July 27th Radio Show: Venus, Earth, and the Moon

Continuing on the Solar System theme started two weeks ago, and the focus on the Moon from last week, finally available here is the July 27th episode of this radio, where I discuss recent scientific results pertaining to Venus, Earth, and the Moon. As always, please leave below or email me any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening.

Happy 10th Birthday Chandra X-ray Observatory!

The highest angular resolution X-ray observatory ever (and likely to hold this title for at least 20 years, maybe more) and first of the current, new generation of X-ray telescopes, the Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched into space onboard the space shuttle Columbia about 10 years ago. For more information on the wonderful science this satellite has helped accomplish, read this article. Chandra really is an amazing facility, and hopefully will last (at least) another 10 years!

July 20th Radio Show: 40th Anniversary of the First Moon Landing

Celebrating the crowning achievement of human spaceflight, here is the July 20th episode of this radio show where I discuss the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landings. As always, please email me or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

No, Mars is not going to look as large as the Full Moon...

... but will be a pretty sight tomorrow night regardless. Go here for more information.

“Avian Einsteins”

Now available here is a full-length video of an event from this year's World Science Festival titled "Avian Einsteins." Hope you enjoy!

July 13th Radio Show: The Sun

Slowly working through to backlog of radio shows I need to put online, now available here is the July 13th episode. This program begins my current discussion of recent scientific results concerning the Solar System and, since it lies at its center, I appropriately start with the Sun. And because it is so close to the Sun, I cover Mercury as well. As always, please email me or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

Want to hunt for Supernovae?

Galaxy Zoo, which I personally feel is one of the best ongoing Astronomy programs out there, is looking for people to help identify supernovae - bright flashes of light believed to be produced by explosion of white dwarfs or massive stars - in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Go here for more details, and good luck!

June 29th Radio Show: LRO and LCROSS

Finally available here is the June 29th episode of this radio show. Continuing on the previous show's theme of discussing recent satellite launches, on this program I discuss the NASA's newest (unmanned) missions to the Moon. As always, please email me or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

Shadowy Moons...

Moons can eclipse each other as the orbit their respective planets, as proven in this pretty amazing video from Christopher Go, an amateur astronomer in the Phillipines. Video courtesy of spaceweather.com. Enjoy!

The Ethics of Space Travel

Before reading this New York Times article, I hadn't really thought it was an issue - but after reading it I can see why NASA employs someone to think about these things. Definitely worth a read, I feel. Hope you agree.

June 8th Radio Show: Herschel and Planck

Now available here is the June 8th episode of this radio show, not devoted to the wonderful contributions of the scientists whose names are in the title of this post, but the recently launched European astronomy satellites which bear their name. Both Herschel and Planck promise to do some very impressive science, which I hope I did justice too in this show. As always, please email me or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

"Notes And Neurons"

Click here to see Bobby McFerrin's performance of "Notes and Neurons" at this year's World Science Festival. Hope you enjoy!

Pretty Sky tomorrow morning

Well, actually, right at Dawn. According to spaceweather.com,
at dawn Monday, Aug. 17th, Venus and the crescent Moon will be near each other in the eastern sky. For much of North America, the International Space Station (ISS) will also appear. Check spaceweather.com (naturally) for a sky map and ISS flyby predictions. Enjoy!

June 1st Radio Show: Conclusion of the Hubble Servicing Mission

Now available here is the June 1st edition of this radio show, where I cover more wonderful science results from the Hubble Space Telescope and discuss the repairs which were accomplished during the latest (and, unfortunately, almost certainly the last) servicing mission. As always, please email or leave below any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

BLAST! Colbert Report! Tonight!

Prof. Mark Devlin, leading scientist on the BLAST Balloon Experiment and subject of the documentary BLAST! The Movie, will be the guest on tonight's episode of the Colbert Report. This airs tonight at 11:30pm EST on Comedy Central, or starting tomorrow, available online here. Enjoy!

Asteroid Watch

NASA has recently started a new webpage, available here, where you can track of all the latest news on Near-Earth Asteroid. Hope you enjoy!

May 13th Radio Show: Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission

Finally available here is the May 13th episode of this radio show, where I cover the very successful (though we didn't know that at the time) final servicing mission of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as some recent scientific results from observations which only Hubble could have performed. As always, please email me or leave below and questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Hope you enjoy, and thank you for listening!

Dark Matter Fueled Rockets

No, I do not jest. Read this article for details.

Human History of the Perseid Meteor Shower

Peaking right about now is the the Perseid Meteor shower, when the Earth runs into debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle as it orbits around the Sun - causing these rocks to enter the Earth's atmosphere where they burn up as little meteorites should, producing lovely little trails of fire. In today's New York Times there is an interesting article by Prof. Christopher Cokinos of Utah State University on the history of this meteor show. Go here to read it, I personally enjoyed it quite a bit. Enjoy!

Astronaut Tweets

Is that what you call it? Anyway, NASA astronaut Col. Tim Kopra is the first International Space Station crew member to "tweet" about living and working in orbit, in partciulat the International Space Station. To follow Kopra on Twitter, click here. He will also be periodically answering questions submitted here. Enjoy!

Perseid Meteor Show

The Perseid meteor shower, one of the most active of the year, will peak between sunset on Tuesday, August 11th, and sun rise on Wednesday, August 12th. This is the result of the Earth passing through the tail of dust and ice left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle as it passes around the Sun. This material isn't stationary, but actually in orbit around the Sun, which is why each year the Earth hits some material. This year the Earth is expected to pass through a denser-than-usual filament of dust, so it should be even more active than normal - with a meteor rates possibly as high as 200 per hour. For more information on this event, read this NASA Science article and visit spaceweather.com. Lots of Astronomy clubs in the NY area are holding observing events, look at the calendar to the right to see if there are any convenient for you. Enjoy!

Also, if you take any pictures, I'd love to link to them from this site. Just leave the URLs in the comments section below.

May 6th Radio Show: Telescope News

Here is the May 6th episode of this radio show where I discuss the latest telescope news: from recycling radio telescopes to launching new satellites. Thank you very much for listening, and hope you enjoy.

New NASA competition

NASA has just announced a new competition where a team of undergraduate and graduate students can design and build excavation systems that could be used for future lunar exploration. Full competition proposals can include a request for up to $5,000 to cover designing, building, and travel expenses. NASA anticipates funding the first 10 approved team requests. Teams will test their designs in a "head to head" challenge to see which design can excavate the most simulated lunar regolith, or dirt, over a specific timeframe. The competition also involves submittal of a
systems engineering paper, as well as an educational outreach project. The event will be held at the Astronaut Hall of Fame near NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., May 25-28, 2010. For information on the competition and how to apply, go here. Good luck!

Spacefront Property

Go here to read about the latest addition to the International Space Station - a space porch. Enjoy!

April 29th Radio Show: Supernovae and their Aftermath

Now available here, but broadcast an embarrassingly long time ago, is the April 29th episode of this radio. In addition to the last Astronomy news, I discuss recent results concerning exploding stars (supernovae) and the neutron star, black holes, and energetic particles they leave behind. Please email me or leave below and questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Hope you enjoy!

April 22nd Radio Show

Available here is the April 22nd episode of this radio show. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find my folder containing all the articles, press releases, etc. so I'm a little foggy as to what I actually talked about. Hope you enjoy anyway! As always, please leave below or email me any questions, comments, or concerns you might have.

April 15th Radio Show: Astronomy News

Definitely covering a grab-bag of topics, here is the April 15th episode of this radio show, where I discuss the latest Astronomy news, from the launch of NASA's Kepler satellite to evidence for the smallest known galaxies in the Universe having significant amounts of dark matter. Please leave below or email me any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Hope you enjoy, and thank you for listening

March 25th radio show: Solar System News

Available here is the March 25th episode of this radio show, where I quickly summarize the latest results on the Solar System. I'm currently doing another series of shows discussing individual objects in the Solar System - so stay tuned if you are interested. As always, please leave below or email me any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. Thank you for listening!

Sorry...

(again) for the lack of radio show postings. I do have several months of backlog shows to put here, and hopefully they will be appearing every other day or so until I am caught up. Unfortunately, I did have to move offline all of the 2007 shows due to disk space concerns - if you want them, please email me and I can temporarily put them back online. Again, thank you very much for your patience.

NASA Programs and Contests

NASA (as does ESA, by the way) sponsors a good number of programs for museums, students, etc. to get people interested in science and engineering. It is currently accepting proposals here (Deadline Oct. 28) for experiments in microgravity conducted by undergraduates, as well as here (for more information, go here) from museums and planetariums for educational activities, and super-efficient aircraft (here).

It also awards prizes for engineering excellence (for example, here), or superb designs of a supersonic aircraft (here). Congrats to the winners, good luck to the applicants, and I'll post information on any further contests as I get them.

Bilingual NASA

To any of you out there who speak Spanish, NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez has recently started his own bilingual twitter, is accepting questions in both English and Spanish here for the next Space Shuttle crew. Enjoy!

Perseid Meteor Shower

Earth, as it travels around the Sun, is passing through the trail of ice and dust left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle (again), bringing not death and destruction but a very pretty sky show (for free!) known as the Perseid Meteor shower. Go here to read a NASA science article with more details - the Perseid meteor shower is one of most active, and really is a site to behold. Please leave below links to any pictures you take of this event, I'd love to see them. Enjoy!