Latest Uranus Podcast Episodes
163: Modeling millions of asteroids with Dr. Dotson
Spacepod - November 03, 2019 17:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Jessie Dotson talks about her asteroid risk assessment research. She describes how she and her team create comprehensive models of asteroid impacts. Their research shows that the consequences of an impact depends on asteroid size and where it hits on Earth.
162: Charon's surprises with Dr. Beyer
Spacepod - October 20, 2019 16:00 - 25 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Ross Beyer talks about Pluto's companion, Charon. He describes how he derived a theory explaining how Charon's "wonky" plains formed. He compares being a planetary geologist with a crime scene investigator, and tells us the story about how Charon got its name.
161: Dusty mysteries with Prof. Hartzell
Spacepod - October 06, 2019 16:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsProf. Christine Hartzell tells us about the bizarre ways dust and rock behave on asteroids. She explains, "asteroids are complicated because our intuition fails." Tools like shovels become useless, forcing spacecraft designers to innovate.
160: Going back in time with Dr. Bottke
Spacepod - September 22, 2019 16:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Bill Bottke stops by the show to talk about ancient craters on the Moon and Earth. He tells us about how you can figure out crater ages by looking at the nearby rocks, and how that led him and his colleagues to figure out that the impact rate on Earth changes with time.
159: Constellations and coordinates with Dr. Rich
Spacepod - September 08, 2019 16:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Jeff Rich returns to the show to talk about the night sky. He explains how astronomers used constellations to communicate. He also tells us that anyone can invent their own constellation. In a time when people can create "universes inside a computer," we talk about ways to go outside and exp...
158: Planetary Defense Mission with Dr. Ernst
Spacepod - August 25, 2019 16:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Carolyn Ernst tells us about DRACO, a camera on the DART mission. DRACO will take critical images in the final seconds of the mission. Dr. Ernst talks about how heritage is important in spaceflight and explains how DRACO is designed to endure harsh conditions.
157: Modeling impacts with Dr. Boslough
Spacepod - August 11, 2019 16:00 - 13 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Mark Boslough describes what happens when an asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere. He tell the story of how he learned of the historic 2013 Chelyabinsk impact. He also shares what it was like to see the effects of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Jupiter impact.
156: Measuring a collision with Dr. Thomas
Spacepod - July 28, 2019 16:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsProfessor Cristina Thomas talks about NASA's first planetary defense mission: DART. DART is a spacecraft that will impact a tiny asteroid moon. She explains why ground-based telescope observations are key to the mission's success.
155: Interstellar visitor with Dr. Knight
Spacepod - July 14, 2019 16:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Matthew Knight tells us about a discovery that excited astronomers all around the world. 'Oumuamua is the first minor planet from outside our solar system that we have found. Dr. Knight describes what it was like to observe this speedy object, and explains how it compares to local asteroids ...
154: High speed impacts with Dr. Daly
Spacepod - June 30, 2019 16:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Terik Daly talks about his experiments, where things hit other things at tens of thousands of miles per hour. These experiments create pressures greater than that at the center of the Earth, and temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. Dr Daly tells us what it is like to design and w...
153: Stories behind the science with Sarah Kaplan
Spacepod - June 16, 2019 16:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsSarah Kaplan of the Washington Post talks about science reporting. Reporters often tackle topics that are outside their expertise. Sarah explains the methods she uses to get at the truth. She also shares where she would send a billion dollar spacecraft, and tells the story of how a small bird ca...
152: Mysterious iron meteorites with Dr. Chabot
Spacepod - June 02, 2019 16:00 - 16 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Nancy Chabot returns to the show to talk about iron meteorites. Iron meteorites, she explains, are cores of small planets that you can hold in your hand. She describes her laboratory experiments which use furnaces, glass tubes, and tiny hammers.
151: Game-changing asteroid images with Dr. Marsset
Spacepod - May 19, 2019 16:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Michael Marsset and his collaborators use the world's biggest telescopes to image asteroids. They combine those images with other data to get shapes of asteroids. These results are comparable with spacecraft images, but are much less expensive. Dr. Marsset talks about new discoveries they ha...
150: Undersea grippers and in-space assembly with Dr. Backus
Spacepod - May 05, 2019 16:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr Spencer Backus talks about his work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He explains the complexities of trying to design hands for robots. An example of a robot hand is the undersea gripper he worked on, which looks like "an angry starfish." He also talks about the benefits and challenges of...
149: Ballooning on Venus with Dr. Izraelevitz
Spacepod - April 21, 2019 16:00 - 14 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Jacob Izraelevitz describes how engineers might design a balloon to explore Venus. This work is in the early stages, what NASA refers to as a "Mission Concept." He also explains the challenges of Venusian exploration.
148: Solving an Apollo mystery with Dr. Curren
Spacepod - April 07, 2019 16:00 - 15 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsWhen taking a sample of the Moon's surface, the Apollo astronauts discovered a sharp transition from powdery soil to harder rock. This transition was entirely unexpected, and remained unexplained for decades. Dr. Ivy Curren talks about an experiment she designed to explain this phenomena. She al...
147: Searching for extraterrestrial life with Dr. Seager
Spacepod - March 24, 2019 16:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Seager explains how she and other astronomers are looking for extraterrestrial life. We discuss the Drake and Seager equations. We also talk about how astronomers might be able to detect life by measuring chemicals in distant planet atmospheres. This episode is related to the March 2019 Nati...
146: Our place the universe with Dr. Lanz
Spacepod - March 10, 2019 16:00 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Alicia Lanz talks about the history of astronomical instrumentation, starting with the first telescope. She describes some bizarre historical telescopes and shares a surprisingly inspirational story about bubbles in glass.
145: Backyard Worlds with Prof. Allers
Spacepod - February 24, 2019 17:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsProfessor Katelyn Allers talks about how you can discover small cold stars! She is a member of the Backyard Worlds project, which is a collaboration between astronomers and citizen scientists. This project searches for brown dwarfs, which are some of the closest objects to our solar system.
144: Deflecting asteroids with Brent Barbee
Spacepod - February 10, 2019 17:00 - 20 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsBrent Barbee returns to the show to talk about deflecting asteroids. He explains how an asteroid might react to an impact, and also talks about the proposed DART mission, which would change the orbit of a small asteroid moon.
143: Telescope robots with Dr. Ramirez
Spacepod - January 27, 2019 17:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Solange Ramirez returns to the show to talk about her new position as Project Manager of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V. Amount other things, the project will study over six million stars and how black holes change over time. These millions of measurements will be made using a robotic telesc...
142: The biggest clock with Rob Seaman
Spacepod - January 13, 2019 17:00 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsRob Seaman of the Catalina Sky Survey talks about time, and why you need to know the time to discover asteroids and comets. He explains how he installed a highly accurate clock, and makes the case that "natural time" is better than "cold, heartless atomic time."
141: Eyes on the back of your head with Dr. Tholen
Spacepod - December 30, 2018 17:00 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Dave Tholen talks about near-Earth asteroids. He explains why they can be difficult to observe, and how he manages to spot them anyway. He also tells the story of a particularly famous asteroid that he discovered, and sets the record straight about its name.
140: A brand new telescope with Dr. Kartaltepe
Spacepod - December 16, 2018 17:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsThe James Webb Space Telescope hasn't launched yet, but scientists already have plans to use it. Dr. Kartaltepe talks about how she'll use it to study galaxies. She's interested in the first galaxies that ever formed, as well as galaxies at a wide range of distances from Earth.
139: The missing mantle problem with Dr. DeMeo
Spacepod - December 02, 2018 17:00 - 21 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsUrey Prize winner Dr. Francesca DeMeo stops by the show to talk about her asteroid research. She explains what a differentiated asteroid is, and tells us about her asteroid classification system. She also shares a new result, and explains how it may change the way we think about solar system for...
138: Transiting Exoplanets with Dr. Payne
Spacepod - November 18, 2018 17:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Matthew Payne talks about his exoplanet research, which involves looking for periodic dimming in stars. We discuss the Kepler and TESS space telescopes, and he explains why he's so interested in measuring the masses of exoplanets.
137: Documenting rapid change with Dr. Carey
Spacepod - November 04, 2018 17:00 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Joanna Carey talks about her research on our home planet, Earth. She explains how the climate change we're experiencing is ten times faster than any in geologic history. We also discuss why small changes in carbon emissions today will make a huge difference to the future climate, and things ...
136: Would sailboats work on Titan? With Dr. Soto
Spacepod - October 21, 2018 16:00 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Alejandro Soto returns to the show to talk about how lakes on Titan and on Earth influence the nearby atmosphere. He talks about how lakes create breezes that allow for sailing on Earth, and how the situation changes on Titan.
135: Linking asteroid observations with Dr. Holman
Spacepod - October 07, 2018 16:00 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Matt Holman, head of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, stops by to talk asteroids. The Minor Planet Center handles about a hundred thousand asteroid observations a night, from observatories all around the world. He talks about the difficulties in linking asteroid observati...
134: Spinning stars with Dr. Rebull
Spacepod - September 23, 2018 16:00 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 377 ratingsDr. Luisa Rebull returns to the show to describe new research with the Kepler space telescope. Her ingenious study takes advantage of Kepler's strengths, and has produced results that stump theorists. Dr. Rebull explains why this data has given her "a whole new appreciation for post office worke...