The Star Spot

Feature Guest: Vikram Ravi They come to us from deep space. They last a tiny fraction of a second. They contain as much energy as the sun’s total output in 80 years. Yet we still haven’t figured out what causes these so-called Fast Radio Bursts or FRBs. I don’t want to say it’s aliens, but... no, it’s probably not aliens. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Professor Vikram Ravi whose team is quickly zeroing in on the origin of these bizarre FRBs. Current in Space Amelia and Tony explain new research stating that worlds with completely frozen oceans, fittingly known as snowball planets, may actually be habitable . . . on the surface! And while the peak of the prolific Perseid meteor shower may have already passed, Simon reminds us that it's still not entirely over, and to get out there and take a look while you still can. Finally, robots are on the International Space Station! Joseph and Tony explain the purpose of three artificial helpers floating in the orbiting laboratory, one of which arrived only in late July. About Our Guest Vikram Ravi is Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. He received a PhD from the University of Melbourne, then worked as the Millikan Fellow in Astronomy at Caltech followed by the Clay Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and Smithsonian. He describes his interest as exploring the “ephemeral, unseen universe,” studying phenomena that “vary on time-scales of nanoseconds to years.”

Feature Guest: Dan Falk Scientists are finding themselves increasingly squeezed between academics sounding the limits of science and a public increasingly taken in by pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. Today we conclude our review of science under attack with science writer Dan Falk. Current in Space NASA is looking to make space exploration a little greener, and Joseph and Tony report on their latest invention: an environmentally-friendly spacecraft fuel that may eventually replace hydrazine, the toxic industry standard for decades. Then Simon terrifies us with the fact that mere days ago, an asteroid nearly hit Earth. Finally Amelia and Tony explain a strange feature found around lakes on Titan.   About Our Guest Dan Falk is an award winning science journalist and broadcaster. He has been published very broadly, including Smithsonian, The Walrus, Cosmos magazine, Scientific American, NBCnews.com, Slate and New Scientist. Dan Falk is also the author of three books, including In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension, Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything, and The Science of Shakespeare: A New Look at the Playwright’s Universe. He co-hosts the BookLab podcast. In spring 2019 he was the Science Communicator in Residence at York University in Toronto.

Feature Guest: Dan Falk Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by science writer Dan Falk. We’ll start today’s interview with a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the landing of humans on the moon and the internationalism of that critical moment. But then, 50 years after this triumph of science, we’re going to confront head on a set of old and new challenges to the scientific enterprise itself. All the fascinating research and discoveries we share at The Star Spot rests on basic assumptions about the primacy, scope and universality of science. In this two episode series, we take a step back and wrestle with some uncomfortable questions. What if the fundamental reality we probe is merely a simulation? Does science harbour blind spots that will forever limit its ability to build a theory of everything? And even if science is supreme, can it contend with conspiracy theories and pseudoscience - like the moon landing hoax belief - that undermine its legitimacy in the eyes of the wider public. Current in Space Tony explain a remarkable finding from the Curiosity rover on Mars: it's detected the biggest emission of methane on the red planet yet. Then Simon delves into the subject of a black hole so unusual that it shouldn't exist at all! And Amelia and Tony report on a new instrument that's being used to hunt for exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri system.  About Our Guest Dan Falk is an award winning science journalist and broadcaster. He has been published very broadly, including Smithsonian, The Walrus, Cosmos magazine, Scientific American, NBCnews.com, Slate and New Scientist. Dan Falk is also the author of three books, including In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension, Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything, and The Science of Shakespeare: A New Look at the Playwright’s Universe. He co-hosts the BookLab podcast. In spring 2019 he was the Science Communicator in Residence at York University in Toronto.

Feature Guest: Brian Schmidt Today we offer a best of from our vault here at The Star Spot. We dug back to a fan favourite, our December 2014 interview with Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt, who won the biggest prize in science for discovering the accelerating universe.  The 1929 discovery of the expanding universe by Edwin Hubble forever changed our picture of the cosmos and our understanding of our place in the universe. In 1998 we learned that wasn’t the only surprise. That’s when two teams of astronomers announced that the expansion of our universe isn’t slowing down as everyone assumed. Its speeding up. Today we’re joined at The Star Spot by Distinguished Professor Brian Schmidt who won the Nobel Prize for discovering our accelerating universe. Current in Space Tony and Amelia discuss a new finding from the ALMA observatory: a cool ring of gas encircling the supermassive black hole at the center of the Galaxy. Then Simon pulls you in with the measurement of a tiny black hole at the center of a nearby dwarf galaxy. And finally Tony returns with breaking news from the Jovian satellite system: Sodium chloride, aka table salt, has been found on none other than the ice-covered ocean moon Europa! About Our Guest Dr. Brian Schmidt is Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University Mount Stromlo Observatory and holder of an Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship. In 2011 Schmidt received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his co-discovery that the universe isn’t merely expanding, it’s actually accelerating in its expansion. Shmidt is Fellow of the Royal Society, a recipient of the Pawsey Model, the Dirac Medal and the Shaw Prize in Astronomy.

Feature Guest: Jane Greaves Remember that nursery rhyme, “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky?” Well they were on to something, because it turns out diamonds - albeit nanodiamonds - are ubiquitous across the Milky Way galaxy. So-called diamond dust is even here in our own solar system. Today we’re joined at The Star Spot by Professor Jane Greaves, whose team made the discovery that unexpectedly solved a long standing astronomical mystery. Current in Space Simon explains a tantalizing find: 30 binary stars that have somehow been ejected from their home galaxies! Then Amelia and Tony report on a bizarre discovery: a star that's apparently the merger between two white dwarfs! About Our Guest Jane Greaves is Professor of Astronomer at Cardiff University in Wales. She is the recipient of the 2017 Fred Hoyle Medal from the Institute of Physics of London. In 2008 her team took the first direct image of a proto-brown dwarf candidate. Greaves uses textile art to communicate her passion for astrophysics with the public.

Feature Guest: Cynthia Phillips In the 1970s, the Viking landers performed historic experiments aimed at detecting life in the Martian soil. The results were disappointing although to this day still not entirely conclusive. Now over 40 years later a new lander with a next generation set of life detection equipment is under assessment by NASA. This time the target is not the Red Planet, but the ocean moon Europa, which has emerged as a prime candidate in the search for life in the solar system. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Cynthia Phillips, Deputy Project Scientist for the Europa Lander mission concept, who tantalizes us with dreams of flying through plumes and digging into an icy crust. Current in Space Tony goes into speculation mode and ponders the chances that interstellar interlopers, like the recent Oumuamua, could actually carry life and deposit it on planets, perhaps even Earth. Then Samantha debuts with a report on a new gravitational wave event, one which may be the result of a type of binary system merger we've been hoping for. Simon troubles us with the disturbing discovery of holes in the Milky Way that were punched by . . . something. And Amelia and Samantha talk the dazzling first-ever discovery of the so-called first-ever molecule in space. About Our Guest Cynthia Phillips is Planetary Geologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a scientist with the SETI League and she also works at the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. She received her B.A. in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics at Harvard University, and earned her Ph.D. in planetary science, with a minor in geosciences, from the University of Arizona. Dr. Phillips is the co-author of several books, including The Everything Astronomy Book and Understanding Astronomy.

Feature Guest: Simona Pirani The planet Jupiter occupies a position today that is far from its home 4.5 billion years ago, a destination resulting from a primeval migration that started way out around the current location of Uranus. Like the god for which it was named, Jupiter enjoys the company of thousands of followers, the so-called trojan asteroids, which have remained by its side all these years, and they now offer a window into the murky origins of the gas giant. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Simona Pirani, lead author of a new study that provides the first ever proof that Jupiter - and perhaps most planets - undertake ancient odysseys around the solar system. Current in Space We have bad news and good news. Simon puts a bit of a damper on things, as the first manned mission to Mars will have to wait longer than initially projected. Then Amelia and Samantha explain a crazy new finding: a pulsar that seems to be speeding through space! And we save the good news for last, as Tony shares new research suggesting that Earth-like planets orbiting red dwarf stars, which have been deduced as unlikely to host life, may actually be habitable after all. About Our Guest Simona Pirani is a doctoral student in the Department of Astronomy and Theoretical Physics at Lund University in Sweden. She is the lead author on a major new study into ancient planetary migrations.

Feature Guest: Bonnie Buratti The spacecraft Cassini went out in spectacular fashion, travelling through Saturn’s rings for a final death dive into the gas giant. Even in its final heroic moments, Cassini was relaying back data shedding light on the bizarre worlds known as the ring moons of Saturn. The origin of these small bodies, which manage to maintain orbits within the turbulent environment of Saturn’s rings, pose a a puzzle for scientists. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Bonnie Buratti of JPL with updates from her recently published study into this young and dynamic system of oddball worlds.   Current in Space Dave presents a hole of a breakthrough: The much-anticipated Event Horizon Telescope has at last come online, and has already given us the stunning first-ever image of a black hole. Then Amelia and Samantha explore newly proposed possibilities concerning the habitable zone, the region around a star in which planets could support liquid water on their surfaces. And lastly Tony and Simon offer a back to back analysis of how we might save ourselves from a killer asteroid. Spoiler alert! The movies have it wrong, but we’re not entirely without hope.  About Our Guest Bonnie Buratti is a planetary astronomer in the Division of Earth and Space Sciences at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she leads the Comets, Asteroids, and Satellites Group.  She has worked on the Voyager program, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, the New Horizons space probe and the Rosetta mission.  She was awarded the NASA exceptional achievement medal for her contributions to the Cassini mission. In 2014 she was elected Chair of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

Feature Guest: Fred Adams If you thought the far distant future of our universe was going to be bleak, dreary and dark, well, you’d be right. But remember, the universe is still just a baby and it has many new experiences ahead of it. Over the many trillions of years of its unimaginably long life, new processes will take over, new forms of galactic structure will emerge and types of stars that have never existed will come to populate the galaxy. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Fred Adams, not to mourn the death of the universe, but to celebrate its remarkable potential. The Astronomy and Space Exploration Society, a student group based at the University of Toronto, hosted its annual signature symposium event on Friday, February 15th, 2019. This year’s theme was “Boom to Bust,”with three keynote speakers covering, in turn, the birth, life and death of the cosmos. Once again The Star Spot was privileged to be on location to cover the event. And now we bring you the the conclusion of our special three episode series, featuring each fascinating speaker taking us from before the beginning into the unimaginably distant future of our universe. Current in Space Simon generates excitement following the recent historic unmanned test flight of SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule, which shall pave the way for astronauts to once again launch into space from American soil. And it turns out we still have a lot to learn about white dwarf stars, as Amelia and Samantha bring you a tantalizing discovery: A white dwarf with an orbiting dust ring! Then we move out to the disk of the galaxy. Astronomers have had trouble measuring the mass of our galaxy, but as Tony explains, we may have finally figured it out thanks to a clever technique.   About Our Guest Dr. Fred Adams is the Ta-You Wu Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan. His recent work includes star formation in clusters, the development of a theory for the initial mass function for forming stars, and studies of extra-solar planetary systems.

Feature Guest: Rosemary Wyse The universe is past its prime, by about 8 to 10 billion years. Sorry if you missed it. From the rate of star formation to the frequency of galactic mergers, the cosmos just isn’t what it used to be. Yet remarkably all is not lost, for there’s an astronomical archeology available to us. It turns out stars retain a memory of their ancient origins and galaxies hold clues to their own violent histories. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Professor Rosemary Wise for the second in our three part series. Our coverage of the Symposium Boom to Bust: The Story of the Universe, continues with a Boom. The Astronomy and Space Exploration Society, a student group based at the University of Toronto, hosted its annual signature symposium event on Friday, February 15th, 2019. This year’s theme was “Boom to Bust,”with three keynote speakers covering, in turn, the birth, life and death of the cosmos. Once again The Star Spot was privileged to be on location to cover the event. And now in a special three episode series, we’re joined by each fascinating speaker as we take you from before the beginning into the unimaginably distant future of our universe. Current in Space Dave reports on a new moon discovered around Neptune known as Hippocamp, and it may have a chaotic history. Then Simon tells us about the finding of the fastest-orbiting asteroid ever discovered! Finally Amelia and Tony revisit Supernova 1987A because this classic supernova event has another story to tell. About Our Guest Dr. Rosemary Wyse is the Alumni Centennial Professor at Johns Hopkins University's Department of Physics & Astronomy. Her research focus is in the field of galaxy formation and evolution, with emphases on resolved stellar populations and the nature of dark matter. She is the recipient of the Annie Jump Cannon Award and the Brouwer Award from the American Astronomical Society.

Feature Guest: Katrin Heitmann The Astronomy and Space Exploration Society, a student group based at the University of Toronto, hosted its annual signature symposium event on Friday, February 15th, 2019. This year’s theme was “Boom to Bust,”with three keynote speakers covering, in turn, the birth, life and death of the cosmos. Once again The Star Spot was privileged to be on location to cover the event. And now in a special three episode series, we’re joined by each fascinating speaker as we take you from before the beginning into the unimaginably distant future of our universe. First up, on today’s episode Professor Katrin Heitmann tells how scientists are using the most powerful supercomputers on Earth to model the very origin of space and time, and to predict how events at the birth of the universe continue to shape its destiny.  Current in Space Tony reports on the discovery of the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe, although its perceived brightness may be a trick of a certain phenomenon. Then Simon shocks with new research suggesting that the volatile elements essential for life on Earth were deposited during the apocalyptic planetary collision that formed the Moon. Finally, Amelia surprises with the finding of a circumbinary disk that orbits a binary star system not at the equator as expected, but at the poles! About Our Guest Dr. Katrin Heitmann is a physicist at the United States' Argonne National Lab and a Senior Member of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on cosmology and in particular on extreme-scale simulations of the evolution of the universe.  

Feature Guest: Ulf Danielsson Our universe is big. But what if all of this was just one of an unimaginably large number of bubble universes. That’s the proposal by a group of scientists who recently introduced a new model for the universe which for the first time links string theory with dark energy and higher dimensions. But how does it compare to rival multiverse theories? Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by physicist Ulf Danielsson to explain how his model, uniquely, provides for universes that far from being isolated might actually come into contact. Current in Space About Our Guest Ulf Danielsson is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is the author of four books and engages frequently in public science education on TV and radio. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and a member of the Nobel Committee for Physics.

Feature Guest: Rayna Slobodian As we dream of space, we must remain anchored to humanity. Space exploration is a human story, and music may be the perfect medium to capture the emotive drama of discovery, risk and the mystery of the unknown. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by singer-songwriter, space ethicist, homelessness researcher and all around geek, Rayna Slobodian, for a far-ranging discussion that, while focused on space music, is ultimately about bringing space exploration down to Earth. About Our Guest Rayna Slobodian is a singer-songwriter whose music combines her love of space exploration with her passion for ethics, justice and human imagination. Her album Space Stories is available on iTunes and YouTube. She is a psychology and anthropology masters student at York University, focusing on research into the reporting of homelessness in Canada.

Feature Guest: Darren Grant A one hundred year old astronomical mystery may finally have been solved. Scientists have long wondered just what caused high energy particles called cosmic rays, which arrive on Earth from the far unknown reaches of the universe. But now we have a discovery by the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, appropriately named IceCube, which points the finger at a peculiar phenomena known as blazars. The IceCube Collaboration’s Professor Darren Grant joins us today here at The Star Spot. Current in Space Dave reports on the arrival of the Osiris-Rex mission at the asteroid Bennu. Then, when it comes to climate change, desperate times call for desperate measures, such as the plan we hear from Simon to spray chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s heat back into space. And Tony explains the possible outcome of an astronomical event so energetic we detected its gravitational waves back in August 2017. Finally Amelia tells us we may have finally come a step closer to understanding what fuels the least-understood type of supernova. About Our Guest Darren Grant is Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Alberta. He is the Spokesperson for the IceCube Collaboration, referring to the South Pole Neutrino Observatory. Grant is Canada Research Chair in Astroparticle Physics and received an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.  

Featured Guest: Cameron Smith One of the challenges in building a future where humans are able to explore other worlds are the massive, clumsy and expensive spacesuits currently in use. Now enter into the picture Pacific Spaceflight. They’re a grassroots team with a do-it-yourself attitude and they’re busy perfecting the next generation space suit technology. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by their leader, Professor Cameron Smith, an anthropologist and archeologist who’s research on humanity’s deep past now fuels his determination to take us into the future. Current in Space Could we have missed one of our closest galactic neighbours, asks Dave. Then Tony explains how humans aren’t the only animals effected by a solar eclipse. Simon freaks us out with news that worms are being sent to the International Space Station. And finally, in her big debut, Amelia reports first views of supermassive black holes colliding in galaxy mergers. About Our Guest Cameron Smith is a Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Portland State University, author of the book Emigrating Beyond Earth: Human Adaptation and Space colonization, and founder of the thinktank Pacific Spaceflight.