The 365 Days of Astronomy

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Dec 17, 2025 • 7min

UNAWE Space Scoop - What's the Shape of a Supernova?

https://spacescoop.org/en/scoops/2528/whats-the-shape-of-a-supernova/ Rewritten & recorded by your editor, Richard Drumm. When you imagine an explosion in space, a supernova is usually what first comes to mind. But astronomers are still quite puzzled by some of the details of these cosmic fireworks. The typical supernova we often picture is really the end of a massive star's life. And a very dramatic ending at that! During its existence, a star keeps its spherical shape through a very delicate balance between: - the outward pressure created by the core's nuclear heat, what we call the radiation pressure, and - the gravity that compresses the star toward its center of mass. We call this balance a state of hydrostatic equilibrium. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 16, 2025 • 35min

Ask A Spaceman - Ep. 262: Does the Universe Have Extra Dimensions?

Large Extra Dimensions! Hosted by Dr. Paul M. Sutter. What do extra dimensions have to do with the strength of gravity? What is a tower of gravitons? How can we detect extra dimensions even if we can't perceive them? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes: http://www.AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, physics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Big thanks to my top Patreon supporters this month: Justin G, Chris L, Alberto M, Duncan M, Corey D, Michael P, Naila, Sam R, Joshua, Scott M, Rob H, Scott M, Louis M, John W, Alexis, Gilbert M, Rob W, Jessica M, Jules R, Jim L, David S, Scott R, Heather, Mike S, Pete H, Steve S, Lisa R, Kevin B, Aileen G, Steven W, Deb A, Michael J, Phillip L, Steven B, Mark R, Alan B, Craig B, Richard K, Stephen J, Joe R, David P, Justin, Tracy F, Ella F, Thomas K, James C, Syamkumar M, Homer V, Mark D, Bruce A, Tim Z, Linda C, The Tired Jedi, Lode D, Bob C, Red B, Stephen A, James R, Robert O, Allen E, Michael S, Reinaldo A, Sheryl, David W, Chris, Michael S, Erlend A, James D, Larry D, Karl W, Den K, Edward K, Craig M, Scott K, Vivek D, Barbara C, Brad, Azra K, Steve R, Koen G, and Narrative Dude! We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 15, 2025 • 29min

Astronomy Cast Ep. 142: Plate Tectonics

http://www.astronomycast.com/archive/ From June 15, 2009. The surface of the Earth feels solid under your feet, but you're actually standing on a plate of the Earth's crust. And that plate is slowly shifting across the surface of the Earth. Over geologic timescales, plate tectonics has totally resurfaced our planet, bringing continents together, and tearing them apart. We know we have plate tectonics here on Earth, but what about other worlds in the solar system? We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 14, 2025 • 6min

Travelers in the Night Eps. 357E & 358E: 40 Years & Tiny Spacecraft

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. travelersinthenight.org From October 2025. Today's 2 topics: - Looking at the stars on a clear dark night, far from the artificial air glow humanity creates, have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel in truly deep interstellar space? 40 years after their launches in 1977, your representatives, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft are in the vast space between the stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Aboard each Voyager is a Golden Record time capsule which is expected to last billions of years. This message from all of humanity is inscribed with greetings from Earth as well as sounds, images, and a decoding key which will enable any intelligent aliens which find a Voyager to discover who made it and where it came from. - To reach the vicinity of the nearest star, 24 trillion miles away, in less than 20 years, an interstellar space probe would have to travel at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. Newton's laws of motion, published 300 years ago, predict that the greater the mass of an object the greater is the force required to increase its velocity. In order to alleviate the need for the virtually unaffordable amount of energy required to accelerate a normal sized spacecraft to a speed of 20% of the speed of light, the Breakthrough Starshot program has funded the creation of 'Sprite' , the world's smallest spacecraft. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 13, 2025 • 18min

NOIRLab - An Extra Long Gamma Ray Burst

Astronomers discuss the longest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, lasting over seven hours. They explore its origins, including massive stars collapsing and the intriguing possibility of a helium-star merger. Follow-up observations utilized an array of powerful telescopes like Hubble and JWST, revealing significant challenges due to dust obscuration. The extraordinary event is linked to advanced modeling showcasing a relativistic jet moving at over 99% the speed of light. Exciting insights about tidal disruption events and black hole mergers are also covered.
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Dec 12, 2025 • 33min

EVSN - Never Trust a Volcano & Other Geology Tales

Discover the dramatic changes Earth has undergone since its formation, including how collisions shaped our planet and its moon. Learn about surprising internal structures exposed by seismic waves and the strange effects of core-leaching on the mantle. Delve into the world of volcanology with shocking eruptions like Hale Gubi's nine-mile ash plume. Get insights on innovative methods used to map magma pathways and catch up on exciting recent launches in aerospace.
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Dec 11, 2025 • 13min

Guide To Space - NASA Wants To Bring A Chunk Of Comet Back To Earth. Collaboration with Everyday Astronaut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtVKAQMNjY4 Hosted by Fraser Cain & Tim Dodd. From Feb 27, 2018. NASA is going to decide between a comet sample return mission or a helicopter on Titan. Which mission should it be? [Spoiler alert! NASA went with the Dragonfly mission.] Tim's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkS2dP7eiEU We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 10, 2025 • 17min

Cheap Astronomy - Implausible Engineering, Episode 6: Lasting the Distance

Hosted by Steve Nerlich. Immortality is hard work. Episode 6a: Staying Switched On It's difficult to achieve immortality unless you also achieve invulnerability, since even if you don't age or get sick you can still die from a natural disaster, or a murder, or whatever. Indeed, the longer you live the more likely some unexpected calamity may come your way. So, if your only immortal up until the point that something goes wrong and you die, then you're not really immortal. Episode 6b: Hopping Universes. The day is coming when our Universe starts winding down towards heat death and our by-then close-to- immortal descendants will need to find a fresh young Universe to continue in. After all, here we living in a Universe that apparently popped of nowhere, quite literally, since the whole idea of a Universe is that it contains spacetime, so whatever nothingness that it did pop out of had neither space nor time dimensions. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 9, 2025 • 6min

Deep Astronomy - A Glimpse Into The Early Universe Ep. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUyT46ZQYsc Hosted by Tony Darnell. From Feb 6, 2025. JWST Discovers Planet Formation in the Conditions of the Early Universe! Journey with the James Webb Space Telescope to the star cluster NGC 346, a vibrant region of star birth and potential planet formation. This image offers a glimpse into the early universe, where stars formed under conditions very different from our own Milky Way. See how JWST's infrared vision reveals protoplanetary disks - swirling clouds of gas and dust around young stars - defying previous models of planet formation. Witness the evidence that planets can form in environments with fewer heavy elements than previously thought, expanding our understanding of how planetary systems like our own come to be. This stunning image, a mosaic of data collected by JWST's NIRCam instrument, represents a breakthrough in our understanding of the cosmos. Discover the potential for new worlds and the endless possibilities that await as we continue to explore the universe. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.
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Dec 8, 2025 • 38min

Astronomy Cast Ep. 774: How Does Bad Science Happen?

The hosts delve into how bad science infiltrates reputable publications, highlighting alarming examples like cherry-picked supernova data. They discuss the pitfalls of p-values and the complexities of statistical noise impacting research conclusions. Exploration of cognitive biases sheds light on how biases influence findings. Academic pressures, funding needs, and the role of peer review networks are examined, revealing how these factors can skew scientific integrity. Ultimately, they reflect on the trade-offs between being a communicator and an academic.

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