Orbital Path

Orbital Path signs off with a site visit to NASA’s mysterious and extraordinary building 29.

Billion-year-old asteroid dust, coming right up!

Astronomers investigate a mystery that is 13 billion years old.

NASA develops a futuristic space laser. Launches it into orbit. And aims it directly back at planet Earth.

Humans! Time to get over your three-dimensional selves. 
Brian Greene — world renowned physicist, bestselling author, NOVA host, and serial Colbert guest — explains why.

Has a Bronx plumber’s son become the Einstein of our time?

Three billion years ago, there were organic molecules on Mars. But was there life?

Adults don’t have all the answers — or all the questions. In our second edition of TELESCOPE, Michelle grapples with an 8th-grader’s question about the fate of the Earth.

Adam Riess was only 41 when he was named a Nobel Prize winner. The Johns Hopkins distinguished professor of astronomy shared in the award for his work on something called “dark energy” -- a discovery that over the past 20 years has profoundly shifted our understanding of the universe. Riess made news again recently when he and colleagues working with the Hubble Space Telescope announced new findings about the rate at which the universe is expanding -- findings which simply cannot be explained by physics as we know it. It’s weird and profound stuff. Our story begins a century ago, with a riddle posed by a curious part of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity — something called the “Cosmological Constant.” The fate of the universe just may hang in the balance.

Adults don’t have all the answers — or all the questions. So Michelle takes on some astronomical queries from 8th-graders.

In the time of the dinosaurs, two stars spiraled to their deaths. And 130 million years later, they taught humans the origin of gold.

Science for science’s sake may be luxury we can do all without — until, as happened during the 1980s, it quite literally saves the world we live in.


In this darkest season of the year, Dr. Michelle Thaller and NASA astronomer Andrew Booth curl up by the fire. Gazing into the embers, red wine in hand, they consider the meaning of the winter solstice — on other planets. Like Uranus, where parts of the planet go 42 earth years without seeing the sun. Or Mars, where winters are made colder by an orbit politely described as “eccentric.” Or Saturn — where winter’s chill is deepened by the shadow of the planet’s luminous rings.  Marshmallow, anyone? 
Orbital Path is produced by David Schulman. The program is edited by Andrea Mustain. Production oversight by John Barth and Genevieve Sponsler. Hosted by Dr. Michelle Thaller. Photo credit: NASA

NASA has been on the lookout for rogue asteroids for years. Then astronomers in Hawaii glimpsed a massive, cigar-shaped object — from another solar system.

These days, astrophysicists like Dr. Michelle Thaller use instruments to probe the distant reaches of our galaxy, and far beyond. They use interferometry, the Hubble space telescope, and other technology impossible to imagine when the constellations of the winter sky were named. But, as the season changes and Orion returns to view, Michelle still finds plenty of wonder left for us to see — even with the naked eye — in the cold, clear air of a winter’s night.

 Orbital Path is produced by David Schulman (who returns this episode to answer Michelle’s questions about his recent alleged alien abduction). The program is edited by Andrea Mustain. Production oversight by John Barth and Genevieve Sponsler. Hosted by Michelle Thaller.

 Photo credit: abductee# 29JE0391-RL-4S