The Cosmic Savannah Ep. 72: Exploring New Horizons in Astronomy
Release Date: 07/26/2025
The 365 Days of Astronomy
Hosted by Chris Beckett & Shane Ludtke, two amateur astronomers in Saskatchewan. The Actual Astronomy Podcast presents The Observer’s Calendar for August 2025. In this episode we talk about the Moon pairing with Antares, Saturn, Mars then Antares again! We also talk about finding 4 asteroids at oppositions, Ausonia, Pallas, Julia and Hebe. There is also a great line in the sky formed when Jupiter, Venus and the Moon line up with Castor and Pollux after mid-month. Aug 1 - Carbon Star V Cyg at it’s best Aug 2 - Lunar Straight Wall and Eyes of Clavius Aug 3 - Antares 0.6 N. Of...
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Hosted by Avivah Yamani, your Director. What happens when a star dies? Today we journey through the powerful stellar finales, from the gentle flare of a nova to the cataclysmic force of a kilonova. Join us as we unravel the stories behind novae, supernovae, hypernovae, kilonovae, and the recently discovered micronovae. Have a listen & find out what makes stars go out with a bang! 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...
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Hosted by Tony Darnell. From August 22, 2018. Are we alone? How unique is our Earth? Should the hunt for life beyond Earth uncover a multitude of habitable worlds and few (if any) inhabited ones, humanity would begin to understand just how lonely and fragile our situation is. On the other hand, if our hunt yields a true diversity of inhabited worlds, then we would learn something fundamental about the commonality of life in the cosmos. Like this content? Please consider becoming a patron We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing,...
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From November 13, 2006. You hear distances all the time in astronomy. This star is 10 light-years away; that galaxy is 50 million light-years away; that Big Bang over there happened 13.7 billion years ago. But how did astronomers actually figure out how far away everything is? It’s not a single measuring stick. Instead, astronomers have built up a series of overlapping measuring tools (yes, we’re calling supernovae and variable stars “tools”), which take us from right around the corner to very ends of the Universe. Get out your ruler… no, the bigger one… never mind… just listen....
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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 June & July 2024. Today's 2 topics: - Since larger space rocks are rare, it was surprising when my Catalina Sky Survey teammate Hannes Groller found a half mile diameter asteroid traveling through the constellation of Auriga. Fortunately on it’s current path 2024 JW1 can’t come closer than 53 lunar distances from us. Asteroid hunters will continue to track 2024 JW1 to make sure that it does not become a threat...
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Hosted by Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, Dr. Tshiamiso Makwela & Dr. Daniel Cunnama. From June 19, 2024. Season 6. In this episode of The Cosmic Savannah, our hosts chat with Dr. Rojovola Zara-Nomena Randriamanakoto from the South African Astronomical Observatory about her transformative journey from Madagascar to becoming an instrumental figure in astronomy, advocating for women in STEM, and her research on star clusters and colliding galaxies. Dr. Zara Randriamanakoto is an influential astronomer from Madagascar working at the South African Astronomical Observatory. She moved to South...
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From July 16, 2025. In this special episode we look at how volunteers throughout history have aided in scientific explorations and tell you how you can get involved with our latest community science projects. - World Mappers (Mars Mosaics & Lunar Melt): 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...
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Hosted by Richard Drumm, your editor! Planets don’t just pop out of nowhere, fully formed and ready for astronomers to study. First, they begin as tiny little specks of dust, forming inside the clouds of gas around baby stars, which are known as protoplanetary discs. These dusty specks condense from the hottest parts of the cloud, kinda like the way raindrops form inside rainclouds. Over time, the specks of dust collide and stick together, forming rocky pebbles. When enough of these pebbles clump together, they can collapse under their own weight to form asteroid-sized...
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Very dense and podcastable. Cheap Astronomy finds there can never be too many podcasts about black holes. Dear Cheap Astronomy – What are squeezars? Squeezars are stars that orbit supermassive black holes. Essentially they are stars on a slow death spiral into the black hole and the squeezing referred to is the tidal stretch being exerted upon them as the orbit closer and closer to the black hole’s event horizon. That tidal stretching heats them up, a bit like how the moon of Io, orbiting close to Jupiter is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. So they are...
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Hosted by Dr. Paul M. Sutter. Why does the vacuum of spacetime have energy? How much energy does it have? What prevents us from using it to do anything useful? 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, Alberto M, Duncan M, Corey D, Michael P, Naila, Sam R, John...
info_outlineHosted by Dr. Jacinta Delhaize, Dr. Tshiamiso Makwela & Dr. Daniel Cunnama.
From June 19, 2024.
Season 6.
In this episode of The Cosmic Savannah, our hosts chat with Dr. Rojovola Zara-Nomena Randriamanakoto from the South African Astronomical Observatory about her transformative journey from Madagascar to becoming an instrumental figure in astronomy, advocating for women in STEM, and her research on star clusters and colliding galaxies.
Dr. Zara Randriamanakoto is an influential astronomer from Madagascar working at the South African Astronomical Observatory. She moved to South Africa in 2008, overcoming language barriers and limited initial exposure to computers and programming. Her journey into astronomy was driven by an opportunity linked to the Square Kilometre Array project. Zara studies massive star clusters, particularly in collisional ring galaxies, utilizing data from the Hubble Space Telescope. She has played a pivotal role in developing the astronomy community in Madagascar, focusing on education, outreach, and increasing female participation in STEM fields. Zara has received several prestigious awards, including the L’Oreal UNESCO Young Talent Program and the Mail and Guardian 200 Young South Africans. She is committed to mentoring and inspiring the next generation of scientists and is actively involved in promoting astronomy both in Madagascar and South Africa.
Podcast Manager and Show Notes: Francois Campher
Social Media Manager: Sumari Hatting
Transcripts: Abigail Thambiran
Audio Editing: Jacob Fine
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 [email protected].