Global Astronomy Month

Learning Space is a weekly show about astronomy and science education and outreach. What are your plans for Global Astronomy Month? We'll be discussing this world-wide celebration with Mike Simmons from Astronomers Without Borders. 

Wed, Mar 19, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

Astronomy Cast Ep. 336: Units of Measure

How heavy is a kilogram, how long is a second? How warm is a degree? We measure our Universe in so many different ways, using different units of measurement. But how do scientists come up with measurement tools which are purely objective?



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Images by Isabelle Grosjean, Aldaron and Toby Hudson.

Astronomy Cast 322: SOHO

As we've mentioned before, the Sun is a terrifying ball of plasma. It's a good thing we're keeping an eye on it. And that eye is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. Operating for more than 18 years now, SOHO has been making detailed observations of the Sun's activity though an almost entire solar cycle. With so many years of operation, SOHO has some amazing stories to tell.



Streamed live on Nov 14, 2013

Astronomy Cast Ep. 311: Sound

Shhhh, shhh. You can stop screaming. That's because nobody can hear you ... in space. But why not? How does sound work here on Earth, and what would it sound like on other planets?



4:50 without sound in the beginning

Astronomy Cast Ep. 311: Sound. 2013

Astronomy Cast Ep. 269: Mass

Last week we talked about energy, and this week we'll talk about mass. And here's the crazy thing. Mass, matter, the stuff that the Universe is made of, is the same thing as energy. They're connect through Einstein's famous formula - E=mc2. But what is mass, how do we measure it, and how does it become energy, and vice versa.

Creating a Sciency Society

Our modern society depends on science. It impacts the way we eat, work, communicate and play. And yet, most people take our amazing scientific advancement for granted, and some are even hostile to it. What can we do to spread the love of science through education, outreach and media?



Astronomy Cast Ep. 309: Creating a Sciency Society

Climate Change, Astronomy Cast Ep. 308

When it comes to carbon dioxide, just a little goes a long way to warming the planet. Unfortunately, we've been dumping vast amounts into the atmosphere, recently passing 400 parts per million. Let's look at the science of the greenhouse effect, and how it's impacting our global climate.

Astronomy Cast Ep. 306: Accretion Disks

When too much material tries to come together, everything starts to spin and flatten out. You get an accretion disk. Astronomers find them around newly forming stars, supermassive black holes and many other places in the Universe. Today we'll talk about what it takes to get an accretion disk, and how they help us understand the objects inside.

Equilibrium on Astronomy Cast Ep. 303

Start video at 12:15

Planetary Migration

Join Fraser Cain and Pamela Gay for another live episode of Astronomy Cast. This week we'll talk about Planetary Migration, how the planets formed and then moved around in the Solar System.



Astronomy Cast Episode 301 Planetary Migration

Failed Stars

If you get enough hydrogen together in one place, gravity pulls it together to the point that the temperature and pressures are enough for fusion to occur. This is a star. But what happens when you don't have quite enough hydrogen? Then you get a failed star, like a gas giant planet or a brown dwarf.



Astronomy Cast Ep 290 Failed Stars

Cherenkov Radiation

Sure, our atmosphere protects us from a horrible Universe that's trying to kill us, but sometimes it prevents us from learning stuff too. Case in point, the atmosphere blocks highly energetic particles from reaching our detectors. But there's a way astronomers can still detect their influence: Cherenkov Radiation; the cascade of radiation that blasts out as a high-energy particle makes its way through the atmosphere, like a radioactive rainshower.



Astronomy Cast Ep 289 Cherenkov Radiation

Phases of Matter

As we quickly learn with water, matter can be in distinct phases: solid, liquid, gas and plasma; it all depends on temperature. But why do different materials require different temperatures? And what's actually happening to the atoms themselves as the material switches phases?



Astronomy Cast Ep 288 Phases of Matter

Stellar Motions

Our Universe appears timeless and unchanging, the stars taking nightly flights across the sky. But over long periods of time, you realize that our local region, and even the entire Milky Way is in constant motion. The constellations we see today would be very different millions or even thousands of years ago. Today we'll discuss stellar motion, how astronomers detect it and how it's useful.



Fraiser Cain, Universe Today
Pamela Gay, StarStryder

Astronomy Cast Ep 283
December 2012

Astronomy Cast Ep 282 Seasons

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These are the seasons we experience here on Earth as our planet completes an orbit around the Sun. But what's going on? Why do we experience such different temperatures and weather over the course of 365 days? Do other planets experience the seasons like we do?



Astronomy Cast Episode 282 Seasons

Explosions in Space, Astronomy Cast

We've all seen the classic science-fiction space explosions full of flames and loud sounds; beautiful on the screen but totally lacking in any kind of science. What's wrong with science-fiction? What would chemical and nuclear explosions really look like? What would we hear? And, what is to natural explosions that nature detonates in space?



Astronomy Cast Ep 281

Cosmological Constant

In order to allow for a static Universe, Albert Einstein introduced the concept of the Cosmological Constant Lambda to make the math work out. Once it was discovered that the Universe was actually expanding, he threw the number out calling it his "biggest blunder". But thanks to dark energy, the Cosmological Constant is back.



Astronomy Cast Ep 280 Cosmological Constant

Hubble Constant on Astronomy Cast

When Edwin Hubble observed that distant galaxies are speeding away from us in all directions, he discovered the reality that we live in an expanding Universe. Hubble worked to calculate exactly how fast this expansion is happening, creating the Hubble constant - which astronomers continue to refine and reference in their research.



Astronomy Cast Ep 279 Hubble Constant

Astronomy Cast - Energy

Our entire civilization depends on energy: getting it, converting it, burning it, and conserving it. But how do physicists think about energy? How do they measure and quantify it. And what is energy's special relationship with mass?



Video - Astronomy Cast from June 2012