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Morning Mercury By most standards, the planet Mercury is a bit of an afterthought. It never strays very far from the Sun in our sky, so it's hard to see. Only two spacecraft have visited the planet. And most ancient cultures awarded it second-class status at best.
It's easy to see why if you look for Mercury the next few days. It's farthest from the Sun for its current morning appearance, and it looks like a bright star. Even so, it's still quite low in the east at first light, so it's tough to spot throug ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Life-Maker Luckily for us, oxygen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth. It's in the air, the water, and the rocks beneath our feet. But the amount of oxygen on Earth is tiny compared to the amount created by an exploding star in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way. It manufactured a hundred thousand times more oxygen than is found not just on Earth, but in our entire solar system.
The star manufactured the oxygen and many other elements in its core. It began life ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Living in Space IIINo matter how often you clean your house, there's just no getting rid of dust. But other than a bit of embarrassment when friends or family drop by, or the occasional sneeze, it's generally not much of a problem.
If people ever live on Mars or the Moon, though, dust could be more than just a problem -- it could be deadly.
On both worlds, the dust could gum up the joints on spacesuits, or mechanical systems like doors. It could act like sandpaper, wearing away surfaces and scratching tender ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Living in Space IIWhen Gemini 9 astronaut Eugene Cernan took the second American spacewalk almost 45 years ago, he darn near didn't make it back. Working in his stiff, pressurized spacesuit was much harder than anyone had expected. Cernan was quickly drenched in sweat, and his visor fogged up so badly that he couldn't see. His work was cut short, and he had to feel his way back into the spacecraft.
Better tools and training have fixed most of the problems, but walking in space is still hard work. And part of ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Living in SpaceFlying in space is a risky business. Rockets are dangerous, there's no air, and radiation is a constant threat. And then there's the problem with fingernails....
The human body doesn't seem to like flying in space. In the microgravity environment of Earth orbit, muscles don't have to work as hard as they do on the surface. So under the principle of "use it or lose it," astronauts lose muscle mass. But they can minimize the loss with exercise. In fact, astronauts aboard the International Spa ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon and AntaresOn a human scale, the Moon is gigantic. It's more than 2,000 miles in diameter -- about a quarter the size of Earth. And it's a solid chunk of rock, so when you reach the surface, you hit it with a thump.
But on the astronomical scale, the Moon is little more than dust in the solar wind -- a mere speck of matter that hardly registers.
To understand just how tiny, consider its companion tonight: Antares, the brightest star of the constellation Scorpius, the scorpion. The bright orange star s ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Galactic MapThis is a great time of year to watch the Milky Way -- the glowing band of stars that outlines the disk of our home galaxy. As the Moon sets around 9 or 10 o'clock tonight, the Milky Way arcs high overhead. But you need dark skies to see it.
Today, we know that the Milky Way is shaped like a disk with a bulge in the middle. We also know that we're a long way from the middle.
But it took a lot of work to figure all of that out. One of the first steps took place 225 years ago, when William He ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
More Moon and CompanionsMars is just about lost from sight right now. It's quite low in the western sky as darkness begins to fall. You can still find it, though, because it lines up with a couple of bright companions: the Moon and the planet Venus. Venus is the "evening star," to the lower right of the Moon. Mars is about the same distance to the upper right of Venus. It's fairly bright, but it can be tough to spot through the twilight.
Although Mars is a desert world today, that hasn't always been the case. Bill ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon and CompanionsA beautiful but lopsided kite sails low across the western sky early this evening. It sets not long after the sky gets good and dark, so there's not much time to look for it.
The brightest point of the kite is the Moon. It's a thin crescent right now, which means that it's nighttime across most of the hemisphere that faces our way.
As the sky darkens, though, the "dark" portion of the lunar disk shines through -- the result of "earthshine" -- sunlight reflected off of Earth. If you were sta ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Life in the Solar System IIIThere's not enough acetylene on the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. While that's probably not enough to get most of us too excited, the possible cause of the missing acetylene could be: life.
Titan is big and cold, and it's surrounded by a thick atmosphere. Liquid methane fills lakes on its surface, and carves rivers and streams.
Over the last few years, scientists have speculated that Titan could host an exotic form of life based on methane instead of water. Not only is metha ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Life in the Solar System IIYou don't really expect to find anything living inside a giant ice cube -- unless the ice cube is a moon of one of the giant planets. In fact, two ice moons -- one of Jupiter and one of Saturn -- are considered among the best candidates for life in the solar system.
The Jovian moon is Europa. It's bigger than our own Moon, and a lot more interesting. There's abundant evidence that an ocean of liquid water lies below its icy crust -- the result of a tug-of-war between Jupiter and some of its ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Building Solar Systems II - StarDate: August 24Rivalry among planetary siblings. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Building Solar Systems - StarDate: August 23Two ways to make giant planets. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Quiet Sun II - StarDate: August 22A calm and peaceful Sun. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Quiet Sun - StarDate: August 21The Sun stays unusually calm. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Supernova 1885 - StarDate: August 20Lighting up the enormous universe. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Venus Stands High(ish) - StarDate: August 19The low-but-high "evening star". Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon in the Middle - StarDate: August 18Messing with the night sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Double Double - StarDate: August 17A double double in the evening sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Rigel - StarDate: August 16A star with a bright but short future. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Zubenelgenubi - StarDate: August 15A spread-out family of stars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Off-Center Black Hole - StarDate: August 14A black hole that's out of position. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
More Moon and Planets - StarDate: August 13Peeling back the clouds. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon, Planets, and Meteors - StarDate: August 12Moon, planets, and meteors. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Perseid Meteors - StarDate: August 11Lighting up the late-night sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Galactic Bubbles - StarDate: August 10Blowing bubbles in the Milky Way. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Counting Clouds - StarDate: August 9Counting up stellar nurseries. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Twin Crowns - StarDate: August 8Crowning the night sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Vulpecula - StarDate: August 7A dead star and an almost-dead star. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Evening Planets - StarDate: August 6A deceptive evening conjunction. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Nunki - StarDate: August 5A star with an ancient pedigree. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Galactic Search - StarDate: August 4Searching the bright lights of downtown. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Black Hole Flare-Up - StarDate: August 3A black hole gets brighter. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Sagittarius - StarDate: August 2Taking aim at a starry teapot. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Family Reunion - StarDate: August 1A family reunion in the evening sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Jupiter and Uranus - StarDate: May 31Giant worlds in the morning sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Seeing Double - StarDate: May 30Double "twins" in the evening sky. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Rasalhague - StarDate: May 29A star with a bulging waistline. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Beta Bootis - StarDate: May 28A giant star flares up. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Izar - StarDate: May 27The most beautiful girdle?.Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Boötes - StarDate: May 26Plowing a furrow among the stars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Daniel Barringer - StarDate: May 25Digging into a big hole in the ground. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon and Spica - StarDate: May 24The long beginning of a long journey. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Morning Mercury - StarDate: May 23Heading south for Mercury. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Moon and Saturn - StarDate: May 22Escaping from an icy moon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Lasers V - StarDate: May 21Some light chatter. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Lasers IV - StarDate: May 20Inching away from the Moon. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Lasers III - StarDate: May 19Getting back at Mars. Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website
Lasers II - StarDate: May 18Making an artificial "star". Listen | Listen in your iPhone | |