George's Random Astronomical Object
George's Random Astronomical Object is a biweekly astronomy podcast featuring science discussions about astronomical objects at randomly selected locations in the sky. The wide range of topics discussed in the show include stars, variable stars, variable variable stars, supermassive black holes, ultracool dwarf stars, exoplanets, howler monkeys, infrared radiation, acronyms, more acronyms, starbursts, measurements of less than 12 parsecs, jellyfish galaxies, diffuse ionized gas, and general overall weirdness.
- Update frequency
- every 14 days
- Average duration
- 10 minutes
- Episodes
- 157
- Years Active
- 2019 - 2025
Object 57: One of 57 Varieties of Active Galactic Nuclei
3C 147 is not the first object ever identified as a quasar, but it is sort of one of the first two objects ever called a quasar.
00:12:45 |
Mon 04 Oct 2021
Object 56: The Next Best Thing to an Exoplanet
Astronomers may not have found an exoplanet orbiting the star HD 191089, but they found the next best thing.
00:09:52 |
Mon 20 Sep 2021
Object 55: The Quiet Kid on the Edge of the Playground
The WLM Galaxy is located at the edge of the Local Group where it is relatively unaffected by everything happening around the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
00:09:57 |
Mon 06 Sep 2021
Object 54: Build Your Own Hypothesis At Home
Jets of gas that are several light years long are emerging from the blue supergiant MWC 137, and no one knows why.
00:10:42 |
Mon 23 Aug 2021
Object 53: Fortified with Iron
Most globular clusters are among the first stars to form in the universe, but the globular cluster NGC 6352 seems abnormally young in comparison.
00:09:23 |
Mon 09 Aug 2021
Object 52: The 10 Year Long Discovery
It took 10 years of observations for astronomers to determine that the star HD 154345 had a Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting it.
00:10:36 |
Mon 26 Jul 2021
Object 51: Swipe Right for Gamma Rays
While the gamma ray burst GRB 090926A itself might be interesting to some astronomers (particularly desperate gamma ray astronomers), the interstellar gas between the burst and Earth may be even more…
00:09:28 |
Mon 12 Jul 2021
Object 50: It's Blue but not Blueberry
IC 10 is a nearby starburst, a type of galaxy that is forming stars at a very high rate (for its size) that should not be confused with the fruit flavored candy.
00:11:52 |
Mon 28 Jun 2021
Object 49: Big in the South
The cluster of galaxies Abell S1063 was only reported as a discovery in the 1980s, but it has attracted a lof of attention because of how it gravitationally distorts the light of galaxies behind it.
00:08:51 |
Mon 14 Jun 2021
Object 48: It's Too Obvious To Say It's Complex
The S254-S258 Complex is a chain of ionized gas bubbles connected by a filament of cold interstellar gas and dust where star are forming in a complicated (or possibly complex) way.
00:09:50 |
Mon 31 May 2021
Object 47: BYOB
NGC 3504 contains three rings, two bars, and a supermassive black hole but no locations licensed to sell alcohol (as far as astronomers know).
00:09:15 |
Mon 17 May 2021
Object 46: Stability within a Cataclysm
An exoplanet has managed to stay in a stable orbit around LX Serpentis despite the fact that it is a cataclysmic binary star system with a chaotic past.
00:09:16 |
Mon 03 May 2021
Object 45: Try Turning it Off and On Again
Markarian 590 contains an active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole, and the region around the black hole has strangely changed in brightness a couple of times in the past 50 years.
00:08:17 |
Mon 19 Apr 2021
Object 44: The Understated Exoplanet Discovery
When it was discovered, WD 0806-661B was described as a very cool, very low mass brown dwarf, but it could actually be better characterized as a large exoplanet.
00:09:22 |
Mon 05 Apr 2021
Object 43: Does It Dark Matter?
The dwarf galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 may be one of the very few galaxies that contains no dark matter, although the non-existence of something we cannot see in this galaxy is still being debated.
00:10:07 |
Mon 22 Mar 2021
Object 42: The Inside Joke Galaxy
The dust disk in the spiral galaxy NGC 891 is so useful for studying interstellar dust that many astronomers show up to conferences with science results specifically about this spiral galaxy.
00:11:52 |
Mon 08 Mar 2021
Object 41: Bobbins
BoBn 1 is not only a planetary nebula with an odd-to-pronounce name but also one of a very few planetary nebulae that have been found in the Milky Way's halo.
00:10:29 |
Mon 22 Feb 2021
Object 40: Sugar Formation
IRAS 16293-2422 is a complex protostellar object that contains multiple objects that are forming into Sun-like stars.
00:09:51 |
Mon 08 Feb 2021
Object 39: Sort of Faster than the Speed of Light
Gas ejected from the center of the quasar 1642+690 looks like it's travelling faster than the speed of light even though it isn't.
00:08:35 |
Mon 25 Jan 2021
Object 38: The Clickbait Star
HD 220140 is often referred to as a naked young star, and it is a source of both X-ray emission and double entendres.
00:09:07 |
Mon 11 Jan 2021
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