Ep. 160: Eclipses

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Every now and then, the Moon destroys the Sun. Okay, not destroys, covers. Well, not really covers, but from here on Earth, sitting inside the shadow of the Moon, that’s what it sure looks like. These events are called eclipses, or more precisely,...

Episode 131: Submillimeter Astronomy

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Last week we examined the largest wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum: radio. This week we get a little smaller… but not too small! And look at the next step in the spectrum, the submillimeter. Astronomers have only recently began exploiting...

Ep. 129: Interferometry

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) When it comes to telescopes, bigger is better. But bigger is more expensive. Way more expensive. To keep the costs reasonable while improving the sensitivity of their instruments, astronomers use an amazing technique called interferometry. Instead of...

Ep. 118: Sky Surveys

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) In the old days, astronomers had to beg for telescope time. They’d put together a proposal, convince observatories to gather data for them, crunch that data and release the results. No telescope, no results. But everything’s different now....

Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) We’ve talked about the Sun before, but this time we’re going to look at the entire life cycle of the Sun, and all the stages it’s going to go through: solar nebula, protostar, main sequence, red giant, white dwarf, and more. Want to know...

Ep. 89: Adaptive Optics

Since the dawn of humanity, astronomers have wished to destroy the atmosphere. Oh sure, it's what we breathe and all, but that stupid atmosphere is always getting in the way. Since destroying the atmosphere is out of the question, astronomers have figured out how to work with it. To distort the mirror of the telescope itself though the magic of adaptive optics. Episode 89: Adaptive Optics