Category Archives: astrocast.tv

'Casts, 365 days of astronomy, astrocast.tv, the astronomer's universe

Outback Astronomy and New Media Astronomy

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MWA

Dipole elements in the Murchison Wide-Field Array in Australia. Courtesy MIT Haystack Observatory and the MWA Consortium.
Dipole elements in the Murchison Wide-Field Array in Australia. Courtesy MIT Haystack Observatory and the MWA Consortium.

Some of my favorite folks in the world are working on the Murchison Wide-Field Array, a low-frequency radio astronomy project being built in the outback of Western Australia. I’ve worked on a couple of short projects for the Haystack Observatory team (in Westford, MA), and the array has been a long-term interest of mine for a while now.

So, it’s with great pleasure that I point you to today’s 365 Days of Astronomy podcast about the MWA. I wrote and narrated it and the music and soundtrack production is by Mark — including his wonderful original music.

Go check it out — we’ll still be here when you get back!

Astrocast.TV and The Astronomer’s Universe

Okay, now that you’ve listened to my golden voice talking about MWA, let me now point you over to Astrocast.tv — a project I’m proud to be working on as producer of a segment call The Astronomer’s Universe. Each month I and several other producers give you 4- to 5-minute-long in-depth looks at such topics as what professional astronomers are learning about the cosmos, what climate scientists are learning from the study of planet Earth, and what amateur stargazers can see each month in the night sky. Couple that with the latest astronomy and space news, plus a set of really nicely written blog entries by all of us involved in the project, and you’ve got 30 minutes or so of prime space media — at your fingertips!  It’s a pleasure to be working with the executive producers on this project and very exciting to watch as our viewership grows each month. So, go check it out if you haven’t already — and then go back the first of each month for a new set of space and astronomy stories.

It’s really a LOT of fun to be involved in such cool new media projects… I hope to do more of it in addition to my other projects (fulldome video shows, podcasts, and other media presentations).

'Casts, astrocast.tv, astronomy, the astronomer's universe

Mommy, Where Do Planets Come From?

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Taking a Closer Look

Over at Astrocast.tv I’ve been sharing some of the latest astronomy research in a four-minute-long (or so) segment called The Astronomer’s Universe. This month’s topic is planetary system formation and I give you a taste of what astronomers are looking at and what they’re learning as they observe the evidence of planetary formation.

I think people are quite fascinated with the topic for a number of reasons, but one that comes up over and over again is that it gives us insight into how our own Sun and planets formed.  By observing and delving deep into the regions where stars and planets are formed (using multiwavelength instruments — optical, infrared, ultraviolet, and even radio and x-ray) astronomers are starting to get a really good sense of the chemical and physical interactions that take place as clouds of gas and dust coalesce over millions and billions of years. We’ve known the general picture for a long time — that the coalescence results in rocky planets close to stars and gas/ice giants and frozen worlds and moons far away from the stars. And, we’ve known for quite a while that the raw materials for these formation scenarios come from stars that have died and expelled their masses to space.  But, the minute details of how chemicals combine with other ones, how particles stick together, how they stay together through the stormy youth and adolescence of their parent stars and their complex gravitational and magnetic environments, and a thousand other details — that’s all relatively recent research.  Those details mean a lot when it comes to understanding how our own solar system formed. And, how life arose within it (at least on Earth).

I invite you to watch here and then head over to Astrocast.tv (link above) for other enjoyable and fascinating segments about amateur astronomy, our green planet, and a look at space science news  by my fellow ‘Cast members Tavi Greiner, Bente Lilje Bye, and our host and old friend of mine, NASA Solar System Ambassador Greg Redfern. Special thanks to Rich Mathews, our executive producer, for all the hard work corraling us special correspondents and putting all the segments together!