An irreverent and informative tour of the latest, greatest, and most interesting discoveries in astronomy.
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Joshua Colwell Podcasts
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Weird Black Hole Blazar and Water Ice Glaciers on Mars
45:25
45:25
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There's more abundant and accessible water ice on Mars, ready for us to scoop it up, heat it up, and eat it up. And in the distant recesses of the universe there's a supermassive black hole with an interesting neighbor that causes a periodic splash of light. Learn all about it, plus trivia, fake sponsor, the Earth's puzzling spin, and much more.…
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Forbidden Black Hole Merger and Chaos on Europa
46:51
46:51
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46:51
We discuss the largest black hole merger observed to date, between two black holes that are in the so-called forbidden mass range. They must have been created by some ancient merger of other black holes themselves. It's black holes everywhere you look these days. Closer to home, we take a look at Europa's weird Chaos terrain and new insights on how…
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Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS is Out Of This World
48:49
48:49
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48:49
The astroquarks celebrate 400 episodes with a special sponsor, a special stumper, and a special interstellar comet making its way through our solar system from an origin near the galactic center perhaps as much as 7 billion years ago.By Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Jim Cooney, Audrey Martin, Tracy Becker
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Vera Rubin Observatory Sets Sights on the Universe
48:20
48:20
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48:20
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has started making observations with the world's largest optical detector boasting over 3 billion pixels at the back of an enormous telescope in the high Andes. We take a look at some of the early discoveries and look ahead to what's in store for this enormous project as it plans to scan the sky hundreds of times at un…
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Supernova Hazards and Cloudy With a Chance of Sand
40:02
40:02
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40:02
We're all about the weather on this episode, with a new study showing that even relatively distant supernova may have affected the Earth's climate in the recent past. And the James Webb Space Telescope has observed exoplanet WASP-107b to have clouds of sand vapor. Plus, we have two hot takes and two Top astroquarks!…
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Cool Planetary Cores and Lava Fountains Galore
40:14
40:14
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40:14
Original top quark Tracy Becker is back to bring us up to speed Europa Clipper's flyby of Mars, and we learn about a new way for planetary cores to form without so much heat. Join us for all this, plus lava fountain trivia, space news, and much more.By Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Tracy Becker
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The End of the Universe As We Know It and We Feel Fine
47:17
47:17
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47:17
A major update to the predicted end of the universe has it coming much earlier than previously anticipated. However, we still have plenty of time to get our affairs in order, and the update has to do with spaghettification, and anything with spaghettification can't be all bad. We also talk about active asteroids, your ideal night sky, and cosmologi…
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A Slurping Black Hole and a Win for the Streaming Instability
41:55
41:55
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We get lucky and catch a rogue supermassive black hole in the act of slurping up a star as it meanders through a distant galaxy. Closer to home, the detection of a second trinary, or triple, system in the Kuiper Belt beyond the orbit of Neptune bolsters the streaming instability theory of planet formation. We talk about all that and what it has to …
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Vesta Chip Off the Old Block and a Nearby Dark Molecular Cloud
49:28
49:28
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The asteroid Vesta may be a fragment of a much larger protoplanet, and astronomers examine old data to discover a large molecular cloud lurking right in the solar system's backyard. Get all the details, plus habitable exoplanets get another look, space news, and trivial matters with your friendly neighborhood astroquarks.…
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Ultralight Dark Matter and Peanut Asteroid Hot Take
40:47
40:47
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NASA's Lucy mission had a picture perfect encounter with the asteroid Donaldjohanson on its way to the first ever flybys of Trojan asteroids. Discoveries of ancient supermassive black holes challenge theories of their formation. If dark matter is composed of ultralight particles (lighter than a neutrino), that could resolve the mystery. Join us for…
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Hot Takes on Water on Earth and Black Hole Singularities
42:40
42:40
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42:40
The astroquarks discover hot takes and explore the nature of ice, the origin of Earth's water, and the trouble with the singularities at the hearts of black holes. Plus, we have a stumper, astronomical trivia, and much more.By Josh Colwell, Addie Dove, Jim Cooney, Audrey Martin
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Weird Convection on Venus and a Wrinkle in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter Model
43:37
43:37
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43:37
Venus's extra-thick crust may be extra chewy, allowing convection to occur and helping power volcanoes into the current era. New observations of the distant universe, meanwhile, show that dark energy may not have behaved as expected in the standard cosmological model. We'll break it all down for you together with space news and trivia with your fri…
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A survey of nearby stars establishes the rate of supernovas in our general neighborhood. Evidence indicates we had nearby stellar explosions at the times of two mass extinctions. Those supernovas may have decimated the ozone layer and contributed to extinctions and climate changes. Plus, we recorded on April 1 and take a look at silly April 1 scien…
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Life on Hycean Worlds, Interstellar Debris, and Dark Matter Survey
43:38
43:38
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If there are Hycean worlds and if they have a certain kind of microbial life and if there is enough of it, JWST might be able to see the chemical products of that in the planet's atmosphere. We take a look at that, debris from neighboring stars entering our solar system, and the first results from the Euclid space telescope. Join us for all this pl…
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There are exciting new observations from recent lunar missions, a possible chunk of the Moon keeping us company, and an intriguing observation supporting the theory that the entire universe is inside a black hole! Get inside the event horizon with the astroquarks for all the space updates, trivia, and more.…
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Oort Cloud Spiral, the Color of Mars, and a New Dwarf Galaxy
41:15
41:15
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41:15
We take a look at the formation and structure of the Oort cloud of comets which is spherical at large distances but has a spiral structure in its inner regions. And, after all this time, there's a surprising twist on the nature of the iron mineral that gives Mars its reddish hue. Also hiding in plain sight is a dwarf galaxy in the neighborhood of t…
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Lunar exploration continues to accelerate, and there's a new longest "structure" in the universe. Quipu is a quasi-alignment of clusters of galaxies stretching over 1 billion light years. Structure is in cynical quotation marks because these objects are not bound or connected to each other in any way, but their arrangement is a natural consequence …
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