NASA Parachute Device Could Return Small Spacecraft From Deep Space Missions

The Science of Interstellar - Black Hole [YouTube Video]

Ep. 32 Black Holes - HD and the Void

I have mentioned black holes in previous episodes, but now feels like the right time to talk about them in their very own episode! I also discuss the new photos of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87 and the telescope that was nee...

New Zealand was lovely, but I already touched on what I’d be tempted to talk about with my Southern Stars episode. A person I interviewed as a potential new housemate gave me the idea for this episode because the joy of outer space is truly everywhere and anywhere. The field of astrogeology was not something I had heard of before, though I had indirectly heard of Eugene Shoemaker. I knew the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was named after him (and Carolyn Shoemaker, his wife). It turns out he basically founded the modern field of astrogeology! So I talk about him for quite a while, too.

Below the cut are the glossary, transcript, sources, and music credits. Send me any topic suggestions via Tumblr message (you don’t need an account to do this, just submit as anonymous). You can also tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me in real life. Subscribe on iTunes to get the new episodes of my semi-monthly podcast, and please please please rate and review it. Go ahead and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it, too!

(The next episode is definitely going to be on famous comets, and I’m hoping to publish that episode in May.)

Glossary

active galaxy - a galaxy with a small core of emission embedded at the center. This core is typically very variable and very bright compared to the rest of the galaxy. These galaxies emit much more energy than they should; this excess energy is found in the infrared, radio, UV, and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

black hole -  a region of spacetime where a great deal of mass and energy have been compressed into a relatively small space. Black holes exert such strong gravitational effects that no mass or energy, not even light, can escape from inside them. There are supermassive black holes in galaxies that contribute to the development and life cycle of galaxies.

blazar - a subcategory of active galaxy, it is an extremely bright, distant object, powered by a black hole, which emits massive amounts of energy. It is distinct from a quasar because it is even brighter.

interferometry - a group of techniques to extract information from superimposing electromagnetic waves to create interference. In radio astronomy, this is done by using a wide spread of receivers to look at the same distant object, then bringing that data together with a correlator that can create a larger, clearer picture than an individual radio telescope alone could.

Messier object - a deep-sky object included on a list of 103-110 deep-sky objects made by Charles Messier and his colleagues in the 18th century in an attempt to prevent fuzzy, bright objects from being confused with comets.

torus - a donut shape.

quasar - a distant, massive celestial object that emits extremely large amounts of energy. These star-like objects may reflect a stage in the evolution of some galaxies.

Script/Transcript

Sources

Black Holes, explained via National Geographic

What Is a Black Hole? via NASA

Black Holes via NASA

Black Hole via Swinburne University of Technology

Darkness Visible, Finally: Astronomers Capture First Ever Image of a Black Hole via the New York Times (April 2019)

Event Horizon Telescope

Astronomers Capture First Image of a Black Hole via ESO (April 2019)

How They Took the First Picture of a Black Hole via New York Times (April 2019)

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Flame On Flame (A Slow Dirge)’ by Kishi Bashi off his album Sonderlust

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Cost per kg for human spaceflight

via reddit

A Lunar Eclipse Animation

Credit & Copyright: Larry Koehn

Ep. 29 Unusual Scales - HD and the Void

From Bortle to Torino, from asteroids to aliens, scientists have been working to classify experiences in a useful way. Some of those experiences are very specific, unusual, speculative, or just bizarre. Hear about a selection of scales currently i...

I’m back with the last episode of 2018! A conversation with a friend sparked this idea and I just ran with it while I had the inspiration, so please enjoy an episode on the strange and wonderful scales that astronomers have created to quantify data that is very unusual. 

Below the cut are the glossary, transcript, sources, and music credits. Send me any topic suggestions via Tumblr message (you don’t need an account for it!). You can also tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me. Subscribe on iTunes to get the new episodes of my ideally-monthly-updated podcast (I hope I have more inspiration/time in 2019), and please please please rate and review it. Go ahead and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it, too!

(My thoughts on the next episode are the Coriolus Force, Stephen Hawking, or famous comets. The next episode will go up in 2019, hopefully in early January!)

Glossary

background risk - the average risk from random impacts of space objects with Earth.

Bortle Scale - an objective scale to measure the clarity and effect of light pollution on a night’s stargazing.

Drake Equation - a way to estimate the number of potential active, communicative civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy based on 1) the average rate of star formation in our galaxy 2) the fraction of those stars that have planets 3) the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star with its own orbiting planets 4) the fraction of planets that could support life which actually develop life at some point 5) the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life and civilizations 6) the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space 7) the length of time it would take those civilizations release detectable signals into space.

Hynek Scale - quantifies encounters with UFOs and aliens.

Kardashev Scale - measures how advanced a civilization’s technology is based on their mastery of resources and exploration into space.

METI - Messaging to ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence

Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale - categorizes and prioritizes the potential impact risks of objects in space, such as asteroids.

Rio Scale - quantifies the impact of any public announcement regarding evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

San Marino Scale - quantifies the impact of sending transmissions from Earth to extraterrestrial intelligence.

SETI - the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.

Torino Scale - communicates the risk associated with a particular asteroid or comet’s potential to impact with Earth to the public.

Script/Transcript

Sources

10 Unusual Scientific Scales via Listverse (Sep 2010)

John Bortle’s article on his magnitude scale via Sky and Telescope, July 2006

“I have created a nine-level scale. It is based on nearly 50 years of observing experience. I hope it will prove both enlightening and useful to observers — though it may stun or even horrify some! Should it come into wide use, it would provide a consistent standard for comparing observations with light pollution.”

Bortle dark sky scale via Big Sky Astronomy Club

Bortle dark sky scale via LSU

Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale via NASA

The Palermo Scale is the base-10 logarithm of the relative risk.

PS = log10 R.

The relative risk R is given by R = PI / (fB × DT), where PI is the impact probability of the event in question and DT is the time until the potential event, measured in years. 

The annual background impact frequency, fB = 0.03 × E-4/5, is the annual probability of an impact event with energy (E, in megatons of TNT) at least as large as the event in question.

Torino Impact Hazard Scale via NASA

Rio Scale via SETI League

San Marino Scale via SETI League

Rio and San Marino Scale history via Wikipedia

Drake Equation via Wikipedia

Nikolai Kardashev via Wikipedia

"energy consumption at ≈4×1019 erg/sec (4 × 1012 watts)."

New Variation of Kardashev Scale Developed via Edgy Labs (June 2018)

J. Allen Hynek's Scale Of UFO Classification via The Night Sky

Hynek's UFO Classification System via The Center for UFO Studies

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

ASTROGENOUS

[adjective]

producing or creating stars.

Etymology: from Greek, from astron “star” + -genēs “born”.

[J. R. Slattum - Star Maker]

Ep. 14 Dark Matter Part 1 - HD and the Void

In preparation for a future interview with someone who knows much more about astroparticle physics and dark matter than I do, tune in this week for a quick-and-dirty breakdown of a theoretical particle that, if it exists, would clarify a couple of...

We’re getting theoretical here, and not just astronomy theory but particle theory. That’s right, it’s a dark matter podcast! Learn what some astronomers think it is and why other astronomers think there are better explanations for certain nutty galactic phenomena. Hear about MACHOs and WIMPs! Also learn what dark matter is too hot, too cold, too medium, or just right! 

Below the cut are my sources, music credits, a vocab list, a timeline of the scientists I mention, and the transcript of this episode. Tell me what you think I should research next by messaging me here, tweeting at me at @HDandtheVoid, or asking me to my face if you know me in real life. And please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, rate it and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to listen!

(There’s a lot of ever-evolving info about dark matter and I was not able to cover all of it in just one episode, so get excited to hear about dark matter’s friend, dark energy, on November 6th. My thoughts on the episode after that are still the Voyager golden records, space race history, the transit of Venus, the Moon landing, or Edmond Halley. Let me know what you think!)

Glossary

astroparticle physics - the interface between astrophysics and particle physics.

baryons - heaviest particles. Ex. Protons, neutrons. In astroparticle physics, electrons are included in baryonic matter.

bosons - particles that can exist in the same state at the same location at the same time. Ex. Photons, Higgs boson.

cosmic microwave background radiation - the electromagnetic radiation left over from the time of recombination in Big Bang cosmology.

dark matter - a theoretical mass made up of unknown particles that have not been created on Earth. It is used to explain why galaxy clusters have 10x the mass that their light output suggests they would have; why distant stars on the edges of spiral galaxies orbit at the same speed as stars near the center of the galaxy; and the accretion of gases that created galaxies at the beginning of the universe.

fermions - particles that cannot exist in the same state at the same location at the same time. Ex. Protons, neutrons, electrons, leptons.

gravitational lensing - when light from more distant sources passes near a massive star, galaxy, or galaxy cluster and the object’s gravity bends the light like a lens to provide a warped angle view of space.

leptons - lightest particles. Ex. Electrons, neutrinos, tau particles, muons.

MACHO - acronym for MAssive Compact Halo Object. Made of baryonic matter, these objects are a theoretical explanation that takes the place of dark matter and include neutron stars, black holes, or brown dwarfs.

mesons - medium-weight particles. Ex. Pions, kaons.

Planck satellite - a spacecraft that operated from 2009 to 2012. It measured the dark matter content of the universe by looking at the cosmic microwave background radiation and seeing how dark matter clumped and drew the regular matter together to form galaxies.

WIMP - acronym for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle. Theoretical particles that can pass through ordinary matter without affecting it.

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe - a spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from the Big Bang.

Transcript

Sources

Fritz Zwicky via the Swedish Morphological Society

Fritz Zwicky via the American Museum of Natural History

Zwicky: “Astronomers are spherical bastards. No matter how you look at them they are just bastards“

Vera Rubin via the American Museum of Natural History

Vera Rubin via Astronomy Magazine

Morton Roberts’ 2007 article on dark matter via Harvard

Particle classifications via PhysicsNet.co.uk

Leptons via Georgia State University, copyright 2001 and all written by Carl “Rod” Nave, who has a teaching award named after him at GSU. Go Rod!

Fermions and bosons via The Particle Adventure

MOND theory by Mordehai Milgrom, published in Scientific American Aug. 2002

Newton’s Second Law of Motion via NASA

MACHOs and WIMPs via NASA

MACHOs and WIMPs via the Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Bertone, Gianfranco. Behind the Scenes of the Universe: From the Higgs to Dark Matter. Oxford U P: Oxford, 2013.

Tucker, Wallace H. Chandra’s Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA’s Premier X-Ray Observatory. Smithsonian Books: Washington, D.C, 2017.

“a mysterious force that causes the observed accelerating expansion of the universe” (3).

“sterile neutrinos, axions, asymmetric dark matter, mirror dark matters, and extradimensional dark matter” (23).

“the concentration of dark matter is leveling off, rather than peaking sharply, in the central regions of this cluster” (31).

Timeline

Albert Einstein, German/Austrian (1879-1955)

Edwin Hubble, American (1889-1953)

Walter Baade, German (1893-1960)

Fritz Zwicky, Swiss (1898-1974)

Enrico Fermi, Italian (1901-1954)

Morton S. Roberts, American (1926- )

Vera Rubin, American (1928-2016)

Peter Higgs, English (1929- )

Kent Ford, American (1931- )

Mordehai Milgrom, Israeli (1946- )

Romeel Dave

Rachel Somerville

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Darkmatter’ by Andrew Bird off his album Fingerlings 3

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Ep. 26 Transits and Oppositions - HD and the Void

It's a history-heavy episode this week! Hear about the transits of Mercury and Venus, and learn what they have in common with the oppositions of planets like Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn—they're like eclipses, but with planets instead of the Moon.

The inner planets and the outer planets all look like stars from Earth. They are strange stars that move in strange ways, but their appearance depends on how they relate to observers on Earth. They are also affected by their position in relation to the Sun. Planets experience eclipses as well when the Sun, Earth, and planet are all aligned; in the inner planets, this is called a transit, and this has been a source of vast information about the solar system and the planets’ places in that system. In the outer planets, this eclipsing is called opposition. You get to hear about both in this week’s podcast!

Below the cut, I have the glossary, transcript, timeline of astronomers, sources, and music credits. I take topic suggestions from Tumblr messages, or you can tweet at me on Twitter at @HDandtheVoid, or you can ask me to my face if you know me. Please subscribe on iTunes, rate my podcast and maybe review it, and tell friends if you think they’d like to hear it!

(My thoughts on the next episode are Chuck Yeager, Edmond Halley, Stephen Hawking and his theories, or famous comets. The next episode will go up later in June!)

Glossary

aphelion - a planet’s most distant position from the Sun

black drop effect - an optical illusion where a planet nearing the edge of the Sun appears to be connected to the Sun’s edge by a black teardrop.

conjunction - when the Earth, Sun, and another planet in the solar system are aligned so that Earth and the planet are on opposite sides of the Sun.

node - the point where another planet’s orbit crosses the plane of Earth’s orbit. The planets’ orbits are tilted at slightly different angles from each other; for example, Mercury’s orbit is inclined 7 degrees compared to Earth’s orbit. Because Mercury orbits the Sun once every 88 days, it crosses Earth’s orbit every 44 days at these nodes.

opposition - when one of the outer planets crosses the plane of Earth’s orbit opposite the Sun.

perihelion - a planet’s closest position to the Sun

retrograde - the apparent motion of a planet in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its system, as observed from a particular vantage point.

syzygy - the straight line between three celestial bodies, usually the Sun to the Earth to another planetary body.

transit - when one of the inner planets crosses between the plane of Earth’s orbit and the Sun.

Script/Transcript

Timeline

Bernhard Walther, German (1430-1504)

Johannes Regiomontanus, German (1436-1476)

Willibald Pirckheimer, German (1470-1530)

Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish (1473-1543)

Georg Rheticus, Austrian (1514-1574)

Johannes Kepler, German (1571-1630)

Pierre Gassendi, French (1592-1655)

Johannes Hevelius, Polish (1611-1687)

Jeremiah Horrocks, English (1618-1641)

Edmond Halley, English (1656-1742)

Leonhard Euler, Swiss (1707-1783)

Alexandre Guy Pingré, French (1711-1796)

César-François Cassini de Thury, French (1714-1784)

Maximilian Hell, Hungarian (1720-1792)

Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche, French (1722-1769)

James Cook, English (1728-1779)

Charles Mason, English (1728-1786)

Jeremiah Dixon, English (1733-1779)

János Sajnovics, Hungarian (1733-1785)

Thomas Hornsby, English (1733-1810)

Charles Green, English (1734-1771)

Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande, French (1732-1807)

Jean Guillaume Wallot, French/German (1743-1794)

Christian VII of Denmark, Danish (1749-1808)

Sources

Mercury Solar Transit (image) via NASA

Mercury Transit of the Sun: Why Is It So Rare? via Space.com (May 2016)

The 2016 Transit of Mercury via NASA

Before the Transit of Mercury: forgotten forerunners of an astronomical revolution via The Guardian (May 2016)

Catalog of Venus Transits via NASA’s Fred Espenak

Mars Opposition via NASA

Mars brighter in 2018 than since 2003 via EarthSky (May 2018)

Opposition of Superior Planets via Hong Kong Observatory

Saturn at Opposition via NASA

Earth between sun and Saturn late June via EarthSky (Jun 2018 [not possible because I’m releasing this podcast in May 2018 but okay])

Uranus at opposition via EarthSky (Oct 2017)

Earth passing between Neptune and sun via EarthSky (Sept 2018 [not possible because I’m releasing this podcast in May 2018 but okay])

Anderson, Mark. The Day the World Discovered the Sun. Da Capo Press: Philadelphia, 2012.

“Visionaries like Edmund Halley had in 1716, for instance, argued that the Venus transit could enable science to trace out a map of the solar system accurate to 99.8 percent or better” (191).

Wulf, Andrea. Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, 2012.

Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity

Filler Music: ‘Cannonballs’ by Hey Marseilles off their album To Travels and Trunks.

Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught

Eagle Nebula

via reddit