1 hr
037 - Migrating Planets The Skyentists
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- Science
For this episode The Skyentists, astronomers Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Banks, bring not 2 but 9 "Space News" (actually, 10 including the last one briefly mentioned at the end of the episode). Of course, some of them are (unfortunately) just mentioned, others will be explored deeper in future episodes. Kirsten discusses the news about the discovery of the "FBOTs" or "Fast Blue Optical Transients", while Ángel explains what FRBs or "Fast Radio Bursts" are and how combining optical and radio observations of FRBs and their host galaxies Australian astronomers have found the "missing matter" of the Universe. This "missing matter" cannot be confused with the "dark matter": the "missing matter" are atoms that we should expect to see in the Universe but for decades we were not able to find anywhere. They also answer some feedback questions using one of them for moving to the main topic of this episode. For this, Ángel immerses Kirsten in a spiral of plot twists while connecting Uranus and Neptune with the "migrations of planets" astrophysicists need to introduce for explaining the existence of "hot Jupiters" (massive giant planets very close to their parent star). Kirsten describes some interesting properties about hot Jupiters, and we learn a new astronomical term: "Ploonets". For "What's Up!" we encourage everybody to find Mercury in the evening sky, as today, June 4th 2020, it reaches its greatest western elongation (its maximum angular distance of the Sun, which is 24 degrees). In Southern Australia, this corresponds to see Mercury with an altitude around 14 degrees at sunset. We are already expecting your questions and feedback for the next episode!
For this episode The Skyentists, astronomers Ángel López-Sánchez and Kirsten Banks, bring not 2 but 9 "Space News" (actually, 10 including the last one briefly mentioned at the end of the episode). Of course, some of them are (unfortunately) just mentioned, others will be explored deeper in future episodes. Kirsten discusses the news about the discovery of the "FBOTs" or "Fast Blue Optical Transients", while Ángel explains what FRBs or "Fast Radio Bursts" are and how combining optical and radio observations of FRBs and their host galaxies Australian astronomers have found the "missing matter" of the Universe. This "missing matter" cannot be confused with the "dark matter": the "missing matter" are atoms that we should expect to see in the Universe but for decades we were not able to find anywhere. They also answer some feedback questions using one of them for moving to the main topic of this episode. For this, Ángel immerses Kirsten in a spiral of plot twists while connecting Uranus and Neptune with the "migrations of planets" astrophysicists need to introduce for explaining the existence of "hot Jupiters" (massive giant planets very close to their parent star). Kirsten describes some interesting properties about hot Jupiters, and we learn a new astronomical term: "Ploonets". For "What's Up!" we encourage everybody to find Mercury in the evening sky, as today, June 4th 2020, it reaches its greatest western elongation (its maximum angular distance of the Sun, which is 24 degrees). In Southern Australia, this corresponds to see Mercury with an altitude around 14 degrees at sunset. We are already expecting your questions and feedback for the next episode!
1 hr