Episode list

Launch Pad Astronomy

The Solar Gravitational Lens will Map Exoplanets. Seriously.
Slava Turyshev and his team have developed a plan to use our sun as a gravitational lens to view the surfaces of exoplanets and determine the composition of their atmospheres and NASA is taking it very seriously. In about thirty five years they think it will be possible to resolve the surface of exoplanets to 25 km per pixel.
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Oumuamua's mystery is finally solved!
Astronomers think they have narrowed down what the interstellar object Oumuamua is. Based on its behavior as it interacted with the Sun it is probably a fragment of nitrogen ice ejected from its home stellar system. Such fragments are thought to be common as a result of collisions and interactions with giant planets in the outer reaches of stellar systems such as the Sun's Oort Cloud.
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Rare Double Quasars Found in the Early Universe
A team of astronomers lead by Yue Shen have developed an arduous but successful method for locating extremely rare double quasars which are indicative of galaxy mergers in the early universe. Their process started with sky surveys to identify candidate quasars, screening the candidates by looking for telltale flickers then observing the best candidates with the world's most powerful telescopes to resolve the pairs of objects.
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How James Webb's Instruments Work - and What They'll Show Us!
If launching a massive telescope that orbits a Lagrange point and operates near absolute zero is a technological marvel, then the capabilities of the instruments on board are mind boggling. Here is an explanation of the James Webb telescope's four instrument including how they work and what they will see.
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