Allan I Carswell Observatory Presents: York Universe

York Universe is a weekly astronomy and astrophysics program written and presented by the students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Allan I Carswell Observatory at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Image credits: AICO, Elaina Hyde, Max Neumann

20251208_Bennu and Beyond 12/09/2025

20251208_Bennu and Beyond Tonight we discuss some fun history items, and of course the recent news about sugars and more on Bennu! The host is Dr. Elaina Hyde and we are joined by special guest Mahesh Aravamudan, a RASC Toronto Center member and astronomy enthusiast to investigate. The allsky camera for AICO mentioned in this episode can be found at: Image credit: Aview across asteroid Bennu’s southern hemisphere and into space. The image was obtained on March 7, 2019, by the PolyCam camera on NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/39333475

20251201_HolidayShow 12/02/2025

20251201_HolidayShow Welcome to our holiday show! What was the star of Bethlehem? What is a great gift for an astronomer? /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/39231385

20251124_ Mars and more 11/25/2025

20251124_ Mars and more Here we look at a few Mars related topics, including possible karstic (water eroded) caves and other findings around the solar systems. Image (open access) from Ravi, Sharma et al 2025 APJL 993 L36 /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/39159240

20251117_MeteorShower! 11/18/2025

20251117_MeteorShower! Tonight the Leonid meteor shower peaks. Here we look at the Leonids in detail as well as comets and Frank Drake. Image: Leonid meteor storm of 1833 (Public Domain) find out more about the observatory at /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/39071580

20251110_Good Satellites, Bad Satellites... 11/11/2025

20251110_Good Satellites, Bad Satellites... Julie Tomé and Dr. Elaina Hyde discuss many satellites - most good, some bad! From Lunar Orbiter 2, San Marco 1, and Sputnik to giant space mirrors (shudder) and the JWST (hurray!), explore some of the history and news around satellites. Podcast Image: AICO, Sunna Withers, Zena Khadour /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38988630

20251103_Let’s Break the Universe! 11/04/2025

20251103_Let’s Break the Universe! Tune in to go back in time to Tycho's Supernova of 1572, the history of daylight savings time, and how our view of the Universe was revolutionized, twice! This week's host's Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers also discuss astronomy news, including Comet 3I/Atlas and the chaos of galaxies in the early Universe. Image Description: Comet 3I/Atlas on July 21, 2025, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope Image Credit: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38902670

20251027_Comets and Stargazing with guest John Wilmot 10/28/2025

20251027_Comets and Stargazing with guest John Wilmot This episode features a round up of comets past and current, a bit of fun history, and some discussion of the 2025 Astronomer in Residence program. The host Dr. Elaina Hyde is joined by special guest John Wilmot, one of our 2025 astronomers who went out to Killarney Park as both an expert, and an amateur! Join us for a bit of fun, and keep in mind that the live views on YouTube for this episode include one of our comets from THIS season C2025/R2 (SWAN). The link to the observatory website mentioned in this episode is: . Image credit: Comet C2025/R2 SWAN as imaged by the AICO 1m telescope on YouTube during the live broadcast for this podcast on Oct 27, 2025: AICO, Sunna Withers, Nakul Sethuram Ramjee /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38815195

20251020_What the? 10/21/2025

20251020_What the? Here we look at a number of interesting objects in our solar system, and missions to the less frequented places in the inner solar system like Mercury and Venus. /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38719590

20251006_Strange Worlds, Old Data, and New Science 10/07/2025

20251006_Strange Worlds, Old Data, and New Science Julie and Jeremy chat about the history of exoplanet discovery, notable astronomers Riccardo Giacconi and Ejnar Hertzsprung, and the discovery of Triton. In the news, a rogue planet is acting like a star, old data sets are reanalysed to get new insights into Venus and Enceladus, and the Universe might not expand forever. Episode image credit: Sunna Withers, AICO /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38491320

20250929_Going Boldly! 09/30/2025

20250929_Going Boldly! Join hosts Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss spacecraft and astronomers who have gone boldly! We discuss both astronomy and sci-fi, including the nature of our Universe and the impact of Star Trek. Image: DART Impact Image Credit: NASA/Farnham et al. 2025 /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38404880

20250922_The Weird and Wonderful Planets of our Galaxy 09/22/2025

20250922_The Weird and Wonderful Planets of our Galaxy This week's episode is all about planets and solar systems! Join this week's hosts as we disucss the Earth's autumnual equinox, planetary exploration, the search for extraterrestrial life, and an important milestone in exoplanet discovery! Podcast Image: Cassini image of Saturn near its equinox in 2009 Photo Credit: NASA /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38317865

20250908_Rockets, Comets and Smart Telescopes 09/09/2025

20250908_Rockets, Comets and Smart Telescopes Here we have special guests Nathan Minuk and Robin Metcalfe. Nathan is a member of York student rocketry group. They are talking about the Canada Launch competition If any York students are interested please see arbalestrocketry.ca We also talk about Osiris- Rex,the contributions of amateur astronomers, and other recent news. Episode Artwork courtesy TheSkyLive.com /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/38137335

20250825_Solar System Galore 08/26/2025

20250825_Solar System Galore It's all about the Solar System this week! Join our hosts Professor Jeremy Webb and Sunna Withers as we discuss history surrounding Jupiter's Moon Europa, Pluto's declassification, and the discovery of S/2025 U1, a new moon of Uranus! Image description: Uranus and its New Moon S/2025 U1 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Maryame El Moutamid (SwRI), Matthew Hedman (University of Idaho) /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37956375

20250818_Lights, sounds and rumblings in the Solar System 08/19/2025

20250818_Lights, sounds and rumblings in the Solar System Here we look at a number of phenemenon we have observed in the solar system including, eclipses, aurora, lunar quakes and rainbows on Enceladus. Apollo 11 Seismic Experiment Image Courtesy NASA /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37871390

20250811_Dog Days of Summer... 08/12/2025

20250811_Dog Days of Summer... Join Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss interstellar visitors, the most distant black hole ever observed, and what's up in the sky this week. Also tune in for special guest Robin Metcalfe to learn about the upcoming Launch Canada Challenge! Image: Apollo 8 Command Module - Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Il. Photo Credit: Paul J. Mackin /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37770010

20250728_Women in Astronomy - Rubin and Mitchell 07/29/2025

20250728_Women in Astronomy - Rubin and Mitchell Here we touch on Vera Rubin and Maria Mitchell, two prominent female astronmers of the late 19th and early 20th century. We also look at some aspects of life beyond our solar system and speculation about 31/Atlas Image of 1878 eclipse - Public domain image from /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37588035

20250721_To the Moon! Past and Future 07/22/2025

20250721_To the Moon! Past and Future Join us as we discuss exploring our Solar System! Hosted by Paul Mackin and Professor Mary-Helen Armour, this week we discuss one of the most significant events in space history - landing humans on the Moon - and how we aim to achieve a repeat performance. /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37498545

20250714_This week, we stay in the Solar System! 07/15/2025

20250714_This week, we stay in the Solar System! In this week's episode we highlight missions with milestones on this day like Mariner 4, and New Horizons. We also look at aspects of asteroids and comets in the news, now in in this day in history. Image /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37407605

20250707_Acheivements Galore! 07/08/2025

20250707_Acheivements Galore! Julie and Mary-Helen discuss Newton, Shklovsky, and Bethe - three scientists with many achievements to list. They explore how technology has evolved while talking about Roswell, a bolide captured by a weather satellite, and new frontiers being pushed by JWST. Episode image credit: NOAA-CIRA /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37329665

20250623_Summer Solstice 06/24/2025

20250623_Summer Solstice In this episode Dr. Mary-Helen Armour and Dr. Jeremy Webb discuss the summer solstice touching on what a solstice is, and what historical significance it has in everything from time keeping, finding the size of the Earth, and how ancient monuments were aligned. In the news we touch on the early images from the Vera Rubin telescope. Image courtest NASA at /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37128930

20250616_Moons in the Solar System and Beyond 06/17/2025

20250616_Moons in the Solar System and Beyond In this episode Sunna Withers and Dr. Elaina Hyde investigate some historical moons of Saturn, Pluto, and of course our own Earth’s Moon as well as the latest Moon news and discoveries from JWST. Image credit: 2025 03 08 The moon through the AICO Unistellar eVscope by Nakul Sethuram /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/37042955

20250609_From Local to Cosmological… it is all about space! 06/10/2025

20250609_From Local to Cosmological… it is all about space! Join us as we discuss everything from exploring our Solar System to the outermost regions of the Universe! Hosted by Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers, this week's episode highlights asteroid sample return missions and observing distant stars and galaxies. Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. Gozaliasl, A. Koekemoer, M. Franco, and the COSMOS-Web team /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36931690

20250602_From Naked Eye to high tech 06/03/2025

20250602_From Naked Eye to high tech This episode touches on transits of Venus and their historical and astronomical importance. It also looks a bit at how the observations of the solstice could also be used to gain an understanding of Earth. Your hosts Prof. Mary-Helen Armour and Dr. Elaina Hyde touch on more modern history looking at lunar investigation by the Surveyor and Hayabusa2 investigation of asteroids. In the news we look at recent JWST discoveries, like one of the most distant and youngest galaxies every imaged, amazing aurora and hot exoplanets. Image credit: NASA (2012 transit) https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10996/#media_group_349107 /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36828190

20250526_Projects! 05/28/2025

20250526_Projects! Paul Mackin and Mary-Helen Armour describe Apollo missions and more. Sometimes big, sometimes small, sometimes personal, sometimes public… It is always great to have a project. Join in this episode to hear about some historical and very recent space projects. Image Credit: Paul Mackin 2024 - The Apollo 10 command module - Charly Brown. A Soyuz which carried a British Cosmonaut to Mir. Courtesy of the Science Museum in London /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36740120

20250512_Everything is space telescopes 05/13/2025

20250512_Everything is space telescopes This episode features a journey through past and present space telescopes with Sunna Withers and Dr. Elaina Hyde. Missions both large and small have contributed significantly to astronomy as we know it, and in the news now we can’t help but mention some of the latest from JWST. Image credit: NASA/Chris Gunn "Technicians successfully performed a critical test on Webb's 5-layer sunshield by fully deploying each of its uniquely sized layers to the same position that they will have while orbiting the Sun a million miles away from Earth." /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36543400

20250505_Star Wars vs Star Trek vs reality! 05/06/2025

20250505_Star Wars vs Star Trek vs reality! Paul Mackin and Professor Elaina Hyde cover the science fiction film that changed it all as well as other items in space history and the most recent astronomy news. This episode looks at Venus, Mars, and the space program with a bit of a sci-fi tint! Image credit: AICO, Elaina Hyde, 2023: The Allan I Carswell Observatory showing the dome during the day with the moon above /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36449135

20250428_Hints of summer! 04/29/2025

20250428_Hints of summer! Paul Mackin and Julie Tomé discuss the beginnings of radio astronomy, pioneering astronauts, and wish astronomer Gibor Basri a happy birthday this week in astronomy and space history. In news, the Lucy Mission has done a flyby of Asteroid Donaldjohnson and New Horizons data were used to map the galaxy in Lyman-alpha radiation. As April winds down we get better weather and a preview of our summer skies! Episode art: M13 Great Cluster in Hercules, image credit Conor Hayes, AICO, 2021 /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36350135

20250414_Daydreaming in the Solar System: Surfing Saturn's Rings, Golfing on the Moon, and Other Adventures in Space Exploration 04/15/2025

20250414_Daydreaming in the Solar System: Surfing Saturn's Rings, Golfing on the Moon, and Other Adventures in Space Exploration This week's episode features John Moores, Jesse Rogerson and Michelle Parsons, authors of "Daydreaming in the Solar System: Surfing Saturn's Rings, Golfing on the Moon, and Other Adventures in Space Exploration". Join as our host Robin Metcalfe leads an exciting discussion on how to daydream in the solar system, including ice skating on Pluto and Enceladus, falling through Jupiter's atmosphere, and spelunking on Saturn's moon Hyperion! Erratum: Robin's younger son is a 6'2" goalie (not 5'2") Image Credit: Michelle Parsons /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/36146985

20250331_Launches, Exoplanets & Little Red Dots 04/01/2025

20250331_Launches, Exoplanets & Little Red Dots Sunna Withers and Julie Tomé discuss several historic launches and the achievements of astronomer Donald Lynden-Bell. In the news, detecting exoplanets using their magnetosphere and the solution to the mystery of the JWST Little Red Dots. Spoiler - the Universe isn’t broken. Photo credit: AICO, 40 cm telescope /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/35953390

20250324_Earth and Moon This Week 03/25/2025

20250324_Earth and Moon This Week This Week in Space and Astronomy History is all about our solar system! Join this week's host's Professor Mary-Helen Armour and Paul Mackin as they discuss history of solar system exploration from the first images of the Moon to the exploration of Mars and beyond! Image Credit: The Moon imaged by the Allan I. Carswell Observatory 1m telescope /episode/index/show/c7ec35a8-3f2d-4423-99cf-045f514be0b7/id/35848925

Allan I Carswell Observatory Presents: York Universe

TOPICS