Astronomy Cast - Questions Show: Distance in Space, Changing Earth's Orbit, and Different Sized Stars

Questions Show: Distance in Space, Changing Earth's Orbit, and Different Sized Stars

Betelgeuse. Image credit: Hubble

This week we find out the distance between Betelgeuse and Bellatrex, how astronomers measure distance between objects, the possibility that an object could mess up the orbit of Earth, and the reason for different sizes of stars. 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.

Distance in Space, Changing Earth's Orbit, and Different Sized Stars
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Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars

Last week we looked at the complete life of the Sun, birth to death. But stars can be smaller, and stars can get much much larger. And with a change in mass, their lives change too. Let's start the clock again, and see what happens to the smallest stars in the Universe; and what happens to the largest.

Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars
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Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun

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 what the future holds for the Sun, get ready for the grim details.

Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun
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Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars

Look around you. Breathe in some air. Everything you can see and feel was formed in a star. Today we'll examine that long journey that matter has gone through, forged and re-forged in the hearts of stars. In fact, the device you're using to listen to this podcast has some elements formed in a supernova explosion.

Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars
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Ep. 103: Electromagnetism

Our series on the basic forces of the cosmos continues! Last week we discussed gravity, and this we'll handle electromagnetism. Electricity and magnetism are just two aspects of the same force, and you can't talk about astronomy without understanding these two keys aspects of physics.

Ep. 103: Electromagnetism
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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
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Ep. 81: Questions on the Shape, Size and Centre of the Universe

As predicted we got a lot of questions from people about our trilogy of shows on the size, shape and centre of the universe. Today we'll do our best to clear them all up.As always, if you're still confused drop us an email to info at astronomycast dot com.

Episode 81: Questions on the Shape, Size and Centre of the Universe (14.7MB)
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Ep. 75: Stellar Populations

$The stars being born today aren\'t the same as stars born shortly after the big bang.$
After the big bang, all we had was hydrogen, a little bit of helium, and a few other trace elements. Today, we've a whole periodic table of elements to enjoy, from oxygen we breathe to the aluminium cans we drink from to the uranium that powers some people's homes. How did we get from plain old hydrogen to our current diversity? It came from stars, in fact successive generations of stars.

Episode 75: Stellar Populations (14.4MB)
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Ep. 73: Questions Show #8

We've been so crazy following our own whims through the universe that we've neglected your questions. That ends today. It's time to dig deep into our overflowing email box to retrieve the puzzling questions our listeners have sent in.

Episode 73: Questions Show #8 (16.8MB)
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Ep. 68: Globular Clusters

This week we're going to study some of the most ancient objects in the entire Universe; globular clusters. These relics of the early Universe contain hundreds of thousands of stars, held together by their mutual gravity. Since they formed together, they give astronomers a unique way to test various theories of stellar evolution.

Episode 68: Globular Clusters (14.3MB)
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Questions Show: Distance in Space, Changing Earth's Orbit, and Different Sized Stars

Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars

Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun

Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars

Ep. 103: Electromagnetism

Ep. 89: Adaptive Optics

Ep. 81: Questions on the Shape, Size and Centre of the Universe

Ep. 75: Stellar Populations

Ep. 73: Questions Show #8

Ep. 68: Globular Clusters