Sinopsis
Science discussions about astronomical objects selected at random locations in the sky.
Episodios
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Object 47: BYOB
17/05/2021 Duración: 09minNGC 3504 contains three rings, two bars, and a supermassive black hole but no locations licensed to sell alcohol (as far as astronomers know).
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Object 46: Stability within a Cataclysm
03/05/2021 Duración: 09minAn exoplanet has managed to stay in a stable orbit around LX Serpentis despite the fact that it is a cataclysmic binary star system with a chaotic past.
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Object 45: Try Turning it Off and On Again
19/04/2021 Duración: 08minMarkarian 590 contains an active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole, and the region around the black hole has strangely changed in brightness a couple of times in the past 50 years.
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Object 44: The Understated Exoplanet Discovery
05/04/2021 Duración: 09minWhen it was discovered, WD 0806-661B was described as a very cool, very low mass brown dwarf, but it could actually be better characterized as a large exoplanet.
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Object 43: Does It Dark Matter?
22/03/2021 Duración: 10minThe dwarf galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 may be one of the very few galaxies that contains no dark matter, although the non-existence of something we cannot see in this galaxy is still being debated.
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Object 42: The Inside Joke Galaxy
08/03/2021 Duración: 11minThe dust disk in the spiral galaxy NGC 891 is so useful for studying interstellar dust that many astronomers show up to conferences with science results specifically about this spiral galaxy.
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Object 41: Bobbins
22/02/2021 Duración: 10minBoBn 1 is not only a planetary nebula with an odd-to-pronounce name but also one of a very few planetary nebulae that have been found in the Milky Way's halo.
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Object 40: Sugar Formation
08/02/2021 Duración: 09minIRAS 16293-2422 is a complex protostellar object that contains multiple objects that are forming into Sun-like stars.
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Object 39: Sort of Faster than the Speed of Light
25/01/2021 Duración: 08minGas ejected from the center of the quasar 1642+690 looks like it's travelling faster than the speed of light even though it isn't.
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Object 38: The Clickbait Star
11/01/2021 Duración: 09minHD 220140 is often referred to as a naked young star, and it is a source of both X-ray emission and double entendres.
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Object 37: Blowing Bubbles (or Cavities)
28/12/2020 Duración: 09minHickson Compact Group 62 contains hot intracluster gas with two large cavities (which I want to call bubbles) that formed from gas that was blown out of the galaxy at the centre of the group.
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Object 36: Seventeen Ways to Oscillate
14/12/2020 Duración: 11minHD 60435 is a nearby example of a class of stars called rapidly oscillating Ap stars that can change brightness in just a few minutes.
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Object 35: The Ursa Major Eye Test
30/11/2020 Duración: 14minMizar and Alcor have been visible as a double star since ancient times, but as technology has progessed over the centuries, astronomers have discovered that Mizar and Alcor are not just one pair of stars.
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Object 34: Longer Than This Podcast Episode
16/11/2020 Duración: 09minThe gamma ray burst GRB 111209A was notable for being almost seven hours long, which is much longer than gamma ray bursts normally last as well as much longer than a typical Ariana Grande concert.
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Object 33: Part of a Vegetarian Sausage
02/11/2020 Duración: 12minMessier 56 is a particularly old globular cluster that attracts a lot of attention from professional astronomers, although amateur astronomers have a tendency to overlook it.
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Object 32: Synonyms for Large
19/10/2020 Duración: 09minAs a large elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole and supersized jets of gas emerging from its nucleus, NGC 6251 inspires some astronomers to use thesauruses.
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Object 31: Jelly Bean Analysis
05/10/2020 Duración: 10minThe red dwarf GJ 3470 has a gaseous exoplanet orbiting it in such a way that the planet passes between the star and the Earth, allowing astronomers to examine the atmosphere of the exoplanet.
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Object 30: Measure the Correct Distance and Win a Prize
21/09/2020 Duración: 13minNGC 3621 is one of a few galaxies where its distance has been measured with high accuracy using Cepheids and other stars with known brightness, thus making it very important for measuring the expansion of the universe.
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Object 29: High Contrast
07/09/2020 Duración: 09minA project using an interesting combination of methods was able to find a very faint red dwarf in orbit around the bright, nearby star Zeta Virginis.
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Object 28: Stellar Assassination
24/08/2020 Duración: 09minPGC 43234 was a relatively uninteresting galaxy until its central supermassive black hole shredded a star in an event known as ASASSN-14li.