Latest Mcdonald observatory Podcast Episodes
Arcturus
StarDate - April 15, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe star Arcturus is a little bit heavier than our own star, the Sun. Yet that small difference has a big effect on the star’s evolution: Arcturus entered a late stage billions of years earlier than the Sun will. Arcturus is one of the brighter stars in the night sky, and shines yellow-orange. B...
Moon and Gemini
StarDate - April 14, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe Moon creeps up on the twin stars of Gemini this evening. As night falls, Pollux and Castor are above the Moon. Pollux is on the left, and is a bit brighter than its “twin.” There’s a lot more to Gemini than just the twins — or even the other stars that are visible to the unaided eye. In fact...
Vanishing Hunter
StarDate - April 13, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThis time of year is pretty inviting for some evening skywatching. The evening hours are warm but not usually too hot, and spring storm activity generally hasn’t reached its peak — pleasant conditions for watching the stars. Unfortunately, one of the most beautiful star patterns is dropping from...
Vaporized Planets
StarDate - April 12, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsPlanetary systems can be violent. In our own solar system, for example, the Moon probably was born from the debris left over when a planet as big as Mars rammed into Earth billions of years ago. And the giant planet Uranus probably was knocked over on its side by a similar collision about the sam...
Vaporizing Planet
StarDate - April 11, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsPlanets like Earth live in the “Goldilocks zone” — the region around a star where conditions are most comfortable for life. But most planets aren’t so cushy. They’re either far away and cold, or close in and hot. And some are so close that they’re being vaporized by their star. One example is WA...
Seeing Giants
StarDate - April 10, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIf you heat up some alphabet soup, you shouldn’t end up with all the letters clumped together — they should be fairly evenly spread throughout the pot. According to the current understanding of the universe, the same thing should apply to galaxies. They may clump together on smaller scales, form...
Moon and Planets
StarDate - April 09, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsEuropa is one of the more intriguing bodies in the solar system — and one that scientists are especially eager to land a spacecraft on. The big moon of Jupiter may have a global ocean below its icy crust — an ocean that could host life. But landing on Europa won’t be easy. It’s hundreds of milli...
Future Eclipses
StarDate - April 08, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIn case you haven’t heard, there’s a big event this afternoon — a total eclipse of the Sun. Totality is visible along a narrow path from Texas to Maine. The parts of the country outside that path will see a partial eclipse. If you miss it — well, let’s just say it’ll be a long wait until the nex...
Total Eclipse
StarDate - April 07, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIt’s almost time for the year’s big celestial event: a total eclipse of the Sun. Tomorrow afternoon, the Moon will pass directly between Earth and the Sun. That will block the Sun’s disk. The sky will grow dark, with a pink glow around the horizon. Stars and planets will pop into view. And the Su...
Eclipse Flights
StarDate - April 06, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIn the mythology of ancient Egypt, Apep was the serpent god — the rival of Re, the sun god. He chased Re, and sometimes briefly caught him — creating a solar eclipse. NASA plans to launch an experiment named for the serpent god to study the eclipse on Monday. Instruments will fly on three differ...
Eclipse Animals
StarDate - April 05, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsColonial orb-weaver spiders may have some extra work to do on Monday, during a total solar eclipse. During an eclipse in 1991, scientists watched as spiders in Mexico began tearing down their webs as the sky darkened — something they do every evening. When the Sun returned, most of them rebuilt t...
Eclipse Legends
StarDate - April 04, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsA total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun, briefly blocking it from view. Before people understood the science, however, they created legends to explain the Sun’s disappearance. Many of those legends involved animals or mythical monsters. In China and elsewhere, it wa...
Eclipse Forecasts
StarDate - April 03, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe Great North American Eclipse is coming up on Monday. The Moon will briefly cover the Sun. That will turn day to night along a narrow path across Mexico, the United States, and Canada. The timing of the eclipse is known down to the second, and has been for decades. And today, astronomers can ...
Corona
StarDate - April 02, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsOn Monday, millions of people will see something they’ve never seen before: the Sun’s corona — its hot outer atmosphere. It extends hundreds of thousands of miles from the surface of the Sun. But it’s so faint that it’s overpowered by the Sun’s brilliant disk. The only time we can see it is durin...
Solar Eclipse
StarDate - April 01, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsMany people dread Mondays and the start of the new work week. But there’s something to look forward to next Monday: the Great North American Eclipse. The Moon will completely cover the Sun, turning the sky dark. Tendrils of light will extend away from the Moon — the Sun’s hot outer atmosphere, th...
Penumbral Eclipse
StarDate - March 24, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsAnyone standing on the Earth-facing hemisphere of the Moon tonight would see a partial solar eclipse, with Earth covering part of the Sun’s disk. From here on Earth, however, all we’ll see is a penumbral lunar eclipse. The eclipse is so faint that few will notice a difference — the full Moon wil...
Moon and Denebola
StarDate - March 23, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe star that marks the tip of the lion’s tail appears to be a loner. It doesn’t have a companion star. And so far, it doesn’t appear to have any planets, either. But it does have the raw materials for making planets. And one or more worlds could have taken shape from those building blocks. Den...
Evening Mercury
StarDate - March 22, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsOnly two planets in our solar system are moonless: Mercury and Venus, the planets closest to the Sun. But 50 years ago this month, it looked like Mercury might have to drop off the list — but only for a while. The excitement began as Mariner 10 sped toward the planet, in 1974. Mariner was the f...
Moon and Regulus
StarDate - March 21, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIt’s been more than half a century since the final Apollo mission left the Moon. But scientists are still learning from it. A few years ago, they started examining samples from Apollo 17 that hadn’t been touched before — a project that’s ongoing. They’re also analyzing observations made by instru...
A Small Search
StarDate - March 20, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIt may be a cliche, but it’s true: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s certainly the case for the scientists hunting for dark matter. They’ve conducted many big experiments over the past few decades. So far, though, they haven’t found a thing. So the hunt is going smaller — loo...
March Equinox
StarDate - March 19, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsSpring arrives in the northern hemisphere tonight, at the moment of the March equinox, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator. Day and night are about equal across the entire planet — hence the name “equinox,” which means “equal nights.” The Sun is passing through Pisces, the fishes. In fact,...
Franz Gruithuisen
StarDate - March 18, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsWhen he was just 14 years old, Franz von Paula Gruithuisen found himself in the middle of the Austro-Turkish War. He wasn’t a prisoner or a refugee. Instead, he was a field surgeon. But just a year later, he was using a small telescope to observe the Moon. Those episodes marked the beginning of ...
Missing Planets
StarDate - March 17, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe types of planets you have as neighbors may depend on your neighborhood. The planets discovered in our region of the Milky Way Galaxy come in just about every variety: hot Jupiters, super-Earths, mini-Neptunes, lava planets, ocean planets, and others. But that may not be the case for other p...
Moon and El Nath
StarDate - March 16, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsThe Moon hangs precariously above a star with a nasty-sounding name tonight: El Nath. The name comes from an Arabic phrase that means “butting” or “goring.” It indicates the star’s position in its constellation — at the tip of one of the horns of Taurus, the bull. The star itself is impressive....
Summer Stars
StarDate - March 15, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsIf you’re ready for a taste of summer, look no farther than the dawn sky. The constellations in view at first light are just what you’ll see as night falls in July and August. Scorpius is low in the south, with Sagittarius in the southeast. The Big Dipper hangs from its handle in the northwest. ...
Moon and Pleiades
StarDate - March 14, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsTwo beautiful objects team up this evening: the Moon and the Pleiades. The little star cluster is close above the Moon. Binoculars will help you pick out some of its brighter stars through the moonlight. The Pleiades has more than a thousand stars. They were born from the same cloud of gas and ...
Moon and Jupiter
StarDate - March 13, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsScientists are finding so many moons of the solar system’s giant planets that they can hardly keep up with them. By the end of last year, Saturn was in the lead, with 146 confirmed moons. Jupiter — the biggest planet — came in second, with 95. But some of its moons are the most amazing of all — w...
Colorful Stars
StarDate - March 12, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsStars come in a whole spectrum of colors, from icy blue to deep red. But our eyes can see the color in only a few stars — most of them are simply specks of white. That’s because most stars are too faint to show off their palette. The human eye can pick out the colors of only the brightest ones. ...
Planetary Poetry
StarDate - March 11, 2024 05:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsPlanetary scientists may see many descriptions this week that are similar to this one: Return to Mimas Blow up the Death Star (moon) and Find hidden oceans. That’s from a presentation about one of Saturn’s moons by Adeene Denton and colleagues at last year’s Lunar and Planetary Science Conferen...
Puppis
StarDate - March 10, 2024 06:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 205 ratingsSometimes, you can have too much of a good thing. That was the case with a constellation that was created thousands of years ago. It was so big that astronomers eventually split it apart. Argo Navis represented the Argo — the ship that carried Jason and the Argonauts through many adventures. But...
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