Episode 10: The JWST Revolution, Part 2: Remarkably Bright Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn
The Open Universe
It’s July 2022, and JWST is now in full swing – its early images already captivating people the world over. In all this excitement, however, a team of astronomers is struck by one thing in particular... two beacons of light, shining out from the very depths of time: extraordinarily bright galaxies in existence so early as to defy all expectations. But how could galaxies so big exist so soon after the birth of the cosmos? Have we misunderstood galaxy formation all along?
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Episode 9: The JWST Revolution, Part 1: A New Space Telescope
The Open Universe
Christmas Day, 2021 offered a once-in-a-lifetime present to the astronomical community: JWST, a revolutionary new space telescope with the potential to transform our understanding of the cosmos. But with every new innovation, there is always room for plenty of surprises…. In our new miniseries on the Open Universe Podcast, we delve into the world of JWST and the incredible observations it’s made in just the first year of its operations – some, perhaps, with the potential to break our understanding of the universe.
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Episode 8: Fiat Lux: Conversations on science and faith at the Vatican Observatory
The Open Universe
The Open Universe goes on tour to Castel Gandolfo, Italy, home of the Vatican Observatory, where we chat with resident astronomer Richard D'Souza on astronomy, faith, and early efforts to map the Milky Way.
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Episode 7: A secret ocean beneath Pluto’s icy volcanoes?
The Open Universe
Volcanic explosions and surface flows on a frozen world?! Join us on board the New Horizons spacecraft on its journey towards the edge of the Solar System as it uncovers a distant world full of geological surprises.
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Episode 6: The most epic journey in the lifetime of a photon
The Open Universe
Photons traveling through spacetime are cosmic messengers carrying with them rich stories of the past history of our cosmos. Find out how an otherwise innocuous observation of distant quasars in 1965 transformed our understanding of the composition of intergalactic space, and the phases of evolution our Universe underwent billions of years ago.
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Episode 5: What is that beeping in the night sky?
The Open Universe
For years, astronomers have been puzzled by the mysterious bursts of cosmic radio emission, until recently, two teams identified the origin of these events as extremely magnetic stars -- strong enough to disrupt credit cards on the moon!
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Episode 4: The final voyage in the life of a star
The Open Universe
Relive the story of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who, as a 19-year old, came to a remarkable realization on board a ship journeying to start his physics scholarship in England. This discovery would lead to a bitter spat with one of the most eminent luminaries in the world of astronomy, and eventually reveal an astonishing feature of time and space – the existence of black holes.
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Episode 3: How did a 1912 circular open up our Universe?
The Open Universe
The vastness of space was unfathomable until a pioneer of "Big Data" found a regularity in the way some stars change brightness, a discovery which has ever since allowed us to precisely measure distances to stars throughout the Milky Way and beyond.
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Episode 2: The ultimate fate of the Universe
The Open Universe
Our universe appears to be an ever-expanding, or an open universe. Join us on a journey into the future to discover what this means for all the planets, stars, and galaxies.
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Episode 1: Can seismic activity on stars help us discover the next Earth?
The Open Universe
Discovering small planets like the Earth orbiting other stars like the Sun is hard, but blobs of gas surfacing from stellar interiors can help.
info_outlineVolcanic explosions and surface flows on a frozen world?! Join us on board the New Horizons spacecraft on its journey towards the edge of the Solar System as it uncovers a distant world full of geological surprises.