The 365 Days of Astronomy

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 April 2025.

Today's 2 topics:

- In 2013 a 56 foot diameter space rock exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia releasing the energy of 450 kilotons of TNT and filled local hospitals with some of the 1,500 people who were injured. Fortunately no one died. In 1908 a 200 ft diameter meteor exploded over a largely unpopulated region at Tunguska, Siberia knocking down trees over a 750 square mile area. If it had hit...

Since their first detection, powerful bursts of X-rays from distant galaxies, known as fast X-ray transients (FXTs), have mystified astronomers. FXTs have historically been elusive events, occurring at vast distances away from Earth and only lasting seconds to hours. Einstein Probe (EP), launched in 2024, is dedicated to observing transient events in the X-ray and is changing the game for astronomers looking to understand the origin of these exotic events. In this podcast, Dr. Robert Eyles-Ferris discusses a recent FXT and what it reveals about the deaths of massive stars. 

Bios: 

- Rob Sparks is...

From September 3, 2025.

In this week's episode, we take a look at the impact SpaceX launches from the Space Coast will have on their competitors and those living, working, and going to school near Kennedy and Cape Canaveral. We also look at a bunch of new science discoveries, including the origins of Ryugu & Bennu, the solar system shocked itself, a new supernova that blew off an unusual number of layers before exploding, and quick updates on Psyche, Juno, JUICE, and the number of moons orbiting Uranus.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 D...

Hosted by Avivah Yamani, our Director.

We are exploring the word Equinox. We start by having the definitions, why “equal night” isn’t quite exact, how spring/autumn flip between hemispheres, and a whirlwind tour of equator monuments from Pontianak to Macapá, Cayambe, Kayabwe, Nanyuki, Ilhéu das Rolas, and Bonjol.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1otYvmqp6w

Hosted by Fraser Cain.

From Jul 19, 2016.

Some of the greatest discoveries in astronomy have been made by watching how the skies change over time. Today we talk about these techniques, and an observatory that will revolutionize time-based astronomy.

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How do we measure the sizes of stars? What are the biggest ones today, and how big could stars have gotten in the past? Is there any way for a star to cheat and get even bigger? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!

Support the show: http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter

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http://www.astronomycast.com/archive/

From September 14, 2009.

We think we live near an average star, but that’s not the case at all. Compared to most stars in the Universe, the Sun is a giant! Let’s look at the small end of the stellar spectrum, to stars with a fraction of the size and mass of our own Sun. There are many ways that a star can get small, and they lead dramatically different lives and deaths.

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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 November 2024.

Today's 2 topics:

- My Catalina Sky Survey teammate Carson Fuls was using the new hundred million pixel camera on our team's Schmidt telescope located on Mt. Bigelow, Arizona, when he discovered 2017 AG13. It passes near the Earth's orbit twice a year on its own 345 day path around the Sun. When Carson spotted it, 9 lunar distances from him it was heading in our...

Paul Hill, Ralph Wilkins and Dr. Jenifer “Dr. Dust” Millard host. 

Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce.

[Editor’s note: This episode is 1 hour 37 minutes long.]

A bumper end of summer episode with Paul out in the world of science outreach and communication in a Summer music festival. There’s also discussion of the new Astronomer Royal, China’s moon program, Starship and a deep dive on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production c...

From May 27, 2021.

Jupiter’s moon Europa, an icy world with a subsurface ocean that interests astrobiologists, may actually be hot enough to melt the interior rock and create volcanoes on the ocean floor. Plus, Ryugu, giant planets, fossil discoveries, Martian glaciers, and this week’s What’s Up!

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. actualastronomy@gmail.com

- Sept 1 - Aurigids ZHR=10 related to Comet Keiss

The comet was discovered by Carl Clarence Kiess at Lick Observatory on a photographic plate obtained in the morning hours of 6 July 1911 with the Crocker photographic telescope. The comet appeared as a distorted nebulous object with a short tail. The presence of the comet was confirmed visually the next day. The comet had a well condensed nucleus and a faint tail. In photographs the tail was four degrees long. The comet then...

Asking questions and not always answering them.

Is there hope?

Well, sure. The question arises where the Drake Equation, aiming to quantify the likely number

of detectable intelligent civilizations out there includes a term representing the inherent risk of

any intelligent civilization destroying itself. It is just a risk, could be low could be high, but its

wide acceptance as a part of the whole equation does suggest we have some pessimism about

our own future.

Could dark matter be black holes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RucWv35XwD0

Hosted by Tony Darnell.

From  Oct 11, 2023.

Over the course of this show, we’ve talked many, many times about the Transit Method for detecting exoplanets.  It is simply the measure of a star's decrease in brightness as the star passes through our line of sight.  This once difficult measurement has now become commonplace and can even be done with advanced amateur astronomy equipment under a reasonably dark sky.

From this measurement, we can infer a few things about the planets passing by: we...

http://www.astronomycast.com/archive/

From February 9, 2009.

This week Bob Novella of the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast is going to pepper Pamela with questions, testing her ability to leap from tides to gravitational waves to Higgs bosons. We’ll see where this takes us on this skeptical journey through what is known and what we’re trying to learn about this Universe.

[Editor’s note: A small bit of audio at the start of two of Bob’s questions was lost due to a technical glitch. So I inserted a coo-coo clock so...

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 & November 2024.

Today's 2 topics:

- An example that a relatively large space rock can approach the Earth suddenly started with what appeared as a bright star moving across the images that I had just obtained with the Catalina Sky Survey's 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona. It was about 100 times brighter than most of Earth approaching objects asteroid hunters discover. Over the next 64...

In January 2025, astronomers woke up to an alert of a mysterious event that occurred 2.8 billion light years away from Earth. As such things go, this was fairly close to Earth and was an opportunity for detailed observation of the event’s evolution. It was a powerful burst of X-rays, known as a fast X-ray transient or FXT. This burst was named ‘EP 250108a’, after the Einstein Probe, that’s the EP part, that detected the event.

Let’s call it 108a. Just between us…

FXTs are generally hard to detect and occur far from...

From August 31, 2020.

Join us today as we examine observations for dual quasars in the process of merging and a star being torn apart by its supermassive black hole. Plus, Hubble data used to map a halo around the Andromeda galaxy.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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Every bit...

Hosted by our Director, Avivah Yamani.

Today's podcast guides you through the slow-motion meeting of the Milky Way and Andromeda. Learn why stars mostly miss each other, how gravity sculpts tidal tails, and how colliding gas and dust spark starbursts—turning two spirals into one remixed galaxy. Epic? Yes. Doomsday? Nope.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iOb8kC0OuM

From  Sep 8, 2017.

Astronomers have been searching for mid-weight black holes, and now they’ve found one, right here in the Milky Way.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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Every bit helps! Thank you!

------------------------------------

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIfHgFLe4_U

Hosted by Tony Darnell.

From  Apr 26, 2016.

Black holes have been largely theoretical until the LIGO observations announced earlier this year.  Thanks to those observations, we now have another way to study and observe these amazing celestial objects.

Original Music by Mark C. Petersen, Loch Ness Productions

http://lochnessproductions.com

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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From April 14, 2008.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to get a spacecraft off the Earth and into space. And how managers at NASA can actually navigate a spacecraft to another planet? And how does a gravity assist work? And how do they get things into orbit? And how do they land? So many questions…

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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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 2024.

Today's 2 topics:

- A location 9,000 feet above sea level in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco is ideal for an asteroid hunter since the weather is often clear and the skies are dark. It was thus intriguing for me to see that a new asteroid discovery was posted from J43 which is the Morocco Oukaïmeden Sky Survey or (MOSS) located near Marrakech, a...

Hosted by Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, Dr. Tshiamiso Makwela & Dr. Daniel Cunnama.

In this episode of The Cosmic Savannah, our hosts speak with Dr. Eli Kasai from the University of Namibia. Dr. Kasai shares his inspiring journey of establishing the astronomy department at the University of Namibia, and his work on blazars using SALT and the Cherenkov Telescope Array. He also discusses the exciting African Millimetre Telescope project and Namibia's active role in the global astrophysics community, along with efforts to engage the public through the mobile planetarium.

We've added a new way to d...

From October 8, 2020.

New images taken with the ALMA Observatory show a young proto-stellar disk with the rings and gaps of planetary formation growing together, once again challenging our preconceptions. And other research into stellar formation adds heavy metals to the mix to match models to observations. Plus, an old, metal-poor galaxy halo.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. actualastronomy@gmail.com

The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents Listener Emails. In this episode we talk & read several listener emails including Observing Saturn, Equipment reports, telescope making, public outreach, a supernova photo and more!

Our emailers:

- Leonid

- Frank Dempsy of Pickering, Ontario

- Bill

- Richard N.

- Mike Peoples

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu9-_p7m-4c

Paul Hill, Ralph Wilkins and Dr. Jenifer “Dr. Dust” Millard host. 

Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce.

From  Nov 18, 2022.

An elevator into space - the science fiction future!

No more explosive rockets - ride an elevator into orbit and open up the solar system for human exploration.

But is that realistic or are there just as many risks with the space elevator?

We've added a new way to donate t...

What powers Cepheid variable stars? What about Mira variables and pulsating stars? And are there variable stars that don’t actually vary at all? 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 SP...

http://www.astronomycast.com/archive/

From February 21, 2011.

When we look around our planet, we see a huge variety in landforms: mountains, valleys, plateaus, and more. Continents rise and fall over the eons, providing geologists with a history of the planet’s evolution. The study of these changes is known as geomorphology, and the lessons we learn here on Earth apply to the other objects 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...

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 August 2024.

Today's 2 topics:

- The Earth Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance or Earth MOID for short is the closest an asteroid can come to our home planet on it's current orbit.

- The James Webb Space Telescope or JWST for short is a superb scientific instrument which is revolutionizing our understanding of the structure of the universe and is providing a tool...

Episode 8.

“ASTROMAN: the Dark Sky Guardian” is a podcast channel that aims to explore popular science in multiple disciplines and research on interdisciplinary approaches, such as sustainability, dark-sky protection, astrophotography, space exploration, astronomy innovation, inclusive science communication, and STEAM Education by integrating science and arts.

Exodus CL Sit, also known as the ASTROMAN, is a transmedia astronomy educator, popular science author, STEAM educator, and science communicator in Hong Kong. He is recently the National Astronomy Education Coordinator (Chair of Hong Kong, China) of the International Astronomical Union and President of Starrix. He was also...

From August 20, 2020.

Join us today as we look at how citizen science helped discover 100 cool worlds nearby. Then we examine evidence that exploding stars may have contributed to a mass extinction on Earth. Speaking of mass extinctions, an asteroid narrowly missed our planet last weekend. 

Because… 2020.

We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgQexNb0_0s

From  Apr 15, 2017.

Hosted by Fraser Cain.

Did you hear that NASA just announced an important discovery in the quest to find life on other places in the Solar System? In this quick episode, Fraser details what NASA found on Saturn’s Enceladus and Jupiter’s Europa, and what it means for the search for life.

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/365DaysOfA...

Strange new worlds.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – How big can rocky planets and how small can gas giants get?

Well there is some data, so we don’t have to talk in hypotheticals. There’s a rocky planet with

about 40 times Earth mass and about 3 and a half times Earth’s diameter, which is about 85%

of Neptune’s diameter. So, it’s a mighty big rocky planet that’s approaching gas giant scale.

Dear Cheap Astronomy – Will we grow crops in Martian regolith?

So, firstly you can’t really grow...

From October 9, 2013.

Nothing lasts forever, stars live and die over the course of hundreds of millions to billions, and in the case of red dwarf stars, trillions of years. Planets are born from the remnants of their parent stars and die over a shorter timescale. Life on those planets, if it exists, is presumed to be shorter still, governed entirely by the environments provided by the combination of the star and planetary characteristics. How long life lasts there ultimately depends on how long the star lives and how it dies.

Using our solar s...

http://www.astronomycast.com/archive/

From June 3, 2013.

Hosted by Dr. Pamela Gay and Fraser Cain.

Our modern society depends on science. It impacts the way we eat, work, communicate and play. And yet, most people take our amazing scientific advancement for granted, and some are even hostile to it. What can we do to spread the love of science through education, outreach and media?

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.co...

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 July & August 2024.

Today's 2 topics:

- During a recent 60 day period of time 23 space rocks came closer to Earth than our Moon.

- When the Earth enters a stream of high speed protons and other charged particles in the solar wind or our home planet is impacted by a solar coronal mass ejection the Earth’s strong magnetic field acts a a sh...

Astronomers have discovered a companion star in an incredibly tight orbit around Betelgeuse using the NASA and U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ‘Alopeke instrument on Gemini North, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the NSF and operated by NSF NOIRLab. In this podcast, Dr. Steve Howell describes the possible discovery of this long sought after companion and future observations research into this type of star system. 

Bios: 

- Rob Sparks is in the Communications, Education and Engagement group at NSF’s NOIRLab in Tucson, Arizona.

- Dr. Howell...

From July 30, 2025.

In this week's episode we take a look at all the news our outer solar system has to offer. From newly discovered outer solar system objects to interstellar comet 3I/Atlas to the Perseid Meteor shower, we have icy objects and absolutely no aliens (It's never aliens #IYKYK).

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!

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Hosted by Andy Poniros.

On the 50th anniversary of the final Apollo Mission, The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Apollo / Shuttle Astronaut Vance Brand discusses what is considered to be the beginning of detente between the US & the Soviet Union as well as other missions...Also, Apollo 11 Flight Controller Steve Bales & Apollo 16 Astronaut & Apollo 11 Lunar Landing Capcom, Charlie Duke discuss the challenges of landing the Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.

Intro Music: "A Moment in Space History", Andy Poniros

Outro Music: Funk 2001, Larry Benigno

We've added a ne...

Paul Hill, Ralph Wilkins and Dr. Jenifer “Dr. Dust” Millard host. 

Damien Phillips, John Wildridge and Dustin Ruoff produce.

This month we talk about Jen at the BBC, AI in science communication, a supernova in NGC7331, whether Betelgeuse has a companion, Exoplanet shenanigans, European hypersonic space planes, and of course our monthly sky guide and general chat.

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!

S...