Astronomy Cast
Summary: Astronomy Cast offers you a fact based journey through the cosmos. Each week Fraser Cain (Universe Today) and Dr. Pamela Gay (SIUE / Slacker Astronomy) take on topics ranging from the nearby planets to ubiquitous dark matter.
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- Artist: Fraser Cain & Dr. Pamela Gay
- Copyright: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela Gay
Podcasts:
Episode 50: Venus
Last week we talked about Mercury, so this week our planetary parade proceeds to Venus. It's the brightest object in the sky, the hottest object in the solar system, and it's probably one of the most deadly places to go and visit.
Episode 49: Mercury
We're still digging through the thousands of comments and suggestions from the listener survey but we hear your requests and suggestions, and now you get to start reaping the benefits. Today we start our survey of the solar system with Mercury. What mysteries is it hiding from us? How similar is Mercury to the other rocky planets? How much do we really know about this first rock from the Sun?
Episode 48: Tidal Forces Across the Universe
Last week we talked about tidal forces within our solar system. This week we're going to expand our view and encompass the entire universe. Some of the most dramatic events originate from tidal forces caused by gravity: other worlds, galaxies, black holes and even entire clusters of galaxies are under this influence.
Episode 47: Tidal Forces
Consider the following: we've got tides here on Earth, the Moon only shows one face to the Earth, we've got volcanoes on Io, and ice geysers on Enceladus. All these phenomena originate from a common cause: the force of gravity stretching across space to tug at another world.
Episode 46: Stellar Nurseries
We've discussed star formation in the past, but now we wanted to talk about the different kinds of stellar nurseries we see across the Universe. We know where our Sun came from because we can look out and see different stellar neighborhoods at every stage of development. It takes a village of gas and dust to raise a star.
Episode 45: The Important Numbers in the Universe
This week we wanted to give you a basic physics lesson. This isn't easy physics, this is a lesson on the basic numbers of the Universe. Each of these numbers define a key aspect of our Universe. If they had different values, the Universe would be a changed place, and life here on Earth would never have arisen.
Episode 44: Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
If you remember way back to Episode 9, we covered Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. Well, that's only half of the relativity picture. The great scientist made an even more profound impact on physics with his theory of general relativity, replacing Newton with a better model for gravity.
Episode 43: Questions, Questions #5
