Ep. 139: Energy Levels and Spectra

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Last week we took a peek into the tiny world of quantum mechanics, and its unintuitive, but very accurate mathematical predictions. And although we all appreciate the physics lesson, you’re probably wondering what this all has to do with astronomy....

Ep. 138: Quantum Mechanics

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Quantum mechanics is the study of the very tiny; the nature of reality at the smallest scale. It’s a science that defies common sense, and delivers no helpful analogies. And yet it delivers the goods, making scientific predictions with incredible...

Ep. 117: Time

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Today, time rules our lives. We live each day with the moments broken up into hours, minutes and seconds. We never seem to have enough time. But can you imagine not being able to tell time at all, where the movements of the Sun and the stars was the only...

Questions Show – light speed, Andromeda galaxy, dark matter and black holes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: will reaching light speed destroy the Universe? When is Andromeda going to look really, really cool with the unaided eye? Why didn’t dark matter all turn into black holes? And...

Ep. 107: Nucleosynthesis: Elements from Stars

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (0.0KB) 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...

Ep. 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything

At the earliest moments of the Universe, there were no separate forces, energy or matter. It was all just the same stuff. And then the different forces froze out, differentiating into electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. Today we'll look at the problem that has puzzled physicists for generations: is there a single equation that explains all the forces we see in the Universe. Is there a theory of everything? Ep. 106: The Search for the Theory of Everything