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
#42 Pulsars. What are these incredible objects and what makes them pulse?
You might have heard of pulsars. They're objects that emit regular pulses of radiation. But what are they, how do they form, and what makes them pulse?
Let's take a look.
Follow Cosmic Co…
#41 Galileo. His observations in 1610 changed a lot of what we knew about astronomy. Let's see what he found.
Galileo Galilei Made some incredible observations of the moon and was a real pioneer in calculating the height of some of the moon's geological features. In 1610 he turned the world of …
#40 Binary stars. Would you believe that most of the stars we see aren't just single stars? Incredible I know!
As many as 80% of the stars we see in the night sky could be part of a binary system, two or more stars orbiting each other.
So what it a binary system and how can we observe them? We kn…
#39 Meteorites! We meet with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka to talk meteorites, the origins of life on Earth, and his new book 'Impact'
Until the Apollo moon landings, our only samples of material from space were in the form of meteorites. These meteorites gave us an insight into the origins of our solar system, and mig…
#38 The amazing Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Let's take a look at the Mars 2020 project
From Mars rovers that were the size of a microwave oven back in the 90s, we now have the Perseverance rover that's the size of a car. And a helicopter.
We take a look at the amazing Mar…
#37 What's in that unexpected gap between Mars and Jupiter? Let's take a look at the asteroid belt - a fascinating element of our solar system
There's a strange gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a gap where Bode's law says we would expect the fifth planet to be. There's no planet there, but there's something else tha…
#36 The Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the furthest travelled objects ever made by humans. What did they find on the grand tour of the solar system? And where are they now?
Voyager 1 took the famous photograph the Pale Blue Dot. It's the furthest travelled machine ever made by people. At 23 billion km, it takes nearly a full day for its radio signals to re…
#35 Planet Neptune. The most distant major planet in our solar system and the first to be located by mathematical calculations. Let's take a look.
Neptune. Something was perturbing Uranus' orbit, turns out it was the eighth planet, Neptune. Neptune was the first planet to have its existence and position calculated before it was di…
#34 Planet Uranus. Is that how you say it? The ice giant that was the first planet that needed to be 'discovered'.
Uranus. Stop giggling, is the first planet to be discovered by telescope. The inner planets have always been known about, but Uranus need to wait until the telescope was invented.
Let's …
#33 Planet Jupiter. It's more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined and it's a gas giant. What makes Jupiter different from the rocky terrestrial planets, and does it really have planetary rings?
Jupiter is the first of the gas giant planets. Let's take a look at what makes these planets different from the inner planets. It has a fascinating set of moons that help make up the Jo…
#32 Kate the Chemist special. We meet with Dr. Kate Biberdorf to talk STEM, TV's Ice Road Truckers, and her new book It's Elemental
How do you keep a chemistry class's attention in the age of smart phones? Explosions, loud noises and passion! That's how Kate the Chemist does it. Dr. Kate Biberdorf is a professor of …
#31 A conversation with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book - Across the Airless Wilds
We have a great chat with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book Across the Airless Wilds. It's a fascinating dive into the last three moon landings and what could be reg…
#30 Planet Mars. Lets take a look at the friendliest planet beyond Earth and some of the cool spacecraft that have been there
There's a lot about Mars that is very Earth-like, from the length of a day to the kinds of seasons it has. Being a neighbouring planet, it's no surprise that we talk about sending astro…
#29 Planet Earth. Let's take a look at our home - as a planet, in a solar system.
Earth. It's home to every living thing we've ever known, but what if we really take a step back and study our planet the same way we study the others. What everyday events have an astro…
#28 Planet Venus. It's Earth's twin - but somehow remains mysterious. Let's take a look.
Planet Venus is sometimes called Earth's twin. It's the same size and in planetary terms it's close by, but why isn't it our first choice for exploration? Some of the differences make V…
#27 Planet Mercury normally keeps a low profile, but let's take a closer look at the first planet from the sun.
We don't get to hear much about planet Mercury. It took us a long time to learn much about it and only two spacecraft have ever been there.
Let's take a look at some of the little known …
#26 What's the matter? Really, what is the matter that makes up 80% of the mass of the universe but can't be observed directly. The strange story of dark matter
So back in the 1930's, astronomers noticed that there didn't seem to be enough mass in galactic clusters to hold them together, but they were held together. There mas be some additional…
#25 A conversation with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, and Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa
Join us for a discussion with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, the true story of NASA's bold Europa Clipper mission and the search for signs of life on Jupiter's icy ocean…
#24 What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope?
So way back in the 90s, NASA launched the bus-sized Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. But it had a huge problem, it couldn't focus the light from space as well as it should have.
What w…
#23 Meteors and meteorites, what are they and why do they burn up?
Meteors, they're not falling stars, but what are they? Where do these objects come from and why do they 'burn up' in the atmosphere? And what's the difference between a meteor and a met…