It’s time for our Holiday Gift Guide, where we suggest ideas for presents for the space fans in your life! What books are we reading? What games are we playing and what telescopes are we admiring?
Our Hosts
Fraser Cain
Universe Today
Dr. Pamela Gay
CosmoQuest
Production by
- Richard Drumm, Audio Engineer
- Ally Pelphrey, Video Engineer
18 Seasons
700+ Episodes
2018 Winner Parsec Award
#735: Albert Einstein
Last week we talked about the Einstein probe. So this week it is only natural that we talk about the man himself, Albert Einstein. He revolutionized the field of physics, played a vital role in the early 20th century and struggled to unite the forces of the Universe...
#734: The Einstein Probe
Another day, another space telescope! Today we’re looking at the newly launched Einstein Probe
#733: Euclid of Alexandria
Let’s look at the Euclid of Alexandria, the father of geometry and his contributions in celestial mechanics and orbital calculations.
Recent Episodes
Ep. 643: Sagittarius A*
https://youtu.be/dALXUbVaWCs All the waiting is over, we've finally seen the image of the event horizon from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way. Today we're going to explain the picture, and what's next for the Event Horizon Telescope. Download...
Ep. 642: Is the Sun… Normal?
https://youtu.be/NFR7R6wNxcM We've always assumed that we lived in a perfectly normal system with a normal star and normal planets. It's all... normal. But with our modern understanding of billions of stars, just how normal is our Sun, anyway? Download MP3 | Show...
Ep. 641: Are Planets Alive?
https://youtu.be/VYSO-rb1iLM The Earth is teeming with life, both in the upper atmosphere to kilometers underground. There's no question that our planet has life. But is our planet itself alive? This is a question posed back in the 1970s as the Gaia hypothesis, and it...
Ep. 640: Survey Science: Newest Projects and Results
https://youtu.be/_vWn9c4WaP0 There are general-purpose telescopes and missions that astronomers can use to study specific objects. And there are survey missions that look at the entire sky, which astronomers can use to answer questions about the Universe. We've talked...
Ep. 639: Big Questions Update: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Hubble Constant
https://youtu.be/R5kSNGxShko Knowledge moves forward, and so, we must move with it. Today we'll give you an update on some of the most fascinating, and fast-changing topics in astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. Download MP3 | Show Notes | Transcript Show Notes...
Ep. 638: Simulating Space Missions
https://youtu.be/QBAf5CVkvTM Although humans have never actually been to Mars, explorers have simulated many aspects of Mars missions here on Earth. There are missions under the ocean, on the tops of volcanoes, in the harsh Canadian north, and even in bed that...
Ep. 637: Machine Learning in Astronomy
https://youtu.be/ISg74n2B4CA Computers are a big part of astronomy, but mostly they've been relegated to doing calculations. Recent developments in machine learning have changed everything, giving computers the ability to do jobs that humans could only do in the past....
Ep. 636: Blowing Bubbles
https://youtu.be/DoWq4_zIlu4 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...
Ep. 635: Jets: When Magnetic Fields Fling Things
https://youtu.be/TwNN3BQbjVA As astronomers look out across the Universe, they see various objects spewing jets of material light years into space. What causes these jets, and what impact do they have on the Universe. Download MP3 | Show Notes | Transcript Show Notes...
Ep. 634: Milky Way’s Mergers & Acquisitions
https://youtu.be/FPCf6eGaBQ4 The Milky Way is a vast grand spiral today, but how did it get this way? Astronomers are starting to unravel the history of our galaxy, revealing the ancient collisions with dwarf galaxies, and how they came together to build the Milky...
Ep. 633: Weirdly Habitable Places
https://youtu.be/bfYxeEh0TFk We've always assumed that habitable planets would need to be like Earth; a terrestrial planet orbiting a sunlike star. But now astronomers have been discovering planets in the habitable zone around very much non-sunlike stars. What strange...
Ep. 632: Building Images: Optical vs. Radio
https://youtu.be/V5ZqqA17IxU A recent image from the South African Meerkat telescope blew our minds. It was a high resolution image of the center of the Milky Way, showing delicate filaments and other structures. What was so mind blowing is that this was an image from...
Ep. 631: All the Uses of Pulsars (Including Murder)
https://youtu.be/bgklGICUNeQ Pulsars are the rapidly spinning degenerate husks of dead stars, turning hundreds of times a second. But they're also handy clocks, spinning with such certainty and accuracy that astronomers can use them for all kinds of stuff. We might...
Ep. 630: Things We Can Look Forward To
https://youtu.be/zYPJFJndDUM In a rare moment of weakness, Pamela has decided she's open to the possibility that a future exists. That missions, telescopes and spacecraft are going to be built and they're going to do some science. Today we'll talk about what we're...
Ep. 629: The Cost of Delays
https://youtu.be/3gZtbMugXR8 With all the success of James Webb so far, it's looking like science's huge gamble is going to pay off, but there were years of delays and budget overruns. What impacts did these delays have on science, careers, and the future of space...
Ep. 628: The Sun Revisited
https://youtu.be/IiPvLdPadXg Once again, it's time to take a look at the Sun. You know, ongoing thermonuclear explosion of fusing hydrogen that's right over there. Fortunately, there's a fleet of spacecraft and ground observatories ready to give our best ever view of...
Ep. 627: Mercury Revisited
https://youtu.be/VVjsEPOO1mY It's been about a thousand years since we last looked at Mercury, so we figured it's time for an update. What new things have we learned about Mercury, or even new questions? Fortunately, there's a mission on the way to help get us some...
Ep. 626: Terrestrial Planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
https://youtu.be/ZZdbQXOwT40 We continue our refreshed tour of the Solar System, checking in on the inner terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. What have we learned about their formation, evolution and what they might tell us about other planets in the...
Ep. 625: End of the Year Review
https://youtu.be/rHfXnJj4LIU We've reached the end of 2021, and this is the last episode of the year. Let's look back at the big space events of the last year and talk about what we're looking forward to in 2022. Download MP3 | Show Notes | Transcript Show Notes...
Ep. 624: Small Rocky Bodies (Including Phobos and Deimos)
https://youtu.be/GRGnvSi7noE We've talked about the icy objects of the Solar System, today let's talk about space rocks. There's a surprising variety of rocky material in the Solar System, and each object has a story to tell about the history and formation of the...