StarDate, the longest-running national radio science feature in the U.S., tells listeners what to look for in the night sky.
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McDonald Observatory Podcasts
The crescent Moon and two bright pinpoints stairstep up the western sky this evening. Regulus, the star that represents the heart of the lion, is to the upper left of the Moon. And the planet Mars is about the same distance to the upper left of Regulus. The trio sets in late evening. The largest feature on the Moon has never been seen directly by h…
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Two decades before astronauts walked on the Moon, American movie-goers got a good preview of what the trip might look like. “Destination Moon” was the first big space movie. And it was the first to accurately explain the science and engineering of a trip to the Moon. Co-written by science-fiction author Robert Heinlein, the movie premiered 75 years…
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Early in its history, the inner solar system was chaotic. Violent collisions might have destroyed many small worlds, while perhaps creating others – including the Moon. It probably formed when a planet as big as Mars rammed into Earth, blasting out debris that came together to make the Moon. A recent study says that a meteorite discovered a few yea…
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It would be fascinating to get close to Cygnus X-3. Unfortunately, it also would be deadly. The system is bathed in X-rays and ultraviolet radiation. It features powerful “jets” that blast into space like energy cannons. And it probably has a black hole – a one-way trip to oblivion. Cygnus X-3 is in the swan, which swoops across the eastern sky on …
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425 years ago, a “new” star flared to life near the neck of Cygnus, the swan. The star slowly faded, then flared twice more during the 17th century. It’s remained visible ever since. And someday soon, it’ll flare up again – for the last time: It’ll explode as a supernova. P Cygni is more than 5,000 light-years away, so it must be extremely bright f…
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Cygnus, the swan, soars gracefully through summer nights. Its brightest star, Deneb, is in the northeast at nightfall. It marks the swan’s tail. The swan’s body stretches to the right, parallel to the horizon. The wings extend above and below, connected to the body by the star Sadr. Cygnus contains many star clusters. The list includes several that…
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The Royal Observatory at Greenwich has been one of the most important skywatching sites in history – not so much for what it told us about the stars, but for its role right here on Earth. Its location marked the starting point for measuring longitude – the position east and west on the globe. It also marked the time standard for the entire world: G…
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The only astronomical object most of us notice in the daytime sky is our star, the Sun. Its light makes the sky bright, which overpowers the other stars and almost everything else. But there are a couple of exceptions: the Moon and the planet Venus. During its 29-and-a-half-day cycle of phases, the Moon spends half of its time in the daytime sky – …
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The Sun is at a standstill. Oh, it’s still orbiting the center of the galaxy at an impressive clip – about half a million miles per hour. And it’s still moving across the sky as Earth turns on its axis. But the points along the horizon at which the Sun rises and sets aren’t changing. That’s because today is the summer solstice. It’s a point in Eart…
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The number of confirmed planets in other star systems has reached about 6,000. But few of those planets are likely homes for life. Most are too hot, too cold, too “gassy,” or they’re zapped by too much radiation by their star. A few planets are in the “well, maybe” category. They might be suitable for life, but the conditions aren’t perfect. An exa…
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