An irreverent and informative tour of the latest, greatest, and most interesting discoveries in astronomy.
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The Astroquarks are joined by former NASA astronaut, PhD Chemist, and retired USAF Colonel Cady Coleman at Dragon Con 2024 for a wide ranging discussion of space flight, institutional challenges, training, flute playing, and more.Af Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Audrey Martin
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Ocean World Mimas and the JUICE Slingshot
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Recent (astronomically speaking, of course!) perturbations to Mimas's orbit may be the explanation for the surprising presence of a global subsurface ocean in this tiny moon of Saturn. Meanwhile, the European Space Agency's JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer) mission successfully completed a novel gravity assist making use of the Earth's Moon and the…
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Barney the Dinosaur Killer from Outer Space and Water Inside Mars
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New research shows that the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago formed in the colder, more distant reaches of the solar system. The Astroquarks have taken it upon themselves to dub this asteroid Barney. We’ll update you on that new research and a surprising discovery from Mars Insight data that suggests Mars has a potential…
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The Fermi Paradox - Are We Truly Alone?
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When Frank Drake created his famous eponymous equation to estimate the number of advanced communicative civilizations in the Milky Way, we had little more than educated guesses for most of the factors in that equation. Decades later we have much better data, and the answer seems to reinforce Fermi's famous paradox: why is our galaxy so silent? The …
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The astroquarks assemble for their 365th episode, about 10 years after their first, with a look at a canceled mission to the Moon and tantalizing observations from an ongoing mission at Mars. The Perseverance rover has spied a particularly unusual rock sample with some tantalizing features. Join us for the deets as well as historical astronomy triv…
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In this light episode of Walkabout the Galaxy, Josh and Audrey discuss the first confirmation of open spaces in lava tubes connected to lunar pits on the Moon. 200 lunar pits have been observed on the Moon, and now scientists have used radar data to demonstrate that these pits are in fact connected to caverns that could provide future astronauts wi…
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Dark Matter, Deuterons, and a Mixed-Up Protoplanetary Disk
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You'll be amazed at how much we can learn from iron meteorites. Who would have guessed that analysis of the compositions of these humble metallic remnants of asteroids would be able to tell us about the shape of the protoplanetary disk? We'll learn about the latest clues to the early history of our solar system, the surprising abundance of deuteron…
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The clock is ticking on T Coronae Borealis which seems primed to undergo a nova explosion this summer. That will make this otherwise faint star as bright as Polaris thanks to a burst of nuclear fusion reactions on the exposed surface of this white dwarf. Another curious binary system, Cygnus X-3, is beaming x-rays toward us thanks to some nifty pho…
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Primordial Black Holes Make the Galaxy Go 'Round
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We take a look at some Beta Pic Disk shots before journeying back to the earliest era of the universe and the possible formation of primordial black holes. Some of these may have been only the size of an atom and would have long since evaporated through Hawking radiation. But they may have left an observable imprint for our powerful telescopes peer…
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Full Circle to the Origins of Carbon and Exotic Gravity
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The Astroquarks celebrate their 360th episode with discoveries showing carbon much earlier in the universe than previously thought possible, and an exotic new proposal as an alternative to dark matter. Plus, we have radioactive trivia and a slew of space news with a busy week in rocket and spaceship activity.…
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Volcanic Activity on Venus RIGHT NOW!
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There is a mountain - or should we say a volcano - of evidence, building that suggests volcanic activity on Venus during the time of the Magellan mission in the 1990s. We’ll dig into that, struggle to get our script right, ponder the Fantastic Voyage, upcoming spaceflight milestones, and much more.Af Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Jim Cooney, Audrey Martin
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Watery Erigone and Rogue Stars in the Milky Way
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New observations of Erigone, the parent body of an asteroid family, indicate its rocks are juicy with water. That makes it both a potential resource for future missions but also shows that asteroids may have played a big role in delivering water to the early Earth. Watery Erigone: it rhymes! You'll have to listen for details. And students discovere…
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The Astroquarks delve into the possibility of giant alien constructs around stars, and the strange weather on a planet that is unreasonably close to its star. Join us for space news, trivia, and a fun exploration of odd topics in astronomy on Walkabout the Galaxy.Af Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Jim Cooney, Audrey Martin
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The Low Down on Big G and the Young Moon of Dinkinesh
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NASA's Lucy mission discovered a surprising moon of the small asteroid Dinkinesh on its way to the orbit of Jupiter. New studies of that moon, a contact binary, suggest it may have a surprisingly young age. Meanwhile, cosmologists continue to wrestle with various seemingly contradictory measurements. One model suggests a modification to that old Ph…
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A clever test of dark matter and an alternative theory of gravity to explain the motions of stars around galaxies results in another check in the win column for dark matter. Simulations with the modified model of gravity failed to explain the motions in the inner regions of galaxies. Meanwhile the search for a hypothesized large object in the dista…
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Surprises from Bennu and the Milky Way
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Analysis of the samples returned from the asteroid Bennu have revealed surprising assemblages of minerals that put new constraints on the origin of the solar system. And once Top Quark Jim Cooney stops giggling, he tells us about the discovery of an itsy-bitsy galaxy, if you can call it that, orbiting the Milky way. It has only dozens of stars, plu…
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We peer back in time both to the murky history of our own solar system and to the dark ages of the universe. The JWST has confirmed that dwarf galaxies were the first to illuminate the universe, putting an end to the dark ages that followed the cooling after the big bang. In our own corner of the universe, new research highlights how nearby stars c…
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One of only a handful of recurrent novas, white dwarf stars that undergo a periodic explosive brightening as they accrete material from a neighboring star, is showing signs that it may be ready to blow sometime in 2024! Visible in the northern hemisphere, T CrB may become visible to the naked eye for a few days this year, repeating a cycle that occ…
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Psyche Revisited and Two Giant Black Holes
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The presumed metallic asteroid Psyche gets a new look before the spacecraft of the same name gets there in 2029, and it reveals different spectral characteristics than were observed in previous studies. We discuss the mystery of metallic asteroids and what we might see at Psyche. Top quark educates us about the largest binary black hole system, wit…
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The Tiniest Ocean World and the Brightest Quasar
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Saturn's so-called Death Star moon Mimas may harbor a global subsurface ocean based on analysis of Cassini data of the tiny moon's orbit and rotation. And in the distant universe, what was previously thought to be a run-of-the-mill star in our own galaxy turns out to be a quasar thousands of times brighter than our entire galaxy itself. Join us on …
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Space Oddities in the Solar System
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Water molecules have been observed on the surface of an asteroid for the first time, and new studies help explain some of the odd behavior of planetary ring systems, including why they even exist around small objects in the outer solar system. Join us for a clear and fun explanation, the latest from Mars, upcoming missions, space trivia and more.…
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In this special episode recorded live at MegaCon Orlando 2024, we are joined by NPR space reporter Brendan Byrne to take a close look at where we are in the mission to get people to the red planet. We take a look at the next steps in the Artemis program, and the history and future of robotic exploration of Mars. Find out when we will walk on Mars, …
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Large Cosmological Structures and JWST Spies a Binary TNO
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There's another claim for a violation of the cosmological principle - that all parts of the universe are basically the same on large scales - but Top quark Jim Cooney explains all is not lost for the standard model of the universe, and more observations are needed. The JWST is providing amazing observations near and far, and has now separately meas…
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Trojan Mysteries and Titan Snowbergs
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Strange disappearing islands in the hydrocarbon lakes of Saturn's giant moon Titan may be fluffy icebergs of hydrocarbon snow. If you're on Titan, definitely don't eat the snow, yellow or not. As the Lucy mission heads towards the Trojan asteroids, questions remain about how this strange population of objects formed. We catch up with all the space …
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What role has Jupiter played in the existence of our warm and cosy home planet? Has it been bravely using its gravity to keep the inner solar system calm, or did we luck out and escape getting hurtled out of the solar system or dashed to bits in a giant collision? We’ll discuss new research that explores exoplanetary systems with multiple large pla…
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