Current Episode
Episode 139 - May 08, 2012
May 08, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning May 8, 2012 through May 21, 2012.
Highlights: Transit of Venus and the history of the study of planetary transits. - Bruce Stephenson, PhD
In this episode: Learn about the upcoming Transit of Venus and how to best view the event. We also discuss the study of planetary transits and their historical significance.
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Learn more about this episode of Adler Night and Day on our tumblr blog.Recent Episodes
Episode 138 - April 24, 2012
Apr 24, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning April 24, 2012 through May 8, 2012.
Highlights: Science Hack Day Chicago - Stuart Lynn, PhD and David Miller
In this episode: Chicago’s first Science Hack Day, a 24-hour marathon for developers, designers, scientists, educators, and the community to come together to collaboratively create something awesome, will take place at the Adler Planetarium from May 12-13, 2012. Learn about the event and how it got its start!
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Episode 137 - April 10, 2012
Apr 10, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning April 10, 2012 through April 23, 2012.
Highlights: Weird Stuff in the Sky - Mark Hammergren, PhD
In this episode: Sprites and elves, ball lightning, aurora, and halos... what are all these weird things in our sky?!
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Episode 136 - March 27, 2012
Mar 27, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning March 27, 2012 through April 9, 2012.
Highlights: The Evolution of the Moon - William Hartmann, PhD
In this episode: How has the Moon's appearance evolved over the course of time and how has our understanding of it changed over the years?
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Episode 135 - March 13, 2012
Mar 13, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning March 13, 2012 through March 27, 2012.
Highlights: Dark Matter - Geza Gyuk, PhD
In this episode: There's a lot of stuff in our Universe. However, only so much of it is visible. Where's the other stuff? What is it? Enter dark matter... the mysterious stuff we're only just beginning to understand!
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Episode 134 - February 28, 2012
Feb 28, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning February 28, 2012 through March 12, 2012.
Highlights: Far Horizons - Ken Walczak
Far Horizons engages participants in the design, building and launching of experiments flown to altitudes above 100,000 feet on high altitude balloons and offers a real world opportunity for students and the community to participate in science mathematics, physics and engineering challenges.
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Episode 133 - February 14, 2012
Feb 14, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning February 14, 2012 through February 27, 2012.
Highlights: Dawn Mission - Mark Sykes, PhD
Dawn, as a mission belonging to NASA’s Discovery Program, delves into the unknown, drives new technology innovations, and achieves what's never been attempted before. In Dawn’s case, it is orbiting one member of the main asteroid belt, Vesta, before heading to gather yet more data at a second, Ceres.
Mark Sykes of the Dawn Mission talks about the objects of Dawn's attention and what questions the mission seeks to answer.
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Episode 132 - January 31, 2012
Jan 31, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning January 31, 2012 through February 13, 2012.
Highlights: NuSTAR- Lynn Cominsky, PhD
In this episode: The NuSTAR mission will deploy the first focusing telescopes to image the sky in the high energy X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. NuSTAR will take a census of collapsed stars and black holes of different sizes by surveying regions surrounding the center of own Milky Way Galaxy and performing deep observations of the extragalactic sky; map recently-synthesized material in young supernova remnants to understand how stars explode and how elements are created; and understand what powers relativistic jets of particles from the most extreme active galaxies hosting supermassive black holes.
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Episode 131 - January 17, 2012
Jan 17, 2012Highlights: The Maya Calendar - Mark Hammergren, PhD
In this episode: Just what is the Maya Calendar and does it really foretell the doom of civilization?
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Episode 130 - January 3, 2012
Jan 03, 2012Up-to-date night sky activity beginning January 3, 2012 through January 16, 2012.
Highlights: 2012: What to Expect in Spaceflight - Michelle Nichols
In this episode: It might seem that there isn't much going on in spaceflight now that the Shuttle has been retired but 2012 is packed full with all sorts of fantastic space adventures!
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Episode 129 - December 20, 2011
Dec 20, 2011Highlights: 2011: Year in Review - Michelle Nichols
So much happened in the year 2011! From the retirement of the Shuttle program to the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory and everything in between... make sure to catch up on all things space science!
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Episode 128 - December 6, 2011
Dec 06, 2011Up-to-date night sky activity beginning December 6, 2011 through December 19, 2011.
Highlights: The James Webb Space Telescope - Amber Straughn, PhD
In this episode: The James Webb Telescope is scheduled to launch in 2018. The Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.
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Episode 127 - November 22, 2011
Nov 22, 2011Highlights: Astronomy outreach - Donald Lubowich, PhD
In this episode: Donald Lubowich of Hofstra University talks about using various outreach programs such as the Stars on Sundays series to increase science literacy.
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Episode 126 - November 8, 2011
Nov 08, 2011Highlights: Curiosity / Mars Science Laboratory - Aileen Yingst, PhD
In this episode: The Mars Science Laboratory is scheduled for launch on November 25th. Learn more about this mission and our newest Martian rover, Curiosity.
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Episode 125 - October 25, 2011
Oct 25, 2011Highlights: Mars - William K. Hartmann, PhD. In this episode: We're talking to Bill Hartmann about the geography Mars and what the features and composition tells us about our red neighbor.
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Episode 124 - October 11, 2011
Oct 11, 2011Highlights: Science Fiction and Science Fact - Nick Sagan. In this episode: We have science fiction writer Nick Sagan! The episode contains a portion that aired as part of the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast. This episode contains that portion, as well as an extended conversation!
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Episode 123 - September 27, 2011
Sep 27, 2011Highlights: MicroObservatory Online Telescopes - Mary Dussault and Erin Braswell. In this episode: We're talking about the the MicroObservatory Online Telescope. Learn about this fantastic project and how you can participate.
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Episode 122 - September 13, 2011
Sep 13, 2011Highlights: Space Junk - Mark Hammergren, PhD. In this episode: Earth is surrounded... by space junk! What is it and can we do anything about it?
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Episode 121 - August 30, 2011
Aug 30, 2011Highlights: The Dawn Mission - Michael Solontoi, PhD. In this episode: The Dawn Mission has reached Vesta! Wait, what's Vesta?! Learn about this awesome mission and the data it's collecting!
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Episode 120 - August 16, 2011
Aug 16, 2011Highlights: Minerals in the Solar System - Rachel Klima, PhD. In this episode: We're talking to Dr. Rachel Klima about reflective spectroscopy and minerals in the solar system.
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Episode 119 - August 2, 2011
Aug 02, 2011Highlights: Back to the Moon - Lawrence Taylor, PhD. In this episode: We're talking Dr. Larry Taylor about why we ought to head back to the Moon. Dr. Taylor is the Director of the Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee and he was involved in the Apollo program. Dr. Taylor has also been involved in numerous lunar science missions.
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Episode 118 - July 19, 2011
Jul 19, 2011Highlights: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter- Noah Petro, PhD. In this episode: We're talking about what we've learned from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Dr. Petro has not only worked on the LRO mission, he has also been involved with the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and Chandrayaan-1
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Episode 117 - July 5, 2011
Jul 05, 2011Highlights: The Final Shuttle Launch - Michelle Nichols. In this episode: Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch on July 8, 2011. This launch will mark the last for the shuttle program. Find out more about this historic mission and crew.
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Episode 116 - June 21, 2011
Jun 21, 2011Highlights: Comets - Sébastien Besse, PhD. In this episode: What are comets? What are they made of and how come they look like that? Learn about these small-bodied objects and find out why they're important.
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Episode 115 - June 7, 2011
Jun 07, 2011Highlights: Water in the Solar System - Roger Clark, PhD. In this episode: Are there really places in our solar system that have more water than Earth?! What makes Earth special in the grand scheme of things? Learn what sets us apart from other objects in our solar system and what find out just how much water is in our home system.
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Episode 114 - May 24, 2011
May 24, 2011Highlights: Saturn and Cassini - Bonnie Buratti, PhD. In this episode: We're talking about Saturn and its many moons. What did we learn from the Huygens spacecraft about Titan and what are we learning about Saturn and its moons from Cassini?
