Walkabout the Galaxy Podcast
1) Adaptive LIGO and a New Look at an Old Crater
Adaptive optics techniques get applied to the mirrors in the LIGO gravitational wave observatory, promising a five-fold or greater improvement in sensitivity to gravitational waves from colliding blac...Show More
2) Einstein Cross Reveals Dark Matter and a Life-y Mars Rock
We take a look the Cheyava Falls rock on Mars, or rather the Perseverance rover took a look at it, and we discuss what it saw which were some intriguing mineral formations that could have a biological...Show More
3) Exo-Pluto Debris in Our Solar System and Axions Galore
An interstellar interloper may have been a chip off the old block, where the old block was a Pluto-like planet around another star, and the chip is solid air (nitrogen that is)! And we revisit the pot...Show More
4) Europa Clipper Report from Mars and ATLAS 3I Update from DragonCon 2025
That's no error, this is episode 404, recorded in front of a live audience at DragonCon 2025 with special guest Trina Ray, Deputy Science Manager for the Europa Clipper mission. We get an update from ...Show More
5) Trappist-1, ESCAPADE, and Axions
There is so much going on in the universe it's hard to keep track. That's why we have not one but two top astroquarks on this episode to cover the latest discoveries and news from the solar system to ...Show More
6) Weird Black Hole Blazar and Water Ice Glaciers on Mars
There's more abundant and accessible water ice on Mars, ready for us to scoop it up, heat it up, and eat it up. And in the distant recesses of the universe there's a supermassive black hole with an in...Show More
7) Forbidden Black Hole Merger and Chaos on Europa
We discuss the largest black hole merger observed to date, between two black holes that are in the so-called forbidden mass range. They must have been created by some ancient merger of other black hol...Show More
8) Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS is Out Of This World
The astroquarks celebrate 400 episodes with a special sponsor, a special stumper, and a special interstellar comet making its way through our solar system from an origin near the galactic center perha...Show More
9) Vera Rubin Observatory Sets Sights on the Universe
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has started making observations with the world's largest optical detector boasting over 3 billion pixels at the back of an enormous telescope in the high Andes. We take a...Show More
10) Supernova Hazards and Cloudy With a Chance of Sand
We're all about the weather on this episode, with a new study showing that even relatively distant supernova may have affected the Earth's climate in the recent past. And the James Webb Space Telescop...Show More