The Earth’s atmosphere keeps us alive and blocks x-ray radiation from reaching the surface. In order to understand the universe at the higher energy levels you need to launch a space telescope like the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton Telescope. Let’s learn about the telescope named for the famous scientist.

Our Hosts
Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
Production by
- Richard Drumm, Audio Engineer
- Ally Pelphrey, Video Engineer
Ep. 275: Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton has been called “the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived.” That sounds about right. He unlocked our modern understanding of gravity and laws of motion, dabbled in optics, philosophy… even alchemy. He was also known to have a bit of a difficult personality. Let’s find out everything we can about Isaac Newton.
Ep. 274: Vesta
There’s some topics on Astronomy Cast that we wait until we are good and ready, until the science is all in. The Dawn mission has completed it’s mapping operations at asteroid Vesta and it’s now moving on to Ceres. This gives us a great opportunity to take a detailed look at this amazing asteroid, report on the science findings, and give you a preview of what’s coming next.
Ep. 273: Solutions to the Fermi Paradox
In Episode 24 we presented the concept of the Fermi Paradox. In short: Where are all the aliens? Today we’re going to examine the theoretical solutions to this problem. Maybe they’re out there, but just don’t want to talk to us. Maybe it’s too hard to communicate? Maybe there are no other civilizations. Maybe civilizations wipe themselves out when they reach a certain point. So many solutions, none of them satisfactory.
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