Weekly Space Hangout - Dr. Scott Bellamy, Mission Manager for DART
Release Date: 01/14/2022
Astronomy Cast Ep. 787: Evolved Stars (They're not dead yet!)
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by: Fraser Cain ( ) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay ( ) Streamed live on Mar 16, 2026. Main sequence stars spend most of their time being… normal. Fusing hydrogen into helium in their cores. Producing radiation. But as their stockpiles of hydrogen run out they switch to other fuels, starting to climb the ladder of the periodic table of elements. And this is when things get weird. As we get more and more observations of the cosmos, our understanding gets more detailed. In this episode we look at all the ways a star can die and the updates that we've learned in the past 20 years of Astronomy...
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Travelers in the Night Eps. 865 & 866: New Potentially Hazardous Asteroid & Interstellar Visitor
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. From September 2025. Today's 2 topics: - On a short June night my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Greg Leonard was observing with our 60 inch telescope on Mt. Lemmon, Arizona in the constellation of Ursa Major when a relatively bright fast moving point of light appeared in a set of his images. Even though on its current path Greg's discovery, 2025 MM89, has virtually no chance of impacting our home planet asteroid hunters will...
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ASTROMAN - Light Pollution and the Fight to Bring Back the Stars
The 365 Days of Astronomy
In this episode of Dark Sky Guardian, we learn how thoughtful lighting can reduce glare, save energy, protect wildlife, and restore our connection to the night sky. “ASTROMAN: the Dark Sky Guardian” is a podcast channel that aims to explore popular science in multiple disciplines and research on interdisciplinary approaches, such as sustainability, dark-sky protection, astrophotography, space exploration, astronomy innovation, inclusive science communication, and STEAM Education by integrating science and arts. Exodus CL Sit, also known as the ASTROMAN, is a transmedia...
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EVSN - Daily Space Planets, Stars & Death to Dark Energy
The 365 Days of Astronomy
From January 7, 2020. The Hubble Space Telescope continues to give us amazing views and science, 30 years later. Here are a couple of new stories that help us appreciate this amazing tool of science. We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other...
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Actual Astronomy - A Listener’s Dream Observatory
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan who enjoy teaching astronomy classes and showing the public views through their telescopes. A listener builds their dream observatory on Episode 529 of the Actual Astronomy podcast. I’m Chris and joining me is Shane. We are amateur astronomers who love looking up at the night sky and this podcast is for everyone who enjoys going out under the stars. We have a special guest joining us today, listener Kevin Duchscherer is joining us to share his Observatory Progress. - Where are you located Kevin? - How...
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Cheap Astronomy - Dear CA 131: What’s The Point?
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by Steve Nerlich. Cheap Astronomy asks what's the point and then gets some sunshine. Dear Cheap Astronomy – Did the Universe start from a single point? This hypothetical concept is commonly stated in pop science blogs and we are guilty of doing the same here at Cheap Astronomy. However, it’s not necessarily correct. As with most things relating to the Universe, all we can really talk about is the observable Universe. All evidence available does suggest that it emerged from a point source 13.8 billion years ago, but if the actual Universe is bigger than the observable Universe –...
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Ask A Spaceman Ep. 268: What are Little Red Dots?
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by Dr. Paul M. Sutter. What do we find when we push the James Webb Space Telescope to its limits? Are Little Red Dots newborn galaxies or old black holes? What are they teaching us about the early Universe? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman! Support the show: All episodes: Watch on YouTube: Read a book: Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, physics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE! Big thanks to my top Patreon supporters this month: Justin G, Chris L,...
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Astronomy Cast Ep. 786: Wolf-Rayet Stars
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by: Fraser Cain () and Dr. Pamela L. Gay () Streamed live on Mar 9, 2026. You think the Sun is a terrifying ball of fire and fury? Wait until you learn about today’s topic: Wolf-Rayet stars! These are massive, dying stars hurling their outer layers out into space before detonating as supernovae. Big stars live brief lives, and Wolf-Rayet stars are the punctuation mark we see before things go supernova. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Science: Yinuo Han (Caltech), Ryan White (Macquarie University); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Learn more here: This...
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Travelers in the Night Eps. 863 & 864: Space Elevator & Lunar Debris
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. From August 2025. Today's 2 topics: - In a recent study Dr. Lynnane George and her co-authors investigate Space Elevator technology to remove materials from Ceres and deliver them to orbital depots around the solar system. The tiny gravity of Ceres, nano-fiber technology, and different water propulsion systems are utilized by Dr. George and her team to construct theoretically possible systems which would extract raw...
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NOIRLab - Results From Six Years of the Dark Energy Survey
The 365 Days of Astronomy
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration collected information on hundreds of millions of galaxies across the Universe using the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at CTIO, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. Their completed analysis combines all six years of data for the first time and yields constraints on the Universe's expansion history that are twice as tight as past analyses. In this podcast, Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang discusses the Dark Energy Survey results and how they inform the next steps in dark...
info_outlineHost: Fraser Cain ( @fcain )
Special Guest: This week we are excited to welcome Dr. Scott Bellamy to the WSH. Scott is the Mission Manager for NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission which successfully launched in the early morning hours from Vandenberg atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on November 24, 2021.
Scott Bellamy is one of the Mission Managers in the Planetary Missions Program Office (PMPO) at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), Huntsville, AL. Presently, Scott is responsible for day-to-day oversight of the Europa Clipper flagship mission, as well as the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission.
DART's mission is to conduct a real-life experiment in changing an asteroid’s orbit through kinetic impact. In late September 2022, DART will intercept the moonlet (i.e., Dimorphos,) of the asteroid Didymos — a binary system — and slow Dimorphos’ orbit by up to 10 minutes. DART is the first-ever mission of this type and is sponsored by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
Europa Clipper, on the other hand, will launch in October 2024 to perform a detailed exploration of Jupiter’s ocean-world moon, Europa. This mission will provide priceless information on the thickness and composition of the ice shell to possibly enable a future mission to land a probe on Europa and search for microbial life.
Prior to these missions, Scott was simultaneously the Mission Manager for another project that we at CosmoQuest hold near-and-dear to our hearts, the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission to obtain and return the first-ever United States asteroid sample; the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster–Commercial (NEXT-C) project providing DART’s primary propulsion; and the Near Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) mission to provide the capability for detecting low-observable asteroids.
Scott originally came to Marshall Space Flight Ccenter as the Air Force Liaison Office in 2008 and afterwards retired with over 25 years of service. He then served in several roles, including being a member of the very small team that shaped what later became the Space Launch System (SLS), before joining the Planetary Missions Program Office in 2013.
Regular Guests:
Ashley Walker ( https://www.blackinastro.com/ @That_Astro_Chic )
Dave Dickinson ( http://astroguyz.com/ & @Astroguyz )
Pam Hoffman ( http://spacer.pamhoffman.com/ & http://everydayspacer.com/ & @EverydaySpacer )
This week's stories:
- Diamond rain in the ice giants.
- James Webb. Again.
- Everything to see in the night sky in the next month.
- A strange mystery at Jupiter. SOLVED!
- An interstellar probe proposal.
We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.
Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can!
Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!
Every bit helps! Thank you!
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The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu
Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.