Feature Guest: Vikram Ravi
They come to us from deep space. They last a tiny fraction of a second. They contain as much energy as the sun’s total output in 80 years. Yet we still haven’t figured out what causes these so-called Fast Radio Bursts or FRBs. I don’t want to say it’s aliens, but... no, it’s probably not aliens. Today we’re joined here at The Star Spot by Professor Vikram Ravi whose team is quickly zeroing in on the origin of these bizarre FRBs.
Current in Space
Amelia and Tony explain new research stating that worlds with completely frozen oceans, fittingly known as snowball planets, may actually be habitable . . . on the surface! And while the peak of the prolific Perseid meteor shower may have already passed, Simon reminds us that it's still not entirely over, and to get out there and take a look while you still can. Finally, robots are on the International Space Station! Joseph and Tony explain the purpose of three artificial helpers floating in the orbiting laboratory, one of which arrived only in late July.
About Our Guest
Vikram Ravi is Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. He received a PhD from the University of Melbourne, then worked as the Millikan Fellow in Astronomy at Caltech followed by the Clay Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard and Smithsonian. He describes his interest as exploring the “ephemeral, unseen universe,” studying phenomena that “vary on time-scales of nanoseconds to years.”
The Star Spot Episode 104: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate: The Dream, with Chuck Black
The Star Spot Episode 103: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate: The Ethics, with John Rummel
Episode 102: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate - Part 2: The Biology, with Olathe MacIntyre
Episode 101: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate - Part 1: The Science, with Paul Delaney
Episode 100: The Monster at the Centre of our Galaxy, with Feryal Özel
Episode 99 Pulsars and the Detection of Gravitational Waves, with Ingrid Stairs
Episode 98: What Our Beliefs About Aliens Say About Us!, With Brian Trent
Episode 97: Making Life in the Lab and Its Implications for Alien Hunting, with Lynn Rothschild
Episode 96: Did Universe's First Moments Set the Stage for Life?, with Fred Adams
Episode 95: Galaxy Clusters: The Largest Structures in the Universe, with Gil Holder
Episode 94: What Alien Intelligence Means for Humanity, with Don Lincoln
Episode 93: Will the Electric Sail Get Us to Deep Space? with Les Johnson
Episode 92: Inventing the Electric Solar Sail, with Pekka Janhunen
Episode 91: Monster Galaxies of the Early Universe, with Henry Joy McCracken
Episode 90: Discovering the Furthest Object in the Solar System, with Scott Sheppard
Episode 89: The Surprising Ubiquity of Ice in the Solar System and the Staggering Implications for Life, with David Paige
Episode 88: Two's Company: From Binary Stars to Binary Supermassive Black Holes, with Pawel Artymowicz
Episode 87: 147 Years of Astronomy Outreach, with Randy Attwood
Episode 86: When the Universe Began, with Wendy Freedman
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