Finders Keepers (Show #58)

Castdate: 060711
Title: Finder’s Keeper’s
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela, Travis, Rebecca
Engineered By: Travis
Rating: [OF] Office Friendly

• Transcript
• ESA Press Release
• XMM Newton Home
• Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica (IASF) of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
• Earlier XMM Newton X-Ray Image of RCW 103 April, 2003
• Bad Astronomy Discussion Thread
• The Azzurri

And then there was dust … (Show #57)

Images Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/B.E.K. Sugerman (STScI)

Show notes:

• Transcript
• Spitzer Space Telescope Press release

From the Spitzer website: “The dust factory, also known as supernova SN 2003gd, is shown at the center of the two small insets from Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). A white arrow points to its exact location. The yellow-green dot shown in the July 2004 inset (top) shows that the source’s temperature is warmer than the surrounding material. This is because newly formed dust within the supernova is just starting to cool. By January 2005, the dust had cooled and completely faded from IRAC’s view. However, it was still detected in January 2005 by another instrument aboard Spitzer called the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS). The MIPS image is not shown here.

The images are false-color, infrared composites, in which 3.6-micron light is blue, 4.5-micron light is green, and 8-micron light is red.”

Bigger Than the Motor Car (Show #55)

Castdate: 060706
Written by: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela & Travis
Engineered: Travis
Rating: [OF] Office Friendly

• Transcript
• Squirt by Fluke
• Penn State Press Release
• SDSS press release
• The science paper
• Scientific American – good summary

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa007&articleID=00054F9D-371E-146A-B71E83414B7F0000

• How to build a real Tardis

Chit Chat Show #9

This week we have Mario Garcia as our in studio guest. He talks about recent trips on NASA’s Vomit Comet and other astronomy work he’s involved in. Also, Phil Plait returns and we have a wonderful visit from a friend we haven’t heard from in a long time – Derek of Skepticality. He has some awesome news to share also.

To the right is the SA seal by Sheala Bacon. Thanks, Sheala!

• Here is a link to a digital video feed of Mario’s flight (3MB WMV format)
• Badastronomy.com
• Skepticality podcast
• The Vomit Comet via Wikipedia
• Mobile Broadcast Network – listen to Slacker Astronomy on your cell phone

A rough order of things we covered:

-Listener Survey/Seal of Approval
-Exoplanet Discovery
-Mobil Broadcast Network
-WGBH
-Mario Garcia
-Derek
-Story Follow-ups
-Phil
-Listener Mail, Etc…

Skepticality…

And Phil…

Running Backwards (show #54)

Show Notes:

• Transcript
• Univ. Rochester Press Release
• PhyOrg article – This has some really cool animations and explainations of how it works.

  Really cool graphics based on Data:

  Backward light pulse propagation
  
  

SA Extra: Our Morning Story Ages Like a Fine Wine

(I’ve always wanted to use extraordinaire in a real sentence, and I’ve finally succeeded! Mark one more thing off the to-do-before-I-die list.)

In April, 2005 we visited WGBH’s studios in Boston and recorded a joint show with Tony Kahn of the Morning Stories podcast. The idea was that we’d just chat for a bit and each of us would record and edit the material as we see fit, but put it online at the same time. Things got a bit busy…. okay VERY busy… but finally the long lost material sees the light of day.

On May 19th, WGBH’s podcast Morning Stories (the first public radio podcast) released an episode about various science topics and they included a snippet of the chat in the show. So now we are putting online our version – which is a complete recording of the 1 hour and 5 minute chit chat. Check it out! But remember that we were still only about 2 months old at the time – so a bit raw and unpolished.

Don’t forget to susbcribe to Tony’s Morning Stories podcast either. When Aaron first got the idea for Slacker Astronomy, he downloaded ipodder and the first podcast he subscribed to was Morning Stories so it has a special place his my heart. You never forget your first!

• Direct link to the Morning Stories show MP3 (after the segment about the 17 year cecada)
• Morning Stories Main Page

Aaron, Pamela, Travis, Tony Kahn, & Gary Mott in the studio.

Travis and Pamela being bathed in an eerie blue light. They are now sterile and we plan to sue.

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Why Space Telescopes Need a Union (Show #53)

Castdate: 060516
Title: Why Space Telescopes Need a Union
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela & Travis & assorted protesters
Engineered: Travis
Rating: [OF] Office Friendly

• Transcript
• First views of monstrous stars being born Spaceflightnow.com
• Article via physorg.org
• ISOPHOT home page
• First data from the ISOPHOT FIR Serendipity Survey – their first paper

ISO’s slew map:

SA Extra: Interview With Lars Lindberg Christensen

• Personal Web Page Check out his wonderful photos!
• European Space Agency
• Spacetelescope.org
• FITS Liberator – use Photoshop to analyse HST images
• International Virtual Observatory Alliance
• Tycho Brahe Planetarium

Lars is the Head of Communications for the Hubble Space Telescope and the James E. Webb Space Telescope. He is responsible for many of the press releases and imagery which we’ve covered in this show. Before that he was head of a planetarium in Copenhagen for ten years. This is the last of our interviews from the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

One Less Thing To Worry About (Show #52)

Castdate: 060509
Title: One Less Thing To Worry About
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Pamela & Travis
Engineered: Travis
Rating: [OF] Office Friendly

• Transcript
• Article via PhysicsWeb.org
• The paper by Stanek et al.
• Stars rich in heavy metals tend to harbor planets – Berkeley news release
• Nature.com discussion of Population I, II and III stars (and their metallicity)
• Mass Extinction Events Wikipedia
• Original discovery image of the Yucatan crater

Sorry for the week off. All three slackers were busy at a meeting last week.

Digging In the Dirt (Show #51)

Title: Digging In the Dirt
Castdate: 050425
Written By: Aaron
Disembodied Voices: Travis & Pamela (and Pamela’s friend playing Flora)
Engineered: Travis
Rating: [FF] Family Friendly

• Transcript
• Article ABC News Online
• Article via PhysOrg.com
• The Lunar Atmosphere
• Albuquerque Isotopes

The first footprint on the Moon. Imagine the dirt Neil dragged in.