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The Astrophysics Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Paul Duffell
Once a month, Purdue University's Professor Paul Duffell discusses astronomy and astrophysics with experts from around the world. Duffell and guests discuss supernovae, galaxies, planets, black holes, and the nature of space and time.Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant AAG-2206299.Music by Brittain Ashford.Produced in beautiful Lafayette, Indiana by Paul Duffell.Follow us on BlueSky!
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- 5 days ago55 min
Dr. Meridith Joyce -- Stars, in Theory
How do we know how old a star is? Unlike trees, stars don't have rings we can count, and determining their ages requires us to understand the complicated physics happening deep inside them. Stellar models are essential to this process, but even our best models have significant uncertainties in how they treat processes like convection and mixing. Dr. Meridith Joyce is a computational astrophysicist who works on improving these models, in order to better understand stars. In this episode, we talk about how we determine the ages of stars, what their oscillations can tell us about their interiors, and take a closer look at one particularly famous star: Betelgeuse.
- Oct 1, 202655 min
Dr. Chris Irwin -- Prepare to be Shocked!
Shockwaves are a familiar phenomenon here on Earth. In astrophysics, they play a role in some of the most powerful events in the universe, from exploding stars to gamma ray bursts. Shockwaves can transform enormous amounts of energy and carry information about events that are otherwise impossible to observe directly. Dr. Chris Irwin studies how these shocks form and evolve, and how we can use them to learn about cosmic explosions.
- Jul 1, 20261h 6m
Dr. Ranadeep Dastidar -- Astrophysics at the Speed of Light
The Theory of Relativity was discovered by Einstein over a century ago, and it tells us how time and space are distorted when moving close to the speed of light. We mere earthlings don't get the opportunity to move that fast, but there are some phenomena in astrophysics that move very fast; more than 99.9999% of the speed of light. Ranadeep Dastidar is a computational modeler who writes code to predict and interpret these "relativistic" phenomena.
- Jun 1, 20261h 17m
Dr. Abigail Polin -- Astrophysics Q & A #3
Abigail Polin is back, and we are doing another astrophysics Q&A! This time, our questions come from a class of third graders in Indiana. You'll be surprised at how some of the simplest questions can lead us down a very complex path!
- May 1, 20261h 5m
Dr. Jeff Gerber -- Let's Talk Stars
This episode we get back to the objects that inspired the whole field of astrophysics -- stars. Those little points of light that first inspired us as children are incredible physics laboratories that we can still use today to learn about plasma physics, turbulence, and nuclear reactions. Dr. Jeff Gerber tells us why he made his career out of studying how stars work, and how much we still have to learn about these giant balls of plasma.
- Apr 1, 202650 min
Dr. Charles Law -- All the Molecules in Protoplanetary Disks
Just how much do we know about how the planets formed? How much of this can we learn from getting images of young solar systems? Why does it help to look at the disk using radio waves instead of optical wavelengths? Dr. Charles Law discusses these questions and more as we talk about radio astronomy and the birth of the solar system.
- Mar 1, 20261h 14m
Dr. Daniel Polin -- The Biggest Digital Camera in the World
The Vera Rubin Observatory has just started taking its first data this month. We have a special guest (Dr. Daniel Polin) who helped in the construction of the camera for Rubin. This digital camera was a major feat due to the very large amount of data contained in each exposure, requiring clever techniques for reading and transmitting data quickly. Let's find out what it takes to build the biggest digital camera in the world.
- Feb 1, 20261h 1m
Dr. Gurtina Besla -- Dark Matter in the Milky Way
Most of the mass in the universe is invisible. We call it "Dark Matter", and the only reason we know it's there is because we can see how it gravitationally interacts with regular matter. For example, in our own galaxy, Dark Matter comprises most of the mass, in a large spherical "halo" that binds the smaller spiral of gas and stars that we can see. As all our stars orbit the Milky Way, they are passing through a sea of dark matter, and this should create observable consequences that allow us to test theories about the nature of dark matter itself. Dr. Gurtina Besla develops large-scale computer simulations of the Milky Way to compute these observational signatures, allowing us to put our theories of dark matter to the test inside our own galaxy.
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About The Astrophysics Podcast
Once a month, Purdue University's Professor Paul Duffell discusses astronomy and astrophysics with experts from around the world. Duffell and guests discuss supernovae, galaxies, planets, black holes, and the nature of space and time.Supported by the National Science Foundation under grant AAG-2206299.Music by Brittain Ashford.Produced in beautiful Lafayette, Indiana by Paul Duffell.Follow us on BlueSky!
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