StarDate, the longest-running national radio science feature in the U.S., tells listeners what to look for in the night sky.
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McDonald Observatory Podcasts
The Moon shoots the gap between some bright companions tonight: the planet Jupiter and the star Pollux, the brighter “twin” of Gemini. They climb into good view by about 10:30 or 11, and stand high overhead at dawn tomorrow. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and it has the most turbulent atmosphere. Hurricane-like storms as big as …
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In the early 20th century, scientists discovered a mysterious new type of radiation. The higher they went, the stronger it became. They realized that it came from beyond Earth. And 100 years ago tomorrow, it got a name: cosmic rays. Nobel Prize winner Robert Millikan had become fascinated by the rays from outer space in the early ’20s. He coined th…
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Nothing can survive the brutal conditions on the surface of the Moon. But a story that debuted 125 years ago depicted a vast civilization below the surface – a society of insects. First Men in the Moon was written by H.G. Wells. It was published over several months in two magazines – “The Cosmopolitan” in the United States, and “The Strand” in Brit…
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The black hole at the heart of the Milky Way is like the monster lurking under your bed. It’s four million times the mass of the Sun, and about 15 million miles across – just waiting to gobble up anything that gets too close. But compared to the black holes in many other galaxies, the one in the Milky Way is less like a monster and more like a dust…
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A Little Red Dot might have a big black hole in its heart. And that’s a bit of a challenge to explain. Little Red Dots are galaxies from the first 1.5 billion years of the universe. The name comes from their appearance – they’re small and red, but they’re especially bright. They don’t appear to have enough stars to make them so bright. So a good bi…
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With the autumn harvest safely stowed away, many people in bygone centuries turned their attention to hunting. And just as the Harvest Moon helped them bring in the crops, the Hunter’s Moon helped them find game. The moonlight made it easier to track animals through the empty fields and beyond. Although most present-day Americans don’t have to worr…
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In 1908, a space rock the size of a small office building exploded above Siberia, flattening hundreds of square miles of forest. In 1975, several “fireballs” blazed across the night, and instruments on the Moon recorded several impacts. And 30 years later, scientists saw an impact on the Moon. These events might all be related to the Taurid meteor …
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The Taurid meteor shower has a double identity. It’s split into two different streams, which peak a few nights apart in early November. Neither stream is particularly impressive, but things pick up when they overlap. Their story begins thousands of years ago, with the breakup of a big ball of ice and dust – Comet Encke. The biggest remaining chunk …
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AUDIO: We have contact. We have initial contact – initial contact of the Soyuz capsule with the Expedition 1 crew to the International Space Station. A key milestone in the human exploration of space took place 25 years ago tomorrow. The first permanent crew took up residence in the International Space Station. And people have been living on the st…
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Like other buildings, observatory domes can outlive their usefulness. They may not be big enough for the latest telescopes. The light from encroaching cities can make it hard for them to see the heavens. Or time may just catch up to them. Many domes and related buildings have been torn down. Others have been converted into offices or libraries. And…
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