Skytalk Archive
Monday’s lunar eclipse is the precursor to the August 21 total solar eclipse that will traverse the United States. Dr. Pitts and Da ...
Air Date: August 7, 2017
Listen 00:04:41
We are now just three weeks out from a total solar eclipse traversing the United States. Those lucky enough to be in the direct path will ...
Air Date: July 31, 2017
Listen 00:06:28
This is a great week to watch the development of lunar phases. Start watching on Monday night, with a barely visible 1.5-day old thin cre ...
Air Date: July 24, 2017
Listen 00:06:23
Shining Star (but just barely)
The smallest star ever just found, called ELBM-J0555-57Ab, is just about the size of Saturn but 300 times as massive. That makes it just ...
Air Date: July 18, 2017
Listen 00:05:36
On this date in July 1997, NASA placed the first rover on Mars. Sojourner was followed by Spirit and Opportunity, then Curiosity. It was ...
Air Date: July 10, 2017
Listen 00:04:54
This week, Dave Heller and Dr. Derrick Pitts discuss Earth’s elliptical orbit, and how it can still feel hot on Earth when we are a ...
Air Date: July 3, 2017
You Must Remember This – An Eclipse Is Not Just an Eclipse
Kepler scientists this week announced the 219 newest additions to the exoplanet count – 10 of which are identified as “terres ...
Air Date: June 26, 2017
Listen 00:07:13
Sun’s Original Twin: What happened to it? UC Berkeley astronomer Steven Stahler and Sarah Sadevoy of Smithsonian Astrophysical Obse ...
Air Date: June 19, 2017
Listen 00:06:34
If you’re sweating from our current heat wave, be glad you don’t live on planet KELT-9, orbiting a blue A-type star 620 light ...
Air Date: June 12, 2017
Listen 00:04:39
Wiltshire, England doesn’t have the monopoly on solar events with summer solstice at Stonehenge. Philadelphia is a suitable site to ...
Air Date: June 5, 2017
Listen 00:05:44
A cosmic debris ring has been observed around a star where a planet has already been directly observed. Plus, the observed lunar in ...
Air Date: May 29, 2017
Listen 00:04:28
Sunset now comes at 8:15pm, giving us 14 hours and 36 minutes of daylight here at Philadelphia’s latitude. We have about four ...
Air Date: May 23, 2017
Listen 00:05:59
How can we get into outer space faster? Nanocraft! The $100 million Breakthrough Starshot initiative intends to develop, within a genera ...
Air Date: May 16, 2017
Listen 00:05:46
With the return of the summer constellations rising around midnight, the Milky Way rises up from ringing the horizon and will arc slowly ...
Air Date: May 8, 2017
Listen 00:05:26
Now more commonly observed as a celebration of spring, in older times May 1st was considered the first day of summer in some European cou ...
Air Date: May 1, 2017
Listen 00:07:17