syzygy
Join astronomer Dr Emily Brunsden and enthusiastic not-astronomer Dr Chris Stewart as they explore the universe.
- Update frequency
- every 13 days
- Average duration
- 47 minutes
- Episodes
- 135
- Years Active
- 2018 - 2025
109: Something From Nothing?
Every so often, a Syzygy listener writes in with a cracking question that sends Emily and Chris off spelunking down the deep, deep sinkholes of astronomy and cosmology. This time, listener Eve asked …
00:54:14 |
Sun 25 Jun 2023
108: Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!
Everyone's favourite bonkers red giant is back in the news again, and it has the supernova spotters in a froth. Last time we talked about Betelgeuse, it had gone unusually dim. Never fear, it's back …
00:57:24 |
Thu 08 Jun 2023
107: Biggest Bang Ever! (Again?)
Astronomers have spotted what seems to be a supermassive black hole devouring a huge gas cloud — and in the media it's being claimed as the Biggest Explosion in the History of Explosions. Except, is …
01:00:17 |
Sun 28 May 2023
106: Star Eats Planet
Like many of us, as some stars get older, they get bigger. Like, really big. Big enough to swallow up any planets orbiting near by. Astronomers have known this for a while now, but they'd never actua…
00:48:38 |
Mon 08 May 2023
105: Back To The Moon (2023 Edition)
In 2023, the Moon is where it’s at — so many rockets taking so many little orbiters and landers and rovers and boxes full of weird trinkets ... just in the coming few months! And that’s before you ev…
00:56:18 |
Tue 02 May 2023
104: Biggest Black Hole
The biggest black hole ever has been found — not supermassive, but *ultra*massive. Emily takes Chris on a tour of all the types of black hole, from the speculative minis, through the solar and interm…
00:53:19 |
Tue 25 Apr 2023
103: Red Dwarf Paradox
In the hunt for life in the universe, astronomers are looking hard at the catalogue of potentially habitable exoplanets. The ones orbiting Red Dwarf stars seem promising — Red Dwarfs are really commo…
00:52:02 |
Sat 18 Mar 2023
102: Breaking The Universe
"These six galaxies break cosmology!" scream the headlines. Yeah, nah — yeah, astronomers have found some galaxies in the JWST data that are crazy old, and yet seem to be just way too big. But nah: t…
00:57:18 |
Tue 14 Mar 2023
101: Spin Down Earth
The Earth's core has been acting weird for at least 70 years now. We're not sure why, but sometimes it's spinning faster than the surface, sometimes slower. Emily explains how we know what's happenin…
00:56:46 |
Mon 06 Mar 2023
100: Just Wonderful To Be Back!
Emily's back from New Zealand, Chris is ... still just around, really. And Syzygy returns from hiatus with Episode 100, looking back on a huuuuuge year for the Just Wonderful Space Telescope. Emily t…
00:58:46 |
Mon 23 Jan 2023
99: Black Holes & Big News
Not wanting to overshadow this week's exciting supermassive black hole image release or anything, but Emily has news of her own. A short episode, in which Chris delves into the new Sag A* image a bit…
00:10:59 |
Fri 13 May 2022
98: New Nova
You've heard of supernovae, the just stupidly big explosions that mark the end of some stars' lives. Maybe you know there are different kinds of supernovae — type 1a, type II ... Did you know that, s…
01:01:28 |
Fri 29 Apr 2022
97: Biggest Comet Ever!
Astronomers have spotted the biggest comet ever! And it's heading for Earth! Except (a) it's not heading towards Earth — it's closest approach to us will be beyond Saturn's orbit — and (b) it's not t…
01:01:28 |
Fri 22 Apr 2022
96: Space Particles Probe Pyramids
A very different story this week: using high-energy particles, originating from violent supernovae and supermassive black holes, to scan the insides of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Physicists are tea…
01:16:11 |
Fri 15 Apr 2022
95: Baby Planets (& Moons!)
For the latest — and last? — baby-themed episode, we talk baby planets and how they're made. And sure, we've talked about this before in previous episodes, but this time Emily comes with brand new re…
01:11:12 |
Sun 10 Apr 2022
94: A Star Is Born
We’ve done the baby universe, and baby galaxies, and the very first baby stars ... and *those* were a bit nasty, a bit grumpy. So this week, we're talking baby stars again, but in the modern era — st…
01:04:59 |
Sat 02 Apr 2022
93: Baby Galaxies
This week, it's baby galaxies — the very, very ancient, and the surprisingly brand new. Emily looks back at the earliest things-we-might-consider-galaxies, and the competing models for how they forme…
00:57:50 |
Sat 26 Mar 2022
92: Baby First Stars
Continuing our theme of baby-related astronomy, Emily picks up the story from last episode — we'd just finished making the universe and watching its insane growth spurt, and then ... the first stars …
00:59:06 |
Sat 19 Mar 2022
91: Baby Universe
We're back! Emily has some exciting news, and in regonition of this, we're starting a series of episodes on a theme — starting with the birth and infancy of the Universe! From the earliest physically…
01:09:52 |
Fri 11 Mar 2022
90: Touching The Sun
While the James Webb Space Telescope waits patiently for its new scheduled liftoff on Christmas Eve, the Parker Solar Probe has been doing amazing things, whizzing through the outer edges of the Sun'…
00:57:52 |
Tue 21 Dec 2021
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