Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage
It's cosmology in a cup! - Cosmic Coffee Time is bite sized podcasts making sense of space, astronomy, life, and the universe, best enjoyed with a coffee. A down to earth look at what's up there, and it's just for you spacefans. Grab a coffee and see where in the universe we go this time. Follow on Twitter @CosmicCoffTime
- Update frequency
- every 27 days
- Average duration
- 8 minutes
- Episodes
- 82
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
#62 The iconic Earthrise photograph. Is this the most influential picture from the Apollo era?
Apollo 8 orbited the Moon in December 1968, seven months before the first moon landing. Even though Apollo 8 never landed on the Moon, it did produce one of the most iconic photographs …
#61 Will Saturn’s rings really disappear from view in 2025? What’s going on with that?
In the news lately, you might have seen reports that the rings of Saturn are going to disappear from view. What could make that happen? And will they come back? Let’s check out what’s g…
#60 Astrophotography. It's photography with a completely different technique. How do the pros do it, and what can I do with my smartphone?
Photographing the night sky is a completely different technique to photographing almost anything else. There's hardly any light, the objects are tiny and they move! It's really difficul…
#59 India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to land in the south polar region of the moon. Let's see why the this incredible spacecraft and rover could be instrumental for the future of human spaceflight.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, with the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover have landed in the south polar region of the moon. Some craters in this region are permanently shaded from the…
#58 Resident space rock expert Greg Brennecka is back to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a sample of asteroid Bennu.
Cosmic Coffee Time’s resident space rock expert and NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka is back again to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s incredible OSIRIS-REx mission. OSIRIS-RE…
#57 Space junk! Most of the human made objects orbiting Earth aren’t functional. Some of them are incredible objects that have outlasted their mission durations by years. How will these fascinating relics affect future spaceflight?
Around 80% of the human made objects in orbit are mission left overs. Some of it is real junk, but some of it has an incredible story to tell. What relics from the early space age are h…
#56 The June solstice, it defines the Arctic circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Antarctic circle. It has the longest daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, shortest in the southern. But why do those things happen on one day every year?
Around the 21st of June every year is the June solstice. We might know that it’s the longest or shortest day of the year – depending on which hemisphere you’re in, but why does that hap…
#55 The spectacular Aurora Borealis and its southern partner Aurora Australis. The astronomical light show is such a cool thing to see, but its science was a mystery until the 20th century.
Ask an eastern Australian about the Southern Aurora, and they might think you’re talking about the old overnight express train between Sydney and Melbourne. But! The train was named aft…
#54 NASA’s VERITAS mission to Venus. There’s some good news, there’s some bad news and there’s one incredible discovery hidden for thirty years.
In 2021, NASA announced the VERITAS mission to Venus, NASA’s first voyage to Earth’s twin planet since the early 90’s. Things haven’t gone completely to plan for this project, but one t…
#53 The Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu sample return mission. Space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us for an incredible up-close look at real life asteroid material.
Our favourite space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us to talk about the amazing Hayabusa2 mission, the sample return mission to asteroid Ryugu by Japanese space agency JAXA. Greg and …
#52 Hundreds of years before GPS there was celestial navigation. Let's see how astronomy and some basic equipment kept old time mariners on course.
Recently, we took a look at GPS and the space science that makes it work. This time, we're going back to an era when navigators had nothing but their equipment and the stars to tell the…
#51 NASA's astronaut class of 1978. We have a compelling chat with Meredith Bagby about this ground breaking group of space shuttle astronauts, and her fascinating book The New Guys
In 1978, NASA changed the rules around who could be selected as an astronaut. Civilian engineers, doctors and scientists could be selected to fly on the then brand new space shuttle. Me…
#50 We all love GPS, but what space science makes it work?
We all love GPS. The Global Positioning System helps us navigate across country and across town, and it also shows us where our rideshare car is, or how far away our food delivery drive…
#49 The new Mars meteorite impact. NASA Insight has detected a new meteorite impact on Mars! Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to talk about this breathtaking new discovery.
Friend of Cosmic Coffee Time and expert meteoriticist Greg Brennecka returns to talk about the breathtaking detection of a new meteorite impact on Mars. Greg tells us how the impact was…
#48 Caroline Herschel - So much more than just the sister of the guy who discovered Uranus
Caroline Herschel is probably best known as the sister of William Herschel, the person credited with the discovery of planet Uranus, but there's a lot more to her than this. Caroline wa…
#47 Have you ever heard of moonquakes? Let's take a look at how different they are from earthquakes.
For a long time we speculated that there might have been earthquakes on the moon, we call them moonquakes. How did we eventually detect them, and what makes them so different from earth…
#46 Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to the podcast to talk about the Nadir crater. An exciting new discovery that could be a 66 million year old meteorite impact.
Expert meteoriticist and friend of Cosmic Coffee Time Greg Brennecka returns to talk about an exciting development in the meteorite impact scene, the Nadir crater. This newly discovered…
#45 NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon, Titan. A drone is going to fly in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Incredible!
NASA is planning to fly a drone in the atmosphere of the second largest natural satellite in the solar system, Saturn's Titan. What is that drone going to look like, how is it going to …
#44 About that black hole at the centre of our galaxy... Now we've got a picture! Sagittarius A*
Scientists have long held a theory that there was a black hole in the centre of our milky way galaxy. This was proved some years ago but we've finally got an image of it from real obser…
#43 Let's take a look at Sunspots. What are those darker spots on the surface of the sun?
Sunspots are darker and cooler areas on the surface of the sun. What causes them? How long do they last? And how do they fit into the 11 year cycle of solar activity?
Let's take a look.
F…