Deep Astronomy

Countdown to JWST #1: Finally Ready to Launch?

Here's the first installment of Countdown to JWST, a podcast that will track the mission up to launch (hopefully) later this year.  Let's light this candle!

Was There A First Cause?

Was there a first cause?  Can there be a event that started everything?  What would such an event look like?  In this episode Tony and Charlotte discuss the scientific an

When An Atheist Met A Catholic Theologian

This episode kicks off what I hope will be a weekly posting for the DA Show.  My wife Charlotte is a Catholic theologian and philosopher who has taught me much outside of

A Cautionary Science Tale: BICEP2 and the Perils of the Nobel Prize

Remember all the commotion about the BICEP2 mission back in 2014?  Cosmologist had announced the observation of polarized "B-mode" waves that, if connected to the univers

Using Nuclear Power for Deep Space Exploration

It turns out that NASA and others have been thinking about the inefficiencies of using chemical rockets to go to the Moon, Mars and the Outer Planets.  One very attractiv

The Apophis Asteroid: Should You Be Worried?

Let's talk about the potentially hazardous asteroid known as Apophis.  In April, 2029 this 320 meter rock will get so close that it will pass under the orbit of geosynchr

Was the Event Horizon Telescope Black Hole Image a Waste of Time?

In this podcast: an essay on whether the effort that went into making the black hole image in the distant galaxy M87 by the Event Horizon Telescope was worth it; an inter

The Large Millimeter Telescope

This podcast features science and technology from the Large Millimeter Telescope.  Our guests Nat DeNigris and David Sanchez will be on hand to discuss this amazing facil

Just How Fast is the Universe Expanding EXACTLY? ...and how do we know this?

We've known since Edwin Hubble's time that the universe has been expanding.  What we've only recently learned (like, in the past 10 years or so) is that the universe is a

Life in the Universe? We May Be It!

I'm not convinced that life is everywhere in the cosmos.  It is entirely possible, based on what we know today, that we are the only life there is.  Anywhere.  This episo

Women in Science w/ Carol Christian

Welcome to the first in a series of monthly discussions about topics in astronomy with Carol Christian, a colleague and friend of mine that has cohosted Astro Coffee Hang

The Exolife Finder Telescope (ELF)

Members of the PLANETS Foundation are working hard to secure funding for a telescope specifically designed to look for life on other worlds.  In this episode, we discuss

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT)

The next generation of world-class ground based observatories are being built right now.  Among them, The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).  Learn about this amazing telesc

Building Huge Telescopes in Space Using Robots

Astronomy’s Future Will Be Built: New Capabilities to Assemble in Space the Largest Observatories. Scientific performance of telescopes depend strongly upon the observat

From the Moon to Mars

For decades advocates of the exploration of the Moon have argued that this will make possible subsequent exploration of Mars. But is this really true? Recently several d

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)

Did you know there is an effort underway to actually see the event horizon of a black hole?  Right now, astronomers around the world are processing data taken earlier of

Using Resources in Space to Sustain Human Exploration

NASA has for decades been assessing options to utilize the resources available in space – often on the Moon and Mars – to sustain long-duration human operations. It will

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT)

The largest ground-based telescope is now being built on the top of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) is a new class of extremely large telescopes tha

The Origin of Life w/ PZ Myers

Had a great discussion yesterday with biologist PZ Myers about the origin of life on Earth. What is our current knowledge of how life began on our planet? Is life easy or

Amazing Astronomy at the European Southern Observatory

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has been on the forefront of astronomy discovery for decades. They operate telescopes primarily in South America, in Chile, and th