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Episodes of Orbital Path
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All things in the cosmos have a lifespan, from the smallest particles to the most ancient suns. Everything has its season. Every season must come to an end.And this episode marks the end of Orbital Path.So, for the last transit of our podca
Asteroids, as the dinosaurs found out, can have big effects on life on Earth. Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid crashed into the Yucatán. The impact caused apocalyptic tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. Grit and ash blotted out the sun.
To make a black hole, you need to think big. Really big.Start with a star much bigger than the sun — the bigger the better. Then settle in, and wait a few million years for your star to die.That should do the trick, if you want to get yours
On September 15, 2018, the last Delta II rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force base, in California. It carried into orbit IceSat-2 — a satellite equipped with perhaps the most sophisticated space laser ever built.NASA didn’t put it up
We live our lives in three dimensions. But we also walk those three dimensions along a fourth dimension: time.Our world makes sense thanks to mathematics. Math lets us count our livestock, it lets us navigate our journeys. Mathematics has a
To hear Leonard Susskind tell it, we are living in a golden age ofquantum physics.And he should know.Susskind is a grandee of theoretical physics. In the 1960s, he was one of the discoverers of String Theory. His friends and collaborators
For a long time, probably as long as we have been gazing up at the night sky, people have been asking ourselves: Are we alone? Is there life out there, anywhere else in the universe?For modern Earthlings, our fascination with extraterrestrial
Zoe is in 8th grade. She’s a student in Mr. Andersen’s Earth science class at a public school in Brooklyn.Lately, she’s been concerned about the future of the planet.Specifically, Zoe has been learning about the phenomenon of planetary dehy
Secrets of the universe? A glimpse of the whiteboard in the office of Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist Adam Riess.Adam Riess was only 41 when he was named a Nobel Prize winner. The Johns Hopkins distinguished professor of astronomy shared
Instead of grappling with the big, cosmic questions that preoccupy adults, this week on Orbital Path we’re doing something different.We’re grappling with the big, cosmic questions that preoccupy kids.It’s part of a new project called “Teles
On August 17, 2017, an alert went out.Gravitational wave detectors in Louisiana and Washington state had detected a disturbance from deep space.The effect was subtle — these detectors and a sister site in Italy measure disturbances smaller
Scientists in 1985 discovered something that threatened the world we live in:The ozone layer had a hole in it.A big one. And this hole was growing very quickly. If it continued to grow, the consequences would be dire.Presented with the sc
In this darkest season of the year, Dr. Michelle Thaller and NASA astronomer Andrew Booth curl up by the fire. Gazing into the embers, red wine in hand, they consider the meaning of the winter solstice — on other planets.Like Uranus, where pa
NASA’S office of planetary defense isn’t worried about Klingons or Amoeboid Zingatularians. They worry about asteroids and comets. Like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013. It was about 20 yards across. An asteroid 150 ya
These days, astrophysicists like Dr. Michelle Thaller use instruments to probe the distant reaches of our galaxy, and far beyond. They use interferometry, the Hubble space telescope, and other technology impossible to imagine when the constella
We’ve got some awkward news to share, folks: The producer of Orbital Path is claiming he’s been abducted by space aliens.So this week, we’re dusting off the theremin and returning to one of our favorite early episodes — “Must Be Aliens.”Dr.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan avidly guards its traditional culture. Bhutan is a nation that — instead of looking to GDP or debt ratios — measures success by an index of “Gross National Happiness.”In this episode of Orbital Path, Dr. Michel
We live our lives in three dimensions. But we also walk those three dimensions along a fourth dimension: time.
Our world makes sense thanks to mathematics. Math lets us count our livestock, it lets us navigate our journeys. Mathematics has a
In a scary time, in a scary world, in a scary universe, NASA astronomer Andrew Booth says one of the things that frightens him most is math.Specifically, the power of mathematics to describe the universe.That’s because, beyond the comfortin
Locked up on the Greek island of Crete, Icarus and his dad made wings out of beeswax and bird feathers. They soared to freedom — but Icarus got cocky, flew too close to the sun, and fell into the sea. A few thousand years later, NASA is read
After a full day in a clean suit, there’s nothing like …a dip in the hot tub.NASA astronomer Andrew Booth spends his days working with lasers, developing some of the word’s most advanced telescopes. When he gets home from work, he loves to p
There was a time before planets and suns. A time before oxygen. You could say there was time, even, before what we think of as light.Back in 1989, the Big Bang theory was still in question. But that year, a NASA team led by cosmologist John
NASA is relying on hi-tech lasers — and some vintage U.S. Navy hand-me-downs — to learn about the polar regions of a remarkable, watery planet. It’s located in the Orion spur of our galaxy. NASA scientists have detected mountain ranges comple
The big one is coming! That is, the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21. Dr. Thaller shares her wisdom on how best to view the eclipse and its larger implications for science.Orbital Path is produced by David Schulman and edited by Andrea Mustain.
Recently, we’ve started to get the first images back from Juno, which is on a mission to Jupiter. Host Dr. Michelle Thaller walks us through the results so far and how you can participate in what Juno discovers next.[Image of Jupiter from t
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