Ep. 675: Exotic Forms of Ice

Ep. 675: Exotic Forms of Ice

Ice is ice, right? You know, what you get when water freezes. Well, maybe here on Earth. But across the Universe, water can be squeezed together at different temperatures and pressures, leading to very different structures. Today we’ll talk about the different forms that ice can take.

Ep. 669: Challenges to Dark Energy

Ep. 669: Challenges to Dark Energy

It’s been over 20 years since astronomers first discovered that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating thanks to dark energy. And in these decades, astronomers still don’t have much evidence for what could be causing the increased expansion rate. Maybe there’s something else going on to explain it.

Ep. 668: The Crisis in Cosmology

Ep. 668: The Crisis in Cosmology

Astronomers have made extremely accurate measurements of the expansion rate of the Universe and come up with different results. And the error bars for the observations don’t overlap, so there’s something strange going on. What’s the answer and how can the Crisis in Cosmology be resolved?

Ep. 636: Blowing Bubbles

Ep. 636: Blowing Bubbles

We think of space as a vacuum, but there are regions of different density. There are winds blowing from stars and other objects that clear out vast bubbles in space, and look absolutely fantastic in pictures. And might have been critical for Earth to even exist in the first place.

Ep. 606: Time Dilation – Skipping Through Time

Ep. 606: Time Dilation – Skipping Through Time

Have you ever wanted to be a time traveler? Good news! You’re time traveling right now. Into the future at one second per second. Too long? Don’t want to wait? Good news, Einstein’s got you covered. Today, let’s talk about the weird world of time dilation.

Ep. 602: The New Colors of Gamma Rays – Getting Shorter

Ep. 602: The New Colors of Gamma Rays – Getting Shorter

The Earth’s atmosphere protects us from a Universe that’s trying to kill us, but it also blocks our view of the extreme cosmos, like seeing x-rays and gamma radiation. Space telescopes are changing our view of the most extreme events in the Universe.

Ep. 600: Looking Ahead

Ep. 600: Looking Ahead

Today, we gaze into the future of space and astronomy. What upcoming missions and events are we excited about?

Ep. 597: The Expansion of the Universe (Updated)

Ep. 597: The Expansion of the Universe (Updated)

It’s been a while since we checked to make sure the Universe was still expanding. Yeah, apparently, that’s still a thing. But in the last few years powerful new telescopes and expansive surveys have given us much more knowledge about what’s happening.

Ep. 583: The Nobel Prize

Ep. 583: The Nobel Prize

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three brilliant researchers who worked out some of the secrets of black holes. Today we’re going to talk about the chain of discoveries that led to this award.

Ep. 579: White and Black Dwarfs

Ep. 579: White and Black Dwarfs

I’ve got some bad news for you: stars die. At some point in the next few billion years or so, our Sun is going to start heating up, using up all the fuel in its core, and then eventually die, becoming a white dwarf. It will then slowly cool down to the background temperature of the universe, becoming a black dwarf.

Ep. 548: Stellar nucleosynthesis revisited: In stellar cores & atmospheres

Ep. 548: Stellar nucleosynthesis revisited: In stellar cores & atmospheres

The Universe started out with hydrogen and helium and a few other elements, but all around us, there are other, more proton-rich elements. We believe these heavier elements formed in stars, but which stars? And at what points in their lives? Today we’ll update our knowledge with the latest science.

Ep. 540: Weird Issues: How Do (or Don’t) Planets Form?

Ep. 540: Weird Issues: How Do (or Don’t) Planets Form?

As astronomers started to discover planets orbiting other stars, they immediately realized that their expectations would need to be tossed out. Hot jupiters? Pulsars with planets? We’re now decades into this task, and the Universe is continuing to surprise us.

Ep. 536: Everyday Relativity

Ep. 536: Everyday Relativity

Relativity is used in more day to day situations than you may realize. In this episode, we will count (some of) the ways. This episode is brought to you live from the All-Stars Star Party in Indian Wells, California.

Bonus Episode: Dust with Dr. Paul Sutter

Bonus Episode: Dust with Dr. Paul Sutter

Recorded during the Astrotour to Costa Rica, Fraser talks to Dr. Paul Matt Sutter about the nature of dust and BICEP 2’s claim of discovering primordial gravitational waves.

Ep. 518: When the Universe tried to Declare War

Ep. 518: When the Universe tried to Declare War

We always say the Universe is trying to kill us. But there was this one time, when the Universe used our own fear of nuclear attack against us, nearly setting off a global nuclear war. Nice try Universe, we’re on to you now.

Ep. 515: Space Radiation

Ep. 515: Space Radiation

Space is a hostile environment in so many ways. But one of its worst features is the various kinds of radiation you can find. When astronauts go back beyond the protective environment of the Earth’s magnetosphere, what are the various kinds of radiation they’ll encounter. And is there anything we’ll be able to do about it?

Ep. 513: Stellar Fusion

Ep. 513: Stellar Fusion

The Sun. It’s a big ball of fire, right? Apparently not. In fact, what’s going on inside of the Sun took us some time and knowledge of physics to finally figure out: stellar fusion. Let’s talk about the different kinds of fusion, and how we’re trying to adapt it to generate power here on Earth.

Ep. 509: Fiction to Fact: 3D Printers

Ep. 509: Fiction to Fact: 3D Printers

The technology of 3D printing is taking off. From tiny home-based 3D printers to larger manufacturing. And of course, 3D printing is going to space with the International Space Station and beyond.

Ep. 503: Gravity Mapping

The Earth looks like a perfect sphere, but down here on the surface we see that there are mountains, rivers, oceans, glaciers, all kinds of features with different densities and shapes. Scientists can map this produce a highly detailed gravity map of our planet. And it turns out, this is very useful for other worlds too.

Ep 490: What's New with Supernovae

Time for another update, this time we’re going to look at what’s new with supernovae. And once again, we’ve got good news, lots of new stuff to report.

Ep 488: Dark Energy: 2018 Edition

The updates continue. Last week we talked about dark matter, and this week we continue with its partner dark energy. Of course, they’re not really partners, unless you consider mysteriousness to be an attribute. Dark energy, that force that’s accelerating the expansion of the Universe. What have we learned?

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