Episodios

  • 875-Newly Discovered Crater - 9:28:25, 6.13 PM

    875-Newly Discovered Crater - 9:28:25, 6.13 PM
    Nov 14 2025
    Dr Uisdean Nicholson from Heriot-Watt University and his team of 9 co-authors analyze 3D seismic imaging and drill cuttings from a 1980s oil well to make a convincing case that the Silverpit crater was produced by a the impact of a 1.5 football field diameter asteroid approximately 45 million years ago.
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    2 m
  • 362E-394-Tiny Beasts

    362E-394-Tiny Beasts
    Nov 11 2025
    Humans have a long history of partnerships with a variety of micro organisms. Although the proportions vary widely with individuals, recent scientific estimates suggest that a typical human being has approximately the same number of bacteria and other microbes as they do actual human cells. Now it appears that a partnership with yeast and algae will enable spacefaring humans to use their waste products to produce food and plastics during long duration space flights. Dr. Mark Blenner of Clemson University leads a research group developing strains of yeast which obtain their nitrogen from untreated urine and their carbon dioxide from exhaled breath or the Martian atmosphere which has been converted into yeast food by algae. One of Blenner's yeast strains produces omega-3 fatty acids which are essential for heart, eye, and brain health while another strain of yeast has been engineered to produce polyester polymers which could be used by 3D printers to produce plastic tools and other useful devices. In the future research Blenner's team will focus on increasing the output of these tiny beasts to the point that they will generate useful amounts of nutrients and plastics from astronaut's waste products. This new research when added to the fact that on the International Space Station space travelers now routinely drink recycled water from their urine, sweat, and showers moves us closer to the day when space travelers literally use and reuse every atom that they lift from the Earth's surface enabling journeys that may last for years. The flip side of our partnership with microorganisms is that it is extremely difficult to protect the worlds we explore from a microorganism invasion which would threaten their home grown biology.
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    2 m
  • 874-Good night at Bok

    874-Good night at Bok
    Nov 7 2025
    On a recent clear night my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groller was asteroid hunting with the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona when he discovered 8 natural visitors to our neighborhood. Telescopes around the world began to track and determine the natures these asteroids. Six of Hannes’s discoveries are classified as Near Earth Objects while the other two are more distant Mars crossing asteroids
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    2 m
  • 361E-393-Newest Moon

    361E-393-Newest Moon
    Nov 4 2025
    The moon cycle from new moon through full moon and back to new moon again was used by many nations to regulate their activities and forms the basis of the Islamic lunar calendar. A calendar based on the first visibility of the lunar crescent is difficult to predict in advance since this observation depends on the clarity of the atmosphere and other local conditions. The interesting observational problem of when it is possible to spot the new moon has been analyzed in the scientific literature as an aid to historians who are seeking to interpret the writings of ancient civilizations.
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    2 m
  • 873-Tracking 3I/Atlas

    873-Tracking 3I/Atlas
    Oct 31 2025
    Scientists are using many approaches to understanding the nature and history of 3I/Atlas the third known interstellar traveler in the night. At a hyperbolic velocity of 130,000 mph it is the fastest interstellar visitor ever measured.
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    2 m
  • 360E-391-Finding Spacerocks

    360E-391-Finding Spacerocks
    Oct 28 2025
    Finding a meteorite that has traveled billions of miles through space to reach it's present location is exciting. It might even be worth real money.
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    2 m
  • 872-Climate Ignored

    872-Climate Ignored
    Oct 24 2025
    Obtaining accurate data on the Earth’s climate and how it is changing is vital to inform agriculture , insurance risks, business planning, disaster preparedness, financial investments, wild fire mitigation, and national security. The USA should not be flying blind and relying on Europe and China for the data we need.
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    2 m
  • 359E-390-One in 100,000

    359E-390-One in 100,000
    Oct 21 2025
    Friday the 13th appears to continue to be a lucky day for the human race. When astronomers first discovered Apophis in 2004 it appeared possible that this 3 million ton, 1,200 foot diameter asteroid traveling at 8 mi/s could impact our planet creating a crater a several miles diameter and more than a half mile deep. Additional observations over the years have eliminated this possibility as Apophis streaks by closer than the communications satellites on that lucky Friday the 13th. Further, current calculations have reduced the chances of Apophis colliding with Earth in the next 100 years to about one in 100,000. However, over the millennia Apophis is likely to strike the Earth as does one it's size once every 100,000 years or so.
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    2 m