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  • Shows Index
    • Aliens (1)
    • Amateur Astronomy (5)
      • Observing (5)
    • Astronomy (131)
      • Cosmology (22)
      • Galaxies (10)
      • Nebulae (2)
      • Observing (14)
      • Planets (39)
        • Extrasolar Planets (5)
        • Our Solar System (32)
      • Stars (18)
        • Compact Objects (3)
        • Stellar Evolution (8)
    • Chemistry (1)
    • History (1)
    • Listeners (40)
      • Questions Shows (35)
      • Student Questions (4)
    • People (9)
      • Doing Astronomy (2)
      • Interviews (6)
      • Meetings (5)
    • Physics (33)
      • Forces (9)
      • Particles (8)
      • Relativity (6)
    • Planetary Science (1)
    • Space Flight (9)
    • The Show (3)
      • Meetups (1)



  • Collaborators
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    Past Shows
    • Questions Show: Avoiding the Heat Death, Orbiting Galaxies, and the Dangers of Space Radiation
    • Ep. 141: Volcanoes, Hot and Cold
    • Ep. 140: Entanglement
    • Questions Show: Galileoscope, Black Hole Time, and What Exactly is Energy?
    • Questions Show: Telescope Suggestions, Black Hole Energy, and Universal Time
    • Ep. 139: Energy Levels and Spectra
    • Questions: An Unlocked Moon, Energy Into Black Holes, and the Space Station's Orbit
    • Ep. 138: Quantum Mechanics
    • Questions Show: Hidden Fusion, the Speed of Neutrinos, and Hawking Radiation
    • Ep. 137: Large Scale Structure of the Universe
    • Questions Show: The Source of Atmospheres, the Vanishing Moon, and a Glow After Sunset
    • Ep. 136: Gamma Ray Astronomy
    • Questions Show: Dangerous Solar Flares, Higgs Boson Insights, and Light Speed Flashlights
    • Ep. 135: X-Ray Astronomy
    • Questions Show: NorthEast Astronomy Forum (NEAF)
    • Ep. 134: Ultraviolet Astronomy
    • Ep. 133: Optical Astronomy
    • Questions Show: Undoing Inflation, Searching for Water, and Seeing Everything a Black Hole's Ever Eaten
    • Ep. 132: Infrared Astronomy
    • Episode 131: Submillimeter Astronomy
    • Questions Show: Decelerating Black Holes, Earth-Sun Tidal Lock, and the Crushing Gravity of Dark Matter
    • Episode 130: Radio Astronomy
    • Questions Show: Multiple Big Bangs, Satellite Collisions and the Size of the Universe
    • Ep. 129: Interferometry
    • Questions Show: Shooting Lasers at the Moon and Losing Contact with Rovers
    • Ep. 128: Dust
    • Ep. 127: The US Space Shuttle
    • Ep. 126 From Skeptics Guide with Questions
    • Ep. 125: A Zoo of Extrasolar Planets
    • Questions Show: Moons and the Drake Equation, Stars in the Void, and Rings Around Stars
    • Ep. 124: Space Capsules, Part 1 – Vostok, Mercury and Gemini
    • Ep. 123: Homogeneity
    • Ep. 122: How Old is the Universe?
    • Questions Show: Stellar Roche Limits, Seeing Black Holes, and Water on Mars
    • Ep. 121: Spacesuits
    • Ep. 120: The Christmas Star
    • Questions Show: Different Fields of Astronomy, Our Sibling Stars, and Hidden Lagrange Points
    • Ep. 119: Robots in Space
    • Questions Show: Distance in Space, Changing Earth's Orbit, and Different Sized Stars
    • Ep. 118: Sky Surveys
    • Ep. 117: Time
    • Ep. 116: Molecules in Space
    • Ep. 115: The Moon, Part 3: Return to the Moon
    • Questions Show: Spiral Arms, Seismic Waves on the Sun, and our Favorite Gear
    • Ep. 114: The Moon, Part 2 – Exploration of the Moon
    • Questions Show: Ice in Space, Expansion of the Universe, and Death from the Skies
    • Ep. 113: The Moon, Part 1
    • Questions Show: Orbit of the Planets, Green Stars, and Oort Cloud Contamination
    • Ep. 112: Death From the Skies, Interview with Phil Plait
    • Questions Show: Relativity, Relativity and More Relativity
    • Ep. 111: Nebulae
    • Questions Show: Galactic Dust, the Speed of Photons, and the Big Bang Calculations
    • Ep. 110: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
    • Questions Show: Alignment with the Galactic Plane, Destruction from Venus, and the Death of the Solar System
    • Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars
    • Questions Show – Running Out of Gravitons and Hitting the Brakes at Light Speed
    • Ep. 108: The Life of the Sun
    • Questions Show – light speed, Andromeda galaxy, dark matter and black holes
    • Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars
    • Questions Show – Black Hole Surfaces, Magnetic Field Strengths, and the Speed of Gravitons
    • Ep. 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything
    • Student Questions Show: Leelanau School
    • Ep. 105: The Strong and Weak Nuclear Forces
    • Ep 104: Science Fiction at Dragon*Con with Plait and Grazier
    • Ep. 103: Electromagnetism
    • Ep 102: Gravity
    • Ep. 101: Advanced Propulsion Systems
    • Ep. 100: Rockets
    • Ep. 99: The Milky Way
    • Ep. 98: Quasars
    • Ep. 97: Galaxies
    • Ep. 96: Humans to Mars, Part 3 – Terraforming Mars
    • Student Questions: Collinsville High School
    • Ep. 95: Humans to Mars, Part 2 – Colonists
    • Ep 94: Humans to Mars, Part 1 – Scientists
    • Ep. 93: Missions to Mars, Part 2
    • Ep. 92: Missions to Mars, Part 1
    • Ep. 91: The Search for Water on Mars
    • Ep. 90: The Scientific Method
    • Ep. 89: Adaptive Optics
    • Ep. 88: The Hubble Space Telescope
    • Ep. 87: The End of the Universe Part 2: The End of Everything
    • Ep. 86: The End of the Universe Part 1: The End of the Solar System
    • Ep. 85: Detectors
    • Ep. 84: Getting Around the Solar System
    • Ep. 83: Wave Particle Duality
    • Ep. 82: Space Junk
    • Ep. 81: Questions on the Shape, Size and Centre of the Universe
    • Ep. 80: Craters
    • Ep. 79: How Big is the Universe?
    • Ep. 78: What is the Shape of the Universe?
    • Ep. 77: Where is the Centre of the Universe?
    • Ep. 76: Lagrange Points
    • Student Questions: Curtis High School
    • Ep. 75: Stellar Populations
    • Ep. 74: Antimatter
    • Ep. 73: Questions Show #8
    • Ep. 72: Cosmic Rays
    • Ep. 71: Gravitational Waves
    • Ep. 70: How To Win a Nobel Prize
    • Student Questions: Farmersburg
    • Ep. 69: The Large Hadron Collider and the Search for the Higgs-Boson
    • Ep. 68: Globular Clusters
    • Ep. 67: Building a Career in Astronomy
    • Ep. 66: How Amateurs Can Contribute to Astronomy
    • Ep. 65: The End of Our Tour Through the Solar System
    • Ep. 64: Pluto and the Icy Outer Solar System
    • Ep. 63: Neptune
    • Ep. 62: Uranus
    • Ep. 61: Saturn's Moons
    • Ep. 60: Questions Show #7
    • Ep. 59: Saturn
    • Ep. 58: Inflation
    • Ep. 57: Jupiter's Moons
    • Ep. 56: Jupiter
    • Ep. 55: The Asteroid Belt
    • Ep. 54: Questions Show #6
    • Ep. 53: Astronomy in Science Fiction
    • Special Episode: Panspermia
    • Ep. 52: Mars
    • Ep. 51: Earth
    • Ep. 50: Venus
    • Ep. 49: Mercury
    • Ep. 48: Tidal Forces Across the Universe
    • Ep. 47: Tidal Forces
    • Ep. 46: Stellar Nurseries
    • Ep. 45: The Important Numbers in the Universe
    • Listener Survey
    • Ep. 44: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
    • Ep. 43: Questions Show #5
    • Ep. 42: Magnetism Everywhere
    • Ep. 41: The Rise of the Supertelescopes
    • Ep. 40: American Astronomical Society Meeting, May 2007
    • Ep. 39: Astrology and UFOs
    • Ep. 38: Neutron Stars and their Exotic Cousins
    • Ep. 37: Gravitational Lensing
    • Ep. 36: Gamma-Ray Bursts
    • Ep. 35: Questions Show #4
    • Ep. 34: Discovering Another Earth
    • Ep. 33: Choosing and Using a Telescope
    • Ep. 32: The Search for Neutrinos
    • Ep. 31: String Theory, Time Travel, White Holes, Warp Speed, Multiple Dimensions, and Before the Big Bang
    • Ep. 30: The Sun, Spots and All
    • Ep. 29: Asteroids Make Bad Neighbors
    • Ep. 28: What is the universe expanding into?
    • Ep. 27: Questions Show #3
    • Ep. 26: The Largest Structures in the Universe
    • Ep. 25: The Story of Galaxy Evolution
    • Ep. 24: The Fermi Paradox: Where Are All the Aliens?
    • Ep. 23: Counting Aliens With the Drake Equation


Ep. 109: The Life of Other Stars

  • October 6th, 2008
  • Show Notes
  • Comments(1)
  • Like it? Digg-it | Reddit | del.icio.us

 

Betelgeuse. Image credit: Hubble
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. 75: Stellar Populations

  • February 11th, 2008
  • Show Notes
  • Comments(2)
  • Like it? Digg-it | Reddit | del.icio.us

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. 46: Stellar Nurseries

  • July 23rd, 2007
  • Show Notes
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The Orion Nebula is a small but dense stellar nursery
We've discussed star formation in the past, but now we wanted to talk about the different kinds of stellar nurseries we see across the Universe. We know where our Sun came from because we can look out and see different stellar neighborhoods at every stage of development. It takes a village of gas and dust to raise a star.

Episode 46: Stellar Nurseries (13.1MB)
 
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Ep. 36: Gamma-Ray Bursts

  • May 14th, 2007
  • Show Notes
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An artist\'s impression of merging neutron stars, one of the theoretical progenitors of gamma-ray bursts.
Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the Universe, releasing more energy in a few seconds than our Sun will put out in its lifetime. It's only been in the last few years that astronomers are finally starting to unravel the cataclysmic events that cause these energetic explosions.

Episode 36: Gamma-Ray Bursts (14MB)
 
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Ep. 22: Variable Stars

  • February 5th, 2007
  • Show Notes
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V838 Mon in March 2004
Our Sun has been around for billions of years, and will last for billions more. We're lucky, it's pretty stable and regular as stars go, only changing in brightness a little now and then. But there are stars out there that change dramatically; astronomers call them variable stars, and they demonstrate just how bizarre and dangerous the Universe can be.

Episode 22: Variable Stars (28 MB)
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Ep. 14: We're all Made of Supernovae

  • December 12th, 2006
  • Show Notes
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M74: Supernova dust factory
No more suspense. This week we blow the biggest stars up. Kaboom. Want more details? Then you've got to listen.

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Ep. 13: Where Do Stars Go When They Die?

  • December 4th, 2006
  • Show Notes
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Planetary Nebula MZ3
We've celebrated the birth of new stars, but the stellar lifecycle doesn't end there. Stars like our Sun will spend billions of years fusing together hydrogen and pumping out energy. And when the fuel runs out, their death is as interesting as their birth. This week Fraser and Pamela trace out this stellar evolution, and explain what the future holds for stars, large and small.

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Ep. 12: Where Do Baby Stars Come From?

  • November 27th, 2006
  • Show Notes
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Stellar Nursery
Most parents have had that uncomfortable conversation with their children at some point. Mommy, Daddy, where do stars come from? You hem and haw, mumble a few words about angular momentum and primordial hydrogen and then cleverly change the subject. Well, you don't have to
avoid the subject any longer. Pamela and Fraser describe formation of stars, large and small, in a tasteful manner, using only understandable and scientific language.

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