The Astrophysics Podcast

Dr. Ranadeep Dastidar -- Astrophysics at the Speed of Light

The Theory of Relativity was discovered by Einstein over a century ago, and it tells us how time and space are distorted when moving close to the speed of light. We mere

Dr. Abigail Polin -- Astrophysics Q & A #3

Abigail Polin is back, and we are doing another astrophysics Q&A! This time, our questions come from a class of third graders in Indiana. You'll be surprised at how some

Dr. Jeff Gerber -- Let's Talk Stars

This episode we get back to the objects that inspired the whole field of astrophysics -- stars. Those little points of light that first inspired us as children are incred

Dr. Charles Law -- All the Molecules in Protoplanetary Disks

Just how much do we know about how the planets formed? How much of this can we learn from getting images of young solar systems? Why does it help to look at the disk usin

Dr. Daniel Polin -- The Biggest Digital Camera in the World

The Vera Rubin Observatory has just started taking its first data this month. We have a special guest (Dr. Daniel Polin) who helped in the construction of the camera for

Dr. Gurtina Besla -- Dark Matter in the Milky Way

Most of the mass in the universe is invisible. We call it "Dark Matter", and the only reason we know it's there is because we can see how it gravitationally interacts wit

Dr. Abigail Polin -- Astrophysics Q & A #2

What's the deal with black holes?

Dr. Kaitlin Kratter -- Building a Solar System on the Computer

How did our solar system form? More generally, how does any solar system form? We get some of our answers to these questions by looking at newly-forming planetary systems

Dr. Tim Cunningham -- White Dwarfs Sometimes Eat Planets

A white dwarf star is the compact, dense remnant of a once-thriving solar system. Long after the original star has died and turned into a white dwarf, it can still intera

Dr. Merel van 't Hoff -- The Birth of the Planets

How did the planets form? What was going on in the first few brief million years of our solar system? And how did it impact what we see in our solar system today? Dr. Mer

Dr. Wen-Fai Fong -- The Neutron Star Mash

What kinds of things do neutron stars do? They can smash into each other, producing bright flashes of radiation and strong ripples in spacetime that can be detected acros

Dr. Daniel D'Orazio -- The Black Hole Shuffle

Just how big can black holes get? Well, they can get super-massive! That is, millions to billions of times as massive as the sun. How do we know this? We've detected thes

Dr. Abigail Polin -- Astrophysics Q & A

In this week's episode, Dr. Abigail Polin joins us to answer your questions from the internet, on a variety of topics tangentially related to astrophysics! Questions rang

Dr. Andrea Derdzinski -- How do we see black holes?

A black hole is so dense, its gravitational field prevents anything from escaping, including light. You would think that would make them the "blackest" things in the univ

Dr. Jared Goldberg -- Does Betelgeuse have a Betelbuddy?

Up in Orion's shoulder sits Betelgeuse, a supergiant star near the end of its life. The surface of Betelgeuse has been roiling and pulsing for centuries, as long as human

Dr. Yvette Cendes -- Black Holes on the Radio

What happens when a black hole eats up a star? Apparently a lot of things happen, and if you wait around awhile and look in the radio, even more things happen! Dr. Yvette

Dr. Maxim Lyutikov -- How do you make a Fast Radio Burst?

Some things happen out in the universe that are too powerful to make in a lab. Other phenomena are so coherent and well-ordered, we can't figure out how they can be made

Dr. Lindsey Kwok -- The Forensic Science of Supernovae

How do we know so much about supernovae, when all we see is this little point of light getting brighter and then dimmer over time? Given this minimal data, we can often s

Dr. Paul Duffell -- The Universe on a Computer (with host Dr. Abigail Polin)

How big a computer do you need to simulate a supernova? Or a planet being formed? Or a black hole swallowing gas? Many astrophysicists spend their time developing computa

Dr. Brenna Mockler -- When Black Holes Get Hungry

What do black holes like to eat? Sometimes a steady diet of interstellar gas just isn't enough and a black hole needs to snack on a whole star. No judgment, we all get th