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All Episodes

Astronomy Minute — 183 episodes

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Title
1

What is an Astronomical Observatory?

2

What is Occam's Razor?

3

Why is the Webb Telescope Optimized to Observe Infrared Light?

4

What are the Main Science Goals of the Webb Telescope?

5

What is the James Webb Space Telescope?

6

What is the Hubble Space Telescope?

7

Why Do We Put Telescopes in Space?

8

What is Meant by Spiral Nebula?

9

What is the Big Crunch?

10

What are the Basic Properties of Astronomical Objects?

11

What is the Local Group of Galaxies?

12

What Does it Mean to “Know” Something in Science?

13

How Can Atoms and Thus Matter be Mostly Empty Space?

14

What are Interacting Galaxies?

15

How do the Sun and Other Stars Shine?

16

What are Giant Molecular Clouds?

17

How do We Know that the Milky Way Galaxy is Spiral in Shape?

18

What is Meant by the 21 Centimeter Radiation of Hydrogen?

19

How are Neutron Stars and Pulsars Related?

20

What is a Neutron Star?

21

What is a White Dwarf Star?

22

How do We Know the Ages of Stars?

23

What is Seeing and the Resolving Power of a Telescope?

24

Are Black Holes Cosmic Vacuum Cleaners?

25

What Was Here Before the Big Bang?

26

Are UFOs Aliens From Outer Space?

27

What is the Milky Way Galaxy?

28

What is the Hubble Law?

29

What are Starburst Galaxies?

30

Is Science Absolute?

31

What is Meant by Dimensional Analysis?

32

What are Sunspots and the Sunspot Cycle?

33

What is Meant by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?

34

A Description of the Mathematical Basis of Cause-and-Effect

35

How do Lunar and Solar Eclipses Happen?

36

What do I Need to Know About Planet Earth?

37

So You Want to be a Professional Astronomer?

38

How do Atoms Absorb and Emit Light?

39

What are Some Well-Known Deep Sky Objects?

40

What is Meant by the Retrograde Motion of the Planets?

41

What Professional Organizations Support the Work of Astronomers?

42

How do Astronomers Obtain Their Observations of the Sky?

43

How do Astronomers Disseminate Their Scientific Research Results?

44

What is Meant by Metal Abundance or Metallicity?

45

What is Meant by Light Pollution?

46

Is Science the Only Path to the Truth?

47

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Virgo?

48

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Ursa Major?

49

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Tucana?

50

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Triangulum?

51

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Scorpius?

52

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Ophiuchus?

53

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Monoceros?

54

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Leo?

55

The Many Facets of Astronomy and the Lure of the Night Sky

56

What is the Relation Between Local Sidereal Time and Local Time?

57

What is the Equation of Time?

58

What is Meant by Local Apparent Time?

59

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Dorado?

60

What is Meant by Local Sidereal Time?

61

What is Meant by Galactic Coordinate System?

62

What is Meant by Altazimuth Coordinate System?

63

What is Meant by Altitude and Azimuth?

64

What is Meant by Equatorial Coordinate System?

65

What is Meant by Quantum Mechanics?

66

How do We Know the Age of the Universe?

67

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Crux?

68

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Coma Berenices?

69

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Cetus?

70

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Cassiopeia?

71

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Canis Major?

72

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Cancer?

73

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Canes Venatici?

74

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Centaurus?

75

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Taurus?

76

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Sagittarius?

77

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Orion?

78

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Lyra?

79

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Hercules?

80

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Cygnus?

81

Which Notable Objects are in the Constellation of Andromeda?

82

What is Meant by a Deep Sky Object?

83

What is an Asterism?

84

Why do We Study Astronomy?

85

The Universe as a Time Machine

86

How Old is the Universe, the Sun, and the Earth?

87

What is a Light Year?

88

What is Electromagnetic Radiation?

89

What is Meant by the Hubble Flow?

90

What is a Blackbody Curve or Planck Curve?

91

What is Precession of the Equinoxes?

92

What is Meant by the Signs of the Zodiac?

93

Is There Life Elsewhere in the Universe?

94

How Old is the Solar System?

95

How Did Our Galaxy Form?

96

Is There Such a Thing as THE Dark Side of the Moon?

97

What is Meant by Taxonomy in Science?

98

What are the Magellanic Clouds?

99

What do I Need to Know About Isaac Newton?

100

What do I Need to Know About Galileo?

101

The Clockwork of the Universe

102

What do I Need to Know About Johannes Kepler?

103

What do I Need to Know About Tycho Brahe?

104

What do I Need to Know About Nicolaus Copernicus?

105

How do We Know There are Planets Around Other Stars?

106

What is Meant by a Bell Curve?

107

What are Right Ascension and Declination?

108

What Causes the Phases of the Moon?

109

What Causes the Seasons on the Earth?

110

What is the Difference Between Precision and Accuracy?

111

What is Meant by an Order of Magnitude and a Logarithmic Scale?

112

Where are the Sun's Siblings?

113

What is the Difference Between Random Errors and Systematic Errors?

114

What is Meant by the Magnitude System?

115

What is the Kelvin Temperature Scale?

116

What are Comets and Meteor Showers?

117

What is the Cosmic Microwave Background?

118

How Do We Classify Stars?

119

What is Meant by Hierarchical Clustering in Astronomy?

120

What is the Interstellar Medium?

121

What is Meant by Tidal Forces?

122

What is Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation?

123

What is the Copernican Principle?

124

What is Dark Energy?

125

What is Gravitational Lensing?

126

How Do We Classify Galaxies?

127

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Neptune?

128

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Uranus?

129

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Saturn?

130

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Jupiter?

131

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Mars?

132

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Venus?

133

What do I Need to Know About the Planet Mercury?

134

What are the Different Types of Telescopes?

135

Why is the Sky Blue?

136

What are Interstellar Reddening and Extinction?

137

How Did the Earth's Moon Form?

138

What do we Know About the Sun?

139

What is Conservation of Angular Momentum?

140

What is the HR Diagram and the Main Sequence?

141

What is the Doppler Effect and Redshift?

142

What is the Inverse Square Law of Light?

143

What are Newton's Laws of Motion?

144

Can the Millennium Falcon Really do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs?

145

Does Science Prove Things?

146

How do we know there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy?

147

What are Kepler's Laws?

148

What are Active Galaxies?

149

How Did the Solar System Form?

150

Why Did I Create These Podcasts?

151

Will Polaris Always be the North Star?

152

What Happened to Pluto Formerly Known as a Planet?

153

How Do We Name Stars?

154

What is a Constellation?

155

What are Variable Stars?

156

What is Helioseismology?

157

What do Astronomers do?

158

What is the Difference Between Astronomy and Astrophysics?

159

How do we use Light to Study the Universe?

160

What is the Solar System?

161

What is Cosmology?

162

What is Light?

163

What is the Big Bang?

164

What is Dark Matter?

165

What are M-numbers and NGC-numbers?

166

What is a Galaxy?

167

What is a Nebula?

168

What is a Star Cluster?

169

How do Stars Form?

170

Where do the Chemical Elements Come From?

171

What is a Brown Dwarf?

172

What is Science?

173

How do we measure distances in Astronomy?

174

What is a Quasar?

175

Astronomy is a Science of Extremes

176

What is the Celestial Sphere?

177

What is a Black Hole?

178

What is a Pulsar?

179

How do Stars Die?

180

How do Stars Evolve?

181

What is a Supernova?

182

What is a Nova?

183

What is Astronomical Vocabulary?