Walkabout the Galaxy
Episodes
For Stephen Hawking
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks discuss the late Stephen Hawking's first major breakthrough in astrophysics: radiation from black holes, now known as Hawking Radiatio...
Magnetic Ink Blot Test in Space
11 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Some things are hard to see, like black holes. In this episode of Walkabout the Astroquarks discuss a couple of new observations that help us see the ...
Print Me a Space Base, Please
01 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Astroquarks welcome Dr. Phil Metzger, expert on the use of local materials on the Moon, asteroids, and Mars, to tell us about the prospects for pr...
The One Sponsored by Space Sex
20 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
"Starman" in the Tesla Roadster is headed out past the orbit of Mars, and NASA has some cool new missions in the works for exploration of the solar sy...
I Could Swear I Left My Satellite in Orbit!
11 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's a satellite theme on this episode, with a sparkly disco ball in space, a long-lost scientific satellite tracked down by an amateur astronomy sleu...
The Old Stars Tell Tales
03 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Clues to dark matter may be buried in the relics of the oldest stars in the galaxies. The old stars probably formed when the dark matter did, so their...
The One About Bunburra Rockhole
23 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Thank you Australia for giving us a meteorite called Bunburra Rockhole, and not just because the name is endlessly fun to say, but also because it hin...
A Very Low Rumble in Space
08 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks kick off the new year with a look at a clever and challenging new technique to detect gravitational waves created by supermassive blac...
2017 - A Great Year for Space
28 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
While terrestrial matters were frequently dark and depressing, 2017 was a banner year for the cosmos, or at least for our understanding of it. From Ca...
Antimatter from your Local Thunderstorm
11 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Antimatter, the stuff that lets the USS Enterprise fly about the galaxy is the topic of this episode of Walkabout the Galaxy because it's made in your...
Fly Me To The Moon (of Saturn!)
30 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Disappointed that we don't have jetpacks and flying cars? Dr. Amanda Hendrix joins the Astroquarks to suggest an alternative: colonize Saturn's moon T...
Kronos the Planet Eater
18 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Stars have a voracious appetite, gobbling up most of the stuff in their immediate neighborhood, leaving just a few scraps to make planets. Sometimes, ...
Rogue Asteroid!
08 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
That asteroid is rogue, and that's hyperbolic, but not hyperbole. The astroquarks welcome Dr. Dan Durda to discuss the first detection of a planetary ...
To Kilonova
01 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If two neutron stars collide in a galaxy 130 million light years away and no one has a gravitational wave observatory to detect it, does it make a sou...
I Left My Communicator on Sigma Iotia!
22 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks welcome noted science blogger and author Dr. Ethan Siegel whose new book Treknology takes a look at the intersection of science and sc...
SOFIA, Nobel and Kuiper - What's in a Name?
10 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks welcome WMFE space reporter Brendan Byrne who recounts his flight on the SOFIA airborne observatory. They hen vent about how the Nobel...
OSIRIS-REx Gets the Gravity Assist and Scores!
04 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How exactly (and why) does a spacecraft get a "gravitational assist" from a planet en route to another planet? Where does that energy come from? The A...
To Be, Cassini, Or Not To Be
27 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Josh recounts experiencing the end of the Cassini mission and recalls more than a quarter century of involvement with the project in this episode. The...
Florence and the LIGO Machine
17 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Asteroid Florence with her two mini-moons pays a visit to the Earth, while Tabby's Star continues to mystify with its unpredictable fluctuations in br...
Are Those Diamonds on Uranus?
07 Sep 2017
Contributed by Lukas
New experiments have created diamonds in the conditions expected in the interiors of Uranus and Neptune. Former Top Astroquark Tracy Becker joins Josh...
Of Eclipses and Starspots
31 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks tell their eclipse stories from the Great American Eclipse. The Sun and every star has weather, spots, oscillations, flares and all so...
Of Zombies, Comets and Kilograms
17 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The weight on that box of breakfast cereal ultimately traces back to "le grand K", a metal sphere in a vault in Paris, a wonderfully archaic standard ...
Cold and Hard, not Warm and Fuzzy
10 Aug 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Sun doesn't just shine, it rings like a bell, or a drumhead wrapped into a ginormous ball of incandescent plasma. The astroquarks talk about how h...
Going Rogue!
30 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If the controversy over Pluto's planetary status weren't already enough, what do you call a planet that is not even orbiting a star? The astroquarks e...
Teleport Me to the Great Red Spot!
21 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Kristen John of NASA's Johnson Space Center joins the Astroquarks for a wide-ranging discussion on topics from Jupiter's Great Red Spot to telepor...
Where No One Has Gone Before
09 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks are joined by Dr. Phil Metzger who spends a lot of time thinking about how our civilization can make the great leap into space. We may...
Is Planet 9 Lost in Space?
28 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Planet 9, also known as Egotron in honor of its supporters, has never been seen. A new statistical analysis of a deep sky survey suggests that's becau...
Leggo my LIGO!
21 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks take a look at new indications of water ice on the Moon, evidence that Jupiter formed in less than a million years, and the third dete...
Uranus Gets Bedazzled!
03 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How many jokes can the three astroquarks make about the pronunciation of the seventh planet? You'll have to tune in to this episode of WtG to find out...
Is That Inflation Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?
26 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You may think of inflation as prices creeping higher, but to a cosmologist it's been an important idea to explain why the universe is so uniform on ve...
Juno What I Mean!
17 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Juno mission is studying Jupiter's interior, but its citizen-scientist JunoCam is returning stunning images of the largest planet. Hear the astroq...
The Solar System is a Bubble in Space
10 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Josh and Addie welcome two special guests for this episode of Walkabout the Galaxy where we learn about a new and clever measurement of the size and s...
The Grand Finale is Finale Here
28 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
No, that ain't no negative mass, but yes, for Cassini the end is nigh. The series of 22 Grand Finale orbits has begun, providing unique views of Satur...
Enceladus is a Little Bit Gassy!
15 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks dissect the latest news from Saturn's intriguing moon Enceladus. Molecular hydrogen in its geysers suggest that Enceladus' ocean floor...
That's Quite a Hadron You've Got There!
05 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Large Hadron Collider announced five new subatomic particles recently. Top astroquark Jim Cooney is our go-to quark for all things quarky, so he e...
The Great Black Hole Escape
27 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What are gravitational waves good for? Getting rid of that pesky supermassive black hole that's outstayed its welcome, for one thing. Join the astroqu...
Space Dust Keeps Falling on my Head
19 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
On this Pi-Day recording of WtG, the astroquarks have a special trivia question and science topics ranging from interplanetary dust to Saturn's intrig...
The One About Patrick Stewart
12 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
There are black holes and interferometry in this episode, but the nerd news segment on Patrick Stewart either sets a new standard or a new low. You be...
Strange New Worlds
28 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A system of seven Earth-sized planets has been observed orbiting a (relatively) nearby star. At least three of these planets are in the habitable zone...
White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulae
17 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It's the plural episode of Walkabout as the Astroquarkae discuss the formation of White Dwarfs and Planetary Nebulae, what they have to do with each o...
Stripey Buggers
05 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks welcome Brendan Byrne from WMFE 90.7 to discuss the some jaw-dropping images of Saturn's rings as Cassini begins working its way in to...
A Space Odyssey
30 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
One of these rocks is not like the other. One is a meteorite, and one is an asteroid, and we know that meteorites come from asteroids. So how come the...
The Hottest Year in a Row!
23 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Venus continues its record-setting warm streak now at over 1 billion years and counting, while the Earth just set its own modest record for the hottes...
Walk About the Great Big Group of Stars
11 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this piece of time of "Walk About the Great Big Group of Stars" we talk about two stars that will run into each other and make a big bright red thi...
The Fartological Cycle
04 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks examine new observations of the rate of expansion of the universe and its consequences for Dark Energy, the mysterious force that is c...
Three Quarks for JJ Abrams!
18 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks are back with a wide-ranging discussion from actual quarks to exoplanets with rain of molten glass and clouds of vaporized rock, as we...
I Dub Thee Egotron
29 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks, Josh, Addie and Jim, return from a break to catch up on the latest planetary and galactic news. There is new indirect evidence that a...
To Boldly Go!
22 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks commemorate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. New this episode is the discovery of the Philae lander's final resting place on a comet...
Extraterrestrials: Are They a Thing Yet?
06 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
With a new "Earth-like" planet orbiting the nearest star to our Sun and frequent headlines popping up about interesting signals from SETI programs, an...
StarzaniTrekWars!
16 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The astroquarks delve into the critical issues facing our world: what reboot is more awesome or more terrible: Star Trek, Star Wars, or Tarzan? Also, ...
For The World Is Not Hollow
29 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
NASA's Juno spacecraft is orbiting the largest planet with the primary goal of understanding its internal structure. It will do this through a clever ...
The Sun Needs a Red Corvette
09 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Sun may be showing signs of belatedly entering a mid-life crisis of sorts. A sporty new car may improve the Sun's mood, as its spin and sunspot pr...
Earth's Mini-Stalker
01 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Lurking out there beyond the orbit of the Moon is a sneaky little asteroid that is stalking the Earth, meandering around and pretending not to be payi...
Black Holes: What Goes In Might Come Out
17 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
While we stick by our longstanding advice never to enter a black hole, Jim Cooney and Zoe Landsman join Josh and Addie in this episode to discuss new ...
Watching Supernovae with H2O
28 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In the good old days you needed a lens or a mirror to have a telescope, but now they'll use any old thing to look at the sky: ultra-precise orthogonal...
Take Me to Mars (and Back Again!)
16 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Josh and Addie welcome Julie Brisset to discuss the comings and goings of SpaceX Dragon capsules to Earth as well as planned (unmanned) missions to Ma...
Supernova Breakout!
04 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Just when you thought a supernova couldn't get any cooler (metaphorically speaking, of course), the Kepler spacecraft comes along and spies for the fi...
Nice Model Not So Nice
12 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Ten years after the development of a dramatic new picture of the early history of the solar system, dubbed the Nice model (it was created at the Obser...
The Babiest Galaxy
06 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Jim Cooney joins Josh and Addie to talk about the origin of galaxies and the observation of a galaxy from when the universe was but a teeny weeny baby...
Attack of the Gravitational Wave
18 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, two big black holes (no jokes, please) collided with each other releasing a ginormous amount of energy that...
Planet 9 From Outer Space!
23 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Not content with being the self-proclaimed "Pluto Killer", CalTech professor Mike Brown has now co-authored a paper hypothesizing the existence of, in...
El Nino and the Price of Anchovies
13 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
So what do floods in the southwest have to do with the price of anchovies? Join Josh, and Julie Brisset and find out in this episode of Walkabout from...
Exploring the Kuiper Belt with Alan Stern
17 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a discussion with Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto, and hear about the mission and its discover...
The Mystery of Mars' Missing Air
29 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Why is there no air on Mars? NASA's MAVEN mission has supplied some details on how our neighbor lost what was likely a robust atmosphere comparable to...