slack channel – this time, I actually mean Slack and not Skype – where one of our audience members was just like, “I need an astronomer!” And I was like, “I am an astronomer.” And we talked about Doppler shift. And it was cool. And it was awesome. And I got to stop writing database code for a few minutes.
Fraser: Yeah.
So, I think one of the most interesting things – We talked about some of the adventures that we’ve been on and I – You know, honestly, I think the best is yet to come. We’ve got the eclipse trip coming up this year. I’m doing a trip to Iceland with Dr. Paul Matt Sutter and there’s a really great response to that. And I think that we’re – hopefully, if we can go out and do more of that kind of thing out in the world. I’d love to figure out more ways to do that.
But one of the – I think one of our collective, kind of most meaningful, greatest priorities is to get regular human beings – amateurs; intelligent amateurs – involved and participating in the science itself. And that’s been a huge part of your career.
So, can you talk a bit about, you know, Galaxy Zoo and then into CosmoQuest and then, sort of – you know, we had this sort of Star Chamber meeting at, again, a Dragoncon and sort of, I think, set some decisions that sort of pushed everything forward.
Pamela: I actually – Hold on.
Fraser: Okay. What’s going on?
Pamela: So, pardon the destruction and carnage. Do you recognize this?
Fraser: So – store, citizen science, social media, blog, forums –
Pamela: So, back in 2011, you and I were at the Marriott outside of Dragoncon and we didn’t have any paper because – it’s us. And we asked the waitress for a piece off of her pad. And this is what she gave us. And you can see my really bad drawing at the bottom of ideas for new citizen science project of how we needed to have badges and accomplishments – which we now finally have in CosmoQuest.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: And we did this original map of what all would be required, that turned into a PowerPoint slide that I’ve been showing for years. And we basically changed my career entirely at that moment.
Fraser: Yep.
Pamela: And this is one of those things where you’ve been casually sitting in the background –
Fraser: Nagging you?
Pamela: Publisher of Universe Today – nagging me. But, I mean, you’ve gone through some amazing life changes we’ll get to as well. But I keep recreating my career, which is one of those crazy things to do because when we first started, I had just arrived at Southern Illinois University, I was teaching classes, I was doing research on variable stars and we were podcasting.
And I get grumpy when people tell me I’m wasting my time on things. And the result of me getting grumpy about people telling me that we were wasting our time on the podcast was for me to publish a research paper showing we had an impact. And so, we did that.
And you were like, “Have at it.” You promoted everything out of the surveys. We got all the responses. We got great research.
2008, when we were down in Austin – that was when I met the folks from, then-Galaxy Zoo. And a few months later, we got to talking about, “Well, what about creating the Word Press of citizen science?” And we co-founded Zooniverse.
And a couple of years later, you and I are sitting in a Marriott and we’re like, “Okay. So, how do we make it more than just ‘clicking’ and turn it into treating the citizen scientists the exact same way that I treat my students who are working at home?” And that’s – I talk to them through the internet. We don’t have to have our students in front of us. And you really pushed me to stop having citizen scientists is how I solved a problem, and have them as collaborators and peers. And that was excellent.
Fraser: One of the real benefits of us doing Astronomy Cast for so long was the outpouring of support and the emails and messages that we would get from the listeners who, for whatever reason, their career path had taken them down somewhere else. They ended up in computer science, they ended up as bankers, they ended up as teachers, they ended up as – whatever life direction they ended up. But a love of space and astronomy and the cosmos was always part of who they were. And Astronomy Cast allowed them to sort of dabble in this thing that they’d always really enjoyed.
But there was this kind of wistful sadness that they hadn’t actually chosen it as a career path and turned it into a – and made those contributions to science that they always could have. And yet, these were very smart people. They had amazing accomplishments. They had already achieved stuff in other fields. And, I mean, come on!
Pamela: They just wanted to science.
Fraser: Yeah, this astronomy thing is not that hard. We can teach a 5-year-old to identify craters on the surface of the moon.
So, we wanted to figure out a way to bridge that gap; to allow the people who had always wanted to contribute to science but didn’t have the time and money and resources to go out and get that proper degree. And then, at the same time, take those researchers who had done the work and who were hungry for knowledgable people. And then, just work on both sides of this puzzle.
You know, to make this two-sided marketplace; help the researchers appreciate the capabilities of the citizens and then, at the same time, help the citizens upgrade their skills and capabilities to a point where the two could come together. And you would have this army of people who could move scientific progress forward without necessarily having to jump through this – the Ivy League tower mentality, right?
Pamela: Exactly. And, at the end of the day, it’s hard being an astronomer. And by “hard”, I don’t mean the math; I mean there are excruciatingly few jobs. It is painful trying to get grant funding. The amount of paperwork and bureaucracy and it’s – I don’t get to play with the science as much as I would like to.
And if someone out there wants to have a creative, awesome job, free of federal and state bureaucracy, and earn sensational money, this isn’t the field for them. Go out. Do computer science. Do engineering. Do writing – except the money’s not so good there. Do something. And then, come do the fun part with the citizen science. Come work on the data analysis. Enjoy the data. And sometimes, when we’re working on papers, we’ll reach out and we’ll want your input; your help. Come get to experience the good parts without the tedious parts.
Fraser: Yeah. And the whole idea of Cosmo Academy is another way where you could, like, pick a specific topic, sit down for a set amount of time with a researcher in that field and learn directly from them. And I think, you know, this was the idea back in the beginning, on that napkin there, is: Let’s come up with certifications; let’s come up with credentials; let’s have people gain in their current abilities, to the point that they can show up for duty with a researcher and the researcher can know that these people have what they need.
Pamela: And the only problem that we’ve ever had with Cosmo Academy is we haven’t had the money fall from the sky that allows us to do it for free, like we do with Astronomy Cast. And paying instructors a living wage makes the classes expensive. And we’re just going to keep looking until we can find that money from the sky that allows us to offer knowledge for free, which I think is very important to both of us.
Fraser: So, let’s just – I don’t know. We’ve sort of reached our normal length. What does the future hold, do you think?
Pamela: Well, that’s actually what we have scheduled for the entire next episode is looking forward to what are the things we have planned; what are the science discoveries we hope to see.
Fraser: Yeah.
Pamela: Let’s place our bets. How long until we find the first world with free oxygen in its atmosphere and other signs of life? When is the first time we see – Well, let’s figure that out next week.
Fraser: That sounds awesome.
Alright. Well, thanks Pamela. Thanks to ten years and here’s to at least ten more years.
Pamela: I raise my coffee cup to you.
Fraser: I don’t have one here but –
Pamela: That’s okay.
Fraser: We can fist bump here.
Pamela: We can fist bump.
Fraser: Boom! Alright. We’ll talk to you next week.
Pamela: Talk to you next week.
Male Speaker: Thank you for listening to Astronomy Cast, a non-profit resource provided by Astrosphere New Media Association, Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay. You can find show notes and transcripts for every episode at astronomycast.com. You can email us at info@astronomycast.com. Tweet us @astronomycast. Like us on Facebook or circle us on Google Plus.
We record our show live on YouTube every Friday at 1:30 p.m. Pacific, 4:30 p.m. Eastern or 2030 GMT. If you missed the live event, you can always catch up over at cosmoquest.org or on our YouTube page. To subscribe to the show, point your podcatching software at astronomycast.com/podcast.xml, or subscribe directly from iTunes. If you would like to listen to the full unedited episode, including the live viewers’ questions and answers, you can subscribe to astronomycast.com/feed/fullraw. Our music is provided by Travis Serl and the show was edited by Chad Weber.
This episode of Astronomy Cast was made possible thanks to donations by people like you. Please give by going to patreon.com/astronomycast.
[End of Audio]
Duration: 34 minutes

Download the show [MP3] | Jump to Shownotes | <

Follow along and learn more: