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Astrobites for your ears. Three grad students bring you cutting-edge research findings in astronomy and connect the dots between diverse subfields.
In this week’s episode, Cormac makes his hosting debut as we talk about the most pressing threat to modern Astronomy (other than a worldwide coffee shortage) – megaconstellations! Despite sharing a majority of syllables with the collective noun of asterisms we all know and pretend to remember, these formations of hundreds of satellites are becoming more and more of an issue for astronomers. Will tells us about how satellites are sprinkling spectra with a side of the Sun and Kiersten reveals how even the Hubble Space Telescope is not safe from the multi-headed monsters of Musk et al. Join us as we find out that things might not be as bad as they seem, and discuss the pros and cons of these developments.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2023/09/07/satellites-in-weave/
https://astrobites.org/2023/08/10/telescopes_in_orbit/
Space Sound:
Handcrafted by Cormac using twotone.io, based on a MESA stellar evolution model by Harim Jin.
In this week’s episode, we meet some of the animals in the neutron star zoo through astrobites with two surprising observations. Will tells us about a mysterious signal from a magnetar that appeared two years ago for 20 minutes and has yet to come back. Meanwhile, Cormac provides Will’s magnetar with some hope by telling us the story of a pulsar signal that appeared 20 years ago and just reappeared recently. Come along for a boomerang of a journey as we discuss observing pulsars from Earth, what it’s like at the pulsars themselves, and all the way back to Earth for a discussion of bad naming and bad programming languages.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2023/07/31/disappearing-pulsar/
https://astrobites.org/2023/08/21/long-period-magnetar/
Space Sound:
Performance:
Spooky season is here! In this episode, we’re investigating the ghostly disappearances of astrophysical objects. Sabrina does some detective work to solve the mystery of a missing black hole, and Kiersten tries to convince her that Halloween is the best holiday. Meanwhile, Cormac convenes with ghosts of stars to figure out where they have vanished off to. It turns out that gravitational waves are the perfect medium for an astrophysical seance!
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2022/05/10/missing-black-hole/
https://astrobites.org/2023/08/12/vanishing-stars-massive-island/
Space sound:
We went on summer break (or winter break for our astronomer down under) but JWST did not! In our first episode back, we report on two new JWST Astrobites about exoplanet atmosphere. Kiersten tells us about the search for an atmosphere in a famous planetary system, Sabrina explains how poisonous gasses can signal “pre-life,” and Will appreciates null results that aren’t his own.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2023/08/08/vibe-checking-trappist-1c/
https://astrobites.org/2023/08/19/signs-of-pre-life-jwst/
Space sound:
In this episode, astro[sound]bites gets even more international as we welcome our new co-host, Cormac Larkin, based in Europe! We sit down in three different time zones and continents to learn more about Cormac and discuss what we’re each excited about for the next year of astro[sound]bites.
Introduction to research with astro[sound]bites:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ztsQ92NeV0Nzhg0ZaohNB?si=a5a06325cb444076
Introduction to exoplanets with astro[sound]bites:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4YQaowzQUGlSiyQdtdglUy?si=9e1201dbabf34ba8
We take a deep breath of exoplanet atmospheres, discussing what JWST is capable of and what it already has accomplished using transmission spectroscopy. In this episode, we learn that Sabrina misses SOFIA, brown dwarfs have sandy clouds, and Will knows a thing or two about Picaso (yes, that’s with one “s”). AND as a tribute to Black Space Week, following up from Episode 76, the papers we presented in this episode were both written by Black astronomers.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2021/12/22/atmospheres-small-planets-big-telescope/
https://astrobites.org/2022/09/02/jwsts-first-direct-spectrum/
Space sound: HARP. You can sign up to be a part of this amazing citizen science research!
Only 1% of Physics PhDs awarded to US citizens were to Black students in 2019 (according to the American Institute of Physics). In celebration of Juneteenth, we’ve invited the Black In Astro team to chat about their mission to support and highlight Black people in space science-related fields. We hear about their trajectories in space sciences and astronomy and their perspectives on the future. This episode’s release also marks the beginning of Black Space Week hosted by Black in Astro! They tell us how the celebration will be bigger and better in 2023 to continue celebrating Black scientists worldwide.
Black In Astro: https://www.blackinastro.com/
Black Space Week 2023: https://www.blackinastro.com/posters-and-advertisements-for-bsw2023
Juneteenth: https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html
Black Representation in Physics & Astronomy: https://astrobites.org/2020/06/12/blackinastro-black-representation-in-astro-physics-and-the-impact-of-discrimination/
American Institute of Physics Report: https://www.aip.org/statistics/reports/trends-physics-phds-171819
Articles:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00361-5
https://hbr.org/2019/11/the-costs-of-codeswitching
https://onezero.medium.com/a-break-up-letter-with-astronomy-from-a-young-black-woman-a30de24fe209
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-diversity-makes-us-smarter/
Did you know that talking about astronomy can actually make you hungry? In this episode, Kiersten and Will take us on a culinary adventure through food themed astrobites. Instead of starting with the main course, Will takes us to Mars for dessert where we dine on a meteorite that initially got confused for a huge piece of chocolate. Then, Kiersten takes us to a stellar cooking class where we learn about the ingredients needed to make small exoplanets and its striking similarities to baking a cake.
Sonification & Visualization:
Sounds of Exoplanet Systems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idlB8JgKGU4
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2023/04/29/cacao-meteorite-and-other-fe-ni-meteorites-on-mars/
https://astrobites.org/2022/10/21/the-great-planet-bake-off/
Before we bid our tearful farewells to Alex, Sabrina and Kiersten present and discuss two of his three publications. We learn how Alex developed and deployed a machine learning model to classify supernovae using only photometry from their host galaxies! Now that Alex is a *doctor*, he’s taking his machine learning and supernova expertise to MIT and Harvard. During the episode, Will peppers Alex with some important and some…less than important interview questions. Together the gang explores what happens when you try to replace your friend with an AI.
Paper Kiersten presented: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2105.09963.pdf
Paper Sabrina presented: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.08894.pdf
Another of Alex’s papers (for the supernova lovers): https://arxiv.org/pdf/2008.09630.pdf
Alex’s inspiration for Will’s space sound: https://twitter.com/alexgagliano/status/1648034047942066176?cxt=HHwWgICw1YSP_94tAAAA
Episode 73: Astrophysical Prison Break
We’re planning a prison break! But first, we’re consulting the experts on this topic. Sabrina takes us to a distant galaxy cluster to figure out how so much light is escaping. Once we know how it’s breaking free, Will brings us back a little closer to home where he consults with the Trojans (and we don’t mean the ones from Homer’s Odyssey) about how a fraction of their fellow soldiers made a successful getaway. As Kiersten comes along for the ride, she makes the terrible mistake of mentioning the dreaded space sound by name. Will we successfully escape? Or will we be caught and forced to listen to space sounds forever?
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2023/03/11/
https://astrobites.org/2020/05/13/
Space sound:
Amanda is a wife. A mother. A blogger. A Christian.
A charming, beautiful, bubbly, young woman who lives life to the fullest.
But Amanda is dying, with a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know.
She starts a blog detailing her cancer journey, and becomes an inspiration, touching and
captivating her local community as well as followers all over the world.
Until one day investigative producer Nancy gets an anonymous tip telling her to look at Amanda’s
blog, setting Nancy on an unimaginable road to uncover Amanda’s secret.
Award winning journalist Charlie Webster explores this unbelievable and bizarre, but
all-too-real tale, of a woman from San Jose, California whose secret ripped a family apart and
left a community in shock.
Scamanda is the true story of a woman whose own words held the key to her secret.
New episodes every Monday.
Follow Scamanda on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
Amanda’s blog posts are read by actor Kendall Horn.
