Space Station Threshold

Another week, another batch of questions. If ice disappears in your freezer, how can it last in space? How can the Universe be expanding faster than the speed of light? And what is the risk from a coronal mass ejection in an airplane? All this and even more questions. If you've got a question for [...]

Hey, here's a topic we haven't really gotten around to yet… the Moon. Today we look at our closest astronomical companion: the Moon. What impact does the Moon have on our lives, where did it come from, who walked on it, and are we ever going to walk on it again? We're going to learn [...]

We're back to a themeless questions show. We're right across the Universe this time. Why are the planets lined up in a nice flat plane? Why are there no green stars? And is the Oort Cloud contaminating our understanding of the cosmic microwave background radiation? If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, [...]

We say it all the time here on Astronomy Cast: the Universe is trying to kill us. This week, Pamela is joined by Dr. Phil Plait to discuss his new book, Death from the Skies. Phil and Pamela talk about asteroid strikes, solar flares and gamma ray bursts. Click here to download the episode. Or subscribe to: [...]

Everyone loves a theme. And this week we've collected together some of your questions about relativity. More light speed spacecraft, twin paradoxes, and the mixing up of gravity, time and mass. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and we'll try to tackle it for a [...]

When you think about the best pictures in astronomy, almost every one is a nebula; the pillars of creation in the Eagle Nebula, or the complex Helix Nebula - or my personal favorite, the Ring Nebula. They're beautiful, wispy clouds of gas and dust that signify both the birth and death of stars. Today we [...]

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: what is galactic dust anyway, and where does it come from? Why can photons move at the speed of light? And how can astronomers know what happened right after the Big Bang? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy [...]

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: are we all going to die in 2012 when the solar system passes through the galactic plane? Did Venus make the Moon? And what will extraterrestrials see when the Sun is dead and gone? And there's even more. If you've got a question for [...]

Last week we looked at the complete life of the Sun, birth to death. But stars can be smaller, and stars can get much much larger. And with a change in mass, their lives change too. Let's start the clock again, and see what happens to the smallest stars in the Universe; and what happens [...]

Another week, another roundup of your questions. This week listeners asked: if forces are communicated through particles, can we run out? If you were traveling at light speed, when would you know to stop? And there's even more. If you've got a question for the Astronomy Cast team, please email it in to info@astronomycast.com and [...]