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Universe Today - When White Dwarfs Collide Updated: 2007-11-09 20:00:00 Description: There's a certain kind of supernova that's totally dependable. Let a white dwarf accumulate 1.4 times the mass of the Sun, and it'll detonate in an explosion visible clear across the Universe. When astronomers saw supernova 2006gz, that's what they t...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Rising Winds from Supermassive Black Holes Updated: 2007-11-02 20:00:00 Description: Astronomers now believe there's a supermassive black hole lurking at the heart of every galaxy. When these monsters are actively feeding, an accretion disk of material builds up around them, like swirling water waiting to go down the drain. For the f...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - HiRISE View of Mars Updated: 2006-11-30 06:00:00 Description: If you want to get a good view of something, you'll want a big telescope, or you want to get close. NASA has decided to both, equipping its new Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter with the largest spacecraft telescope ever built, and then flying it closer to...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Astronomy Cast - Hot Jupiters and Pulsar Planets Updated: 2006-09-26 18:20:00 Description: You have lived on the Earth all your life, so youd think you know plenty about planets. As usual though, the Universe is stranger than we assume, and the planets orbiting other stars defy our expectations. Gigantic super-Jupiters whirling around th...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Astronomy Cast - In Search of Other Worlds Updated: 2006-09-20 05:00:00 Description: Look down at your feet. There you're looking at a planet. Now look into the night sky and you should be able to spot a few more. After that, spotting additional planets becomes really hard, especially when you're trying to find them orbiting other ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Astronomy Cast - Pluto's Planetary Identity Crisis Updated: 2006-09-14 17:33:00 Description: Pluto. It's a planet, then it's not. This week we review Pluto's history, from discovery to demotion by the International Astronomical Union. Learn the 3 characteristics that make up a planet, and why Pluto now fails to make the grade. ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - A Puzzling Difference Updated: 2006-08-04 01:00:00 Description: Imagine looking at red houses, and sometimes you see a crow fly past. But every time you look at a blue house, theres always a crow flying right in front of the house. The crow and the house could be miles apart, so this must be impossible, right? ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Inevitable Supernova Updated: 2006-07-24 23:30:00 Description: Consider the dramatic binary system of RS Ophiuchi. A tiny white dwarf star, about the size of our Earth, is locked in orbit with a red giant star. A stream of material is flowing from the red giant to the white dwarf. Every 20 years or so, the accum...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - See the Universe With Gravity Eyes Updated: 2006-06-03 06:00:00 Description: In the past, astronomers could only see the sky in visible light, using their eyes as receptors. New technologies extended their vision into different spectra: infrared, ultraviolet, radio waves, x-rays and gamma rays. But what if you had gravity eye...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - We're Safe From Gamma Ray Bursts Updated: 2006-05-14 00:00:00 Description: We live in a dangerous Universe. Our tiny home planet is at risk from many extraterrestrial threats: asteroid strikes, solar flares, rogue black holes, supernovae. Now add gamma ray bursts to the list - those most powerful explosions in the Universe....more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - There Goes New Horizons Updated: 2006-02-10 06:30:00 Description: Take a look through any book on our Solar System, and you'll see beautiful photographs of every planet - except one. Eight of our nine planets have been visited up close by a spacecraft, and we've got the breathtaking photos to prove it. Pluto's the ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Galactic Exiles Updated: 2006-01-28 01:30:00 Description: Young hot blue star - the supermassive black hole has spoken, it's time for you leave the galaxy. When binary stars stray too close to the centre of the Milky Way, they're violently split apart. One star is put into an elliptical orbit around the sup...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Gravity Tractor Beam for Asteroids Updated: 2005-12-29 19:30:00 Description: Forget about nuclear weapons, if you need to move a dangerous asteroid, you should use a tractor beam. Think that's just Star Trek science? Think again. A team of NASA astronauts have recently published a paper in the Journal Nature. They're proposin...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Plasma Thruster Prototype Updated: 2005-12-22 21:00:00 Description: If you're going to fly in space, you need some kind of propulsion system. Chemical rockets can accelerate quickly, but they need a lot of heavy fuel. Ion engines are extremely fuel efficient but don't generate a lot of power, so they accelerate over ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Dark Matter Maps Updated: 2005-12-14 22:00:00 Description: What's the Universe made of? Don't worry if you don't have a clue, astronomers don't either. The Universe is dominated by a mysterious dark matter that seems to form the true mass of a galaxy, not the regular matter - like stars and planets - that we...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Best Space and Astronomy Books of 2005 Updated: 2005-11-17 06:00:00 Description: The year is coming to a close. And in case you haven't been counting, we've reviewed more than 50 space and astronomy books on Universe Today since January. That's a lot of books, and book fiend Mark Mortimer did most of the reading and reviewing. He...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Larry Esposito and Venus Express Updated: 2005-11-11 06:00:00 Description: Venus is our nearest planetary neighbour. Compared to the Earth, it's nearly identical in size and distance from the Sun. But that's where the similarities end. While we enjoy our comfortable temperature, pressure and atmosphere, Venus' environment i...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - The Fate of the Universe Updated: 2005-09-12 17:00:00 Description: How will the Universe end? Right now cosmologists have two equally distressing scenarios mapped out for the long term fate of the Universe. On the one hand, gravity might slow down the expansion of our Universe so that it coasts to a stop and possibl...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Interview with Simon Singh Updated: 2005-08-31 18:21:00 Description: My guest today is Simon Singh, author of many science-related books including Fermat's Enigma, and The Code Book. His latest book, Big Bang, investigates the origins of the search for our place in an ever expanding Universe. Simon speaks to me from h...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Astrophotography with Tom Davis Updated: 2005-08-27 17:00:00 Description: My guest today is an amateur astrophotographer named Tom Davis. Those of you who subscribe to the Universe Today newsletter should be familiar with his photographs, as I've featured several of them in the last few months. Tom is an amazingly skilled ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Planetary Disk That Refuses to Grow Up Updated: 2005-08-03 20:12:00 Description: With new instruments, astronomers are filling in all the pieces that help to explain how planets form out of extended disks of gas and dust around newborn stars. This process seems to happen quickly, often just a few million years is all it takes to ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Summer at the Lake... on Titan Updated: 2005-07-12 19:45:00 Description: Ah, summer. Long relaxing days spent at the lake, just swimming, fishing, and enjoying the scenery. Think you can only enjoy lakes here on Earth? Well, think again. NASA's Cassini spacecraft might have turned up a lake on Titan, Saturn's largest moon...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Interview with Story Musgrave Updated: 2005-06-30 18:45:00 Description: How many times have I been to space? Well, I lost count at, oh, none. So I, and nearly every other human being on Earth can't compare with Story Musgrave, a legendary NASA astronaut who flew on the space shuttle six times, including leading the team ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Having a BLAST in the Arctic Updated: 2005-06-27 20:15:00 Description: If you're an astronomer and you want to escape the Earth's hazy atmosphere, you need a space telescope... right? Not necessarily, sometimes all you need is a balloon, and some clear arctic skies. An international team of researchers traveled to Swede...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Into the Submillimeter Updated: 2005-06-21 18:35:00 Description: When you look into the night sky with your eyes, or through a telescope, you're seeing the Universe in the spectrum of visible light. Unfortunately, this is a fraction of the entire electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from radio waves to gamma radiatio...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Get Ready for Deep Impact Updated: 2005-06-14 06:30:00 Description: July 4th is Independence Day In the United States, and Americans typically enjoy their holiday with a few fireworks. But up in space, 133 million kilometres away, there's going to be an even more spectacular show... Deep Impact. On July 4th, a washin...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Homing Beacon for an Asteroid Updated: 2005-06-07 19:00:00 Description: Asteroids have been roughing up the Earth since it formed 4.6 billion years ago. Hundreds of thousands of potentially devastating asteroids are still out there, and whizzing past our planet all the time. Eventually, inevitably, one is going to score ...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Microlens Planet Discovery Updated: 2005-05-25 21:40:00 Description: Professional astronomers have got some powerful equipment at their disposal: Hubble, Keck, and Spitzer, just to name a few. But many discoveries rely on the work of amateurs, using equipment you could buy at your local telescope shop. And recently, a...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Unlikely Wormholes Updated: 2005-05-24 06:00:00 Description: Wormholes are a mainstay in science fiction, providing our heroes with a quick and easy way to instantly travel around the Universe. Enter a wormhole near the Earth and you come out on the other side of the galaxy. Even though science fiction made th...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - NASA Tests a Solar Sail Updated: 2005-05-12 20:00:00 Description: Imagine a solar powered sail that could propel a space craft through the vacuum of space like a wind that drives a sail here on Earth. The energy of photons steaming from the Sun alone would provide the thrust. NASA and other space agencies are takin...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Alpha, Still Constant After All These Years Updated: 2005-04-21 07:00:00 Description: There's a number in the Universe which we humans call alpha - or the fine structure constant. It shows up in almost every mathematical formula dealing with magnetism and electricity. The very speed of light depends on it. If the value for alpha was e...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Oldest Star Discovered Updated: 2005-04-18 07:00:00 Description: Let's say you're browsing around the comic book store and happened to notice a perfect copy of Action Comics #1 on the rack mixed in with the current stuff. It's in mint condition, untouched since it was first printed almost 70 years ago. Now imagine...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Best Spot for a Lunar Base Updated: 2005-04-14 21:00:00 Description: In case you missed the news, NASA is headed back to the Moon in the next decade. A permanent lunar base could be down the road, so scientists are starting to consider where we should build. Ben Bussey, with Johns Hopkins University in Maryland likes...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Wolf-Rayet Binary System Updated: 2005-04-13 18:30:00 Description: Wolf-Rayet stars are big, violent and living on borrowed time. Put two of these stars destined to explode as supernovae in a binary system, and you've got an extreme environment, to say the least. Sean Dougherty, an astronomer at the Herzberg Institu...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Dark Energy Stars Updated: 2005-04-12 06:30:00 Description: Black holes... you know. Cosmic singularities that can contain the mass of billions of stars like our Sun. Where the pull of gravity is so strong, nothing, not even light can escape their fearsome grasp. They're the source of much discussion, indirec...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Sedna Loses Its Moon Updated: 2005-04-08 19:00:00 Description: Remember Sedna? It's that icy object uncovered last year in the outer reaches of the Solar System. When it was first discovered, astronomers noticed it rotated once every 20 days. The only explanation that could explain this slow rotation was a moon,...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD Universe Today - Welcome to Universe Today Updated: 2005-04-07 19:00:00 Description: Universe Today is a daily summary of the latest space and astronomy - I've been publishing it daily since 1999. In this audio edition, I interview astronauts, astronomers, and scientists about their latest research. The podcasts are short (10-15 minu...more... LISTEN NOW | VIEW CACHE | DOWNLOAD |
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