Ep. 771: Comet Tails
17 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Nov 8, 2025. With the arrival of the comet 3I/Atlas (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact La...
Ep. 770: The Ethics of Mars Exploration
10 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Nov 3, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. It is arguable that huma...
Ep. 769: Little Red Dots
27 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Oct 20, 2025. New instruments bring new mysteries, and when James Webb came on line...
Ep. 768: Comets' Unpredictability
20 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Oct 13, 2025. So it’s been decades since we’ve seen a bright comet in the sky. ...
Ep. 767: Black Holes in Extreme Circumstances
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Streamed live on Oct 6, 2025. You can only describe a b...
Ep. 766: How Spacecraft End
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
End-of-Life Planning for Your Spacecraft! Streamed live October 1, 2025. Your spacecraft has reached...
Ep. 765: Rockets vs The Environment
29 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 22, 2025. We don’t launch a lot of rockets every year, so their impact on the...
Ep. 764: Cleared For Launch!
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live September 17, 2025. This week, we look at the process behind rockets getting licensed ...
Ep. 763: Interstellar Comets
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live Sep 8, 2025. Welcome to the first episode of our 19th season! This week we look at obj...
Ep. 762: Science in Crisis - NASA’s New Budget
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jun 30, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Normally we try to end t...
Ep. 761: It's Here! The Vera Rubin Observatory
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live June 25, 2025. The time has come. The mighty Vera Rubin Observatory has finally come o...
Ep. 760: What to Look For This Summer
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Streamed live on Jun 16, 2025. It’s almost time for o...
Ep. 759: The Commercial Space Program
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jun 9, 2025. Humanity has turned its focus back to the Moon, sending a fleet of spa...
Ep. 758: Non-Roving Rovers
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on May 26, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Some of our favorite rob...
Ep. 757: CubeSats
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on May 19, 2025. Computers are getting smaller, faster and more capable, which has ena...
Ep. 756: SphereX
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on May 12, 2025. NASA’s newly launched SphereX mission is up & operational and has c...
Ep. 755: Intermediate Mass Black Holes
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on May 5, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. There are stellar-mass a...
Ep. 754: K2-18b
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 28, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay You’ve heard the news!...
Ep. 753: Why is the Moon's South Pole So Interesting?
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 21, 2025. I’m sure you’ve heard that all eyes are on the Moon’s southern ...
Ep. 752: Should We Go to the Moon or Mars Next?
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 16, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay There is an ongoing deba...
Ep. 751: Vacuum Energy
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 7, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Even empty space isn’t...
Ep. 750: Supernova Early Warning System
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Mar 31, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay When enormous stars deto...
Ep. 749: Dark Energy Changing Over Time
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Mar 24, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay The Hubble Tension is a ...
Ep. 748: Fast Radio Bursts
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Mar 17, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. For the briefest of mom...
Ep. 747: Rogue Planets
17 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Mar 10, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Most planets orbit stars...
Ep. 746: Dust Storms
03 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live Feb 24, 2025. We have dust storms on Earth and of course the famous dust storms on Mar...
Ep. 745: How We Know If Asteroids Will Attack
24 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live Feb 20, 2025. I’m sure you’ve heard the news, asteroid 2024 YR4 has a tiny chance ...
Ep. 744: Lunar Time
17 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Feb 10, 2025. What time is it? OK, fine, what time is it on the Moon? The Moon orbi...
Ep. 743: What Else Can We Learn From Gravitational Waves?
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Feb 3, 2025. Just a few years ago LIGO detected the first direct evidence of gravit...
Ep. 742: Atmospheric Gravity Waves
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jan 27, 2025. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay Gravity Waves ... not gr...
Ep. 741: Technosignatures
27 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jan 20, 2025. Pollution will ultimately give away a society. SUPPORTED BY YOU Th...
Ep. 740: Sneaky Stars!
20 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jan 13, 2025. Why stars can’t be trusted! If you’re an astronomer you depend on...
Ep. 739: Drones!
13 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live January 9, 2025. From little Ingenuity to the future Firefly and all our Earth Science...
Ep. 738: Looking Ahead to 2025
23 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What can we hope (or dread) to see in 2025? Last week we talked about the 2024 strangeness. Now we’...
Ep. 737: Weird Science Stories From 2024
16 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live December13, 2024. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. 2024 was a strange yea...
Ep. 736: Gift Guide 2024
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Dec 2, 2024 Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay It’s time for our Holida...
Ep. 735: Albert Einstein
02 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Nov 25, 2024. Last week we talked about the Einstein probe. So this week it is only...
Ep. 734: The Einstein Mission
18 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Nov 11, 2024. Hosted by: Fraser Cain and Dr. Pamela L. Gay. Another day, another sp...
Ep. 733: Euclid Of Alexandria
11 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Nov 5, 2024. Last week we talked about the mission. This week we’ll talk about Eu...
Ep. 732: The Euclid Telescope
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Let's look at the Euclid Space Telescope. The Euclid 208-Gigapixel image! https://www.youtube.com/wa...
Ep. 731: Neil Gehrels
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Oct 21, 2024. Let's look at the man whose name is carried by the Neil Gehrels Swift...
Ep. 730: The Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live October 15, 2024. Let's look over the long life of the Neil Gehrels Swift Telescope ...
Ep. 729: The James Webb Space Telescope
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 30, 2024. Let's talk about that giant telescope that's changing everything. We ...
Ep. 728: Solar Scientist Eugene Parker
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 23, 2024. Last week, we talked about the Parker Solar Probe. As always, we like...
Ep. 727: Parker Solar Probe
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 16, 2024. Let's look over the long life of the Parker Solar Probe as it explore...
Ep. 726: Looking Back Over The Summer
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live Sep 9, 2024. We made all sorts of predictions, and some of the stuff we didn't know ab...
Ep. 725: Looking Ahead
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jun 24, 2024. Normally Pamela refuses to think about the future. But today, on our ...
Ep. 724: Summer (Science & Sci Fi) Reads
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live Jun 20, 2024. Fraser & Pamela list their favorite books! Take notes! I also have a fav...
Ep. 723: Exoplanets by the Numbers
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jun 10, 2024. Astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, revealing entire...
Ep. 722: Weather on Exoplanets
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s a familiar question: How’s the weather? We’re familiar with the weather on Earth and te...
Ep. 721: Rogue Planets
27 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Most of the exoplanets we’ve found are around stars, where they belong. But a few have been found ...
Ep. 720: Galaxy Series - Elliptical Galaxies
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 30, 2024. Our galaxy series continues with elliptical galaxies. Unlike other ty...
Ep. 719: Galaxy Series - Spiral Galaxies
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our galaxy series continues, on to spiral galaxies. In fact, you’re living in one right now, but t...
Ep. 718: Galaxy Series - Dwarf Galaxies
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Apr 30, 2024. It’s time to begin a new mini-series, where we’ll look at differe...
Ep. 717: Understanding the Ages of Distant Cosmic Objects
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How old is that star? That planet? That nebula? Figuring out the ages of astronomical objects is sur...
Ep. 716 - The God**** Particle - Remembering Peter Higgs
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we learned about the death of Peter Higgs, a physicist and discoverer of the particle tha...
Ep. 715: Total Eclipse of the Science: Experiments During the Eclipse
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How to watch a solar eclipse and do some science! The next great eclipse is upon us, with viewers ac...
Ep. 714: Orbital Resonances
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Several of the planets and moons in the Solar System are in orbital resonance, orbiting in a geometr...
Ep. 713: Solar System Volcanoes
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week was one of the most exciting meetings we’ve seen from the Lunar and Planetary Science Co...
Ep. 712: How Peer Review Fails
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve probably heard that the best kind of science is peer-reviewed research published in a prest...
Ep. 711: NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC)
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NASA works on many missions using tried and true technology, but they also invest in creative ideas ...
Ep. 710: NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) Program
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the olden days, NASA developed its missions using a variety of in-house engineers and external su...
Ep. 709: Space Weapons
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Feb 19, 2024. [My apologies for Fraser’s audio dropouts. We’re not sure how it ...
Ep. 708: What Goes Into Sample Return Missions From Asteroids & Comets?
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we talked about sample return missions from the Moon and Mars, but scientists have retriev...
Ep. 707: What Goes Into A Sample Return Mission? Moon & Mars
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve sent robots to other worlds, but the amount of science we can deploy to another planet can’...
Ep. 706: China’s Space Program
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re so familiar with NASA’s exploration efforts in space, but you might be surprised to learn ...
Ep. 705: Water Worlds - Looking For Life Beyond Earth
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wherever we find liquid water on Earth, we find life, so it makes sense to search for water across t...
Ep. 704: NASA's Juno Releases New Images
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
NASA’s Juno spacecraft has completed dozens of flybys of Jupiter, seeing the planet from many angl...
Ep. 703: Solar Maximum of Doom? Maybe
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Dec 20, 2023. Solar cycle 25 is shaping up to be a doozy, with plenty of flares and...
Ep. 702: Moonshot 2024 - Go or No Go?
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Dec 11, 2023. With Artemis 1 completing its robotic flight around the Moon, we know...
Ep. 701: Space Science We Look Forward to in the Next 700 Episodes
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we looked back at some of the ideas that science has changed its mind about. This week we ...
Ep. 700: The Things We Got Wrong
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers talk about all the amazing discoveries they’re making but sometimes, it turns out, the...
Ep. 699: Holiday Gift Giving Ideas for Astronomy and Space Fans
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Just a warning, the holidays are rapidly approaching. It’s time, once again, to think about what t...
Ep. 698: Insights Into the Universe
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How the time flies. It’s been over a year since JWST went operational, with other missions joining...
Ep. 697: Mission Roll Call Part 6: The Outer Solar System and Beyond
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Finally, we reach the end of our tour through the missions in the Solar System. Out beyond Mars, to ...
Ep. 696: Mission Roll Call Part 5: The Science at Mars
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Another week, another review of space missions in the Solar System. Today we set our sights on the r...
Ep. 695: Mission Roll Call Part 4: Lunar Exploration
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our journey through missions continues, this time we focus on the Moon. There are many nations on th...
Ep. 694: Mission Roll Call Part 3: What's Beyond Earth
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our journey through space missions continues. Now we move away from the Earth to the rest of the sol...
Episode 693: Mission Roll Call, Part 2: Looking Outward from Earth
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we brought you up to speed on the spacecraft which are helping to study Earth from above....
Ep. 692: Mission Roll Call Part 1: Earth Orbit
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It’s time for another series! This time we’re gonna look at the missions that’re currently in ...
Ep. 691: Jupiter’s Changing Red Spot
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is one of its most iconic features. First seen hundreds of years ago. Alt...
Ep. 690: Climate on Mars - From Ice Caps to Dust Storms
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 18, 2023. We’ve looked at Earth’s changing climate, now let’s see what it...
Ep. 689 - Our Warming World: 20 Years of Climate Science
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Sep 11, 2023. It’s official! June and July were the warmest we’ve seen since re...
Hiatus Message
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hiatus Message Once again, we’ve reached the end of a season here on Astronomy Cast, and it’s ti...
Ep. 688: What’s Next? Looking Ahead to Season 17
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Streamed live on Jun 26, 2023. Once again, we’ve reached the end of a season here on Astronomy Cas...
Ep. 687: Prepping for the Moon
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re going back to the Moon. In the next few years humans will set foot on the Moon again, ideall...
Ep. 686: Ice In The Shadows
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The permanently shadowed craters on the Moon are the focus of so much research. That’s because the...
Ep. 685: Manufacturing In Space
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Launching satellites from Earth is counter-productive. You’ve got to make a satellite that can han...
Ep. 684: Too Big, Too Soon: Massive Early Galaxies Defy Expectations
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
One of JWST’s top jobs is to peer deeper into the Universe than ever before, watching as the first...
Ep. 683: Cosmic Dawn
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After the cosmic microwave background radiation was released, the Universe returned to darkness, clo...
Ep. 682: Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies & Dark Matter
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Astronomers first noticed the strange behaviors of rotating galaxies almost 100 years ago, suggestin...
Ep. 681: Kilonovae
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, astronomers detected the gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from colliding n...
Ep. 680: Rogue Black Holes
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we talked about rogue stars. This week we’re going to take things up a notch and talk ab...
Ep. 679: High(per) Velocity Stars
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most stars in the Milky Way are trapped in here with us, doomed to orbit around and around and aroun...
Ep. 678: World Building: Planet Formation, Growth & Ejection
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Okay sci-fi writers, today we’re going to give you a guided tour of building planets. How they for...
Ep. 677: The Answer is Always Dust
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever astronomers discover something surprising, the answer often turns out to be dust. Dust obsc...
Ep. 676: Other Things With Rings
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve spent a lot of time gushing about Saturn’s rings, but there are other places with ring sys...
Ep. 675: Exotic Forms of Ice
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Ice is ice, right? You know, what you get when water freezes. Well, maybe here on Earth. But across ...
Ep. 674: Asteroid Early Warning Systems
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The asteroid apocalypse is one of those existential crises that keep astronomers up at night. But th...
Ep. 673: How to See Satellites (or Avoid Seeing Them)
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re in dark skies and look up, you’re certain to see a satellite. Lots of them. But how ca...