Explore every episode of the podcast Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage
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| #70 The Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed test flight has left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. What went wrong, and how are they going to get home? | 31 Aug 2024 | 00:07:05 | |
Boeing’s Starliner space capsule blasted off for its first crewed test flight in early June. Great news right? Turns out, no. After arriving at the International Space Station, some technical problems meant that it couldn’t be used to take its crew of Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Suni Williams back to Earth. The two astronauts were left with no way to get home. The two capsules already docked at the space station couldn’t be used, so the astronauts were stranded. Let’s find out what happened to Starliner, why couldn’t the other capsules be used, and how are the Starliner crew going to get home? Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on X for some special content You can request a topic for the show! Or even just say hi! We'd love to hear from you. Email us! | |||
| #69 NASA's Curiosity rover has just made the most incredible discovery of its 12 years on Mars. By running over a rock! | 31 Jul 2024 | 00:07:42 | |
NASA's Curiosity rover touched down on Mars in August 2012, and it's been exploring the Red Planet all that time. There have been some amazing discoveries and it's travelled over 30km but it has just made the most scientifically significant discovery of its 12 year career, and did it simply by running over a rock! One of Curiosity's wheels crushed a rock. It had looked just like any other orange martian rock, but when it shattered under Curiosity's wheels, it revealed breathtaking yellowish green crystals inside, that turned out to pure sulphur. Unheard of on the Red Planet. Let's check it out! | |||
| #60 Astrophotography. It's photography with a completely different technique. How do the pros do it, and what can I do with my smartphone? | 31 Oct 2023 | 00:06:17 | |
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 difficult. We've all given it a go and been disappointed, but how do they get the incredible pictures we see on the internet and on TV, and how can normal spacefans like us take a night sky picture? | |||
| #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. | 30 Sep 2023 | 00:06:54 | |
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 blazing sun and can have water ice at the base of these lunar craters. India became only the fourth nation to successfully soft-land a spacecraft on the moon, and the first to successfully land a spacecraft in the moon’s south pole region. It’s an incredible story! Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content | |||
| #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. | 31 Aug 2023 | 00:18:52 | |
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-REx is coming to the end of an epic seven year journey to collect a rock and soil sample from asteroid Bennu. Greg is a mission scientist on OSIRIS-REx and will be doing analysis on the Bennu sample in his own lab. It’s breathtakingly rare to get a pristine sample from an asteroid in another part of the solar system, and Greg shares with us the plans for this sample and what this 60 gram sample of asteroid could teach us.
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| #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? | 31 Jul 2023 | 00:08:07 | |
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 held in safe storage in orbit? How does the accumulation of space junk affect mission planning, and how are we going to keep space safer from impacts in the future? You’ll never guess how we rediscovered some space hardware from an early moon mission!
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| #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? | 30 Jun 2023 | 00:06:35 | |
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 happen? And we know of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, but how does the solstice define them? Same with the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Does it fall on the same date each year? Well almost, but it does take some clever human manipulation of the calendar to keep it that way.
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| #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. | 31 May 2023 | 00:05:55 | |
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 after the spectacular light show in the southern sky. The Aurora Australis to use the phenomenon’s correct name, and its northern equivalent the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights have a fascinating astronomical cause. And the nature of the Aurora remained a mystery until the 20th century, despite being documented for thousands of years. Let’s take a look! | |||
| #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. | 30 Apr 2023 | 00:06:57 | |
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 thing VERITAS has already accomplished, it got scientists reviewing data from previous missions, and what they found was truly incredible. And all without leaving the ground. | |||
| #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. | 31 Mar 2023 | 00:16:03 | |
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 his colleagues have been analysing the sample and some of the findings are incredible. | |||
| #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. | 28 Feb 2023 | 00:06:08 | |
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 them where they were, even on the open ocean. | |||
| #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 | 06 Feb 2023 | 00:51:05 | |
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. Meredith Bagby joins us to talk about this group, whose social backgrounds were as diverse as their professions. For the first time, the group included women and people of colour. You can request a topic for the show! Or even just say hi! We'd love to hear from you. Email us! cosmiccoffeetime@gmail.com | |||
| #68 A piece of space history was written this month, a sample from the far side of the moon! Let's check out the Chang'e 6 lunar lander and it's history-making mission. | 30 Jun 2024 | 00:07:14 | |
As I write this, just a couple of days have passed since the Chang'e 6 sample return capsule touched down with its historic payload. The first sample of rock and soil from the far side of the moon touched down on Earth. This has the potential to unlock some of the secrets from the side of the moon that we never see from Earth, why is the lunar crust thicker? Why are there fewer 'seas' on the far side? And what lies beneath the lunar crust? | |||
| #50 We all love GPS, but what space science makes it work? | 31 Dec 2022 | 00:07:05 | |
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 driver is. Take a look at what space science makes it work, and why it can still provide your coordinates even if you're miles away from any phone or data signal or Wi-Fi. | |||
| #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. | 30 Nov 2022 | 00:10:21 | |
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 detected, and then confirmed with detailed imagery from Mars orbit. What does this tell us about the subsurface geology of Mars, and what does it mean for astrobiology and the future exploration of Mars and beyond? It's a fascinating chat. Find Greg's book 'Impact' at Harper Collins here Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on Twitter for some special content You can request a topic for the show! Or even just say hi! We'd love to hear from you. Email us! | |||
| #48 Caroline Herschel - So much more than just the sister of the guy who discovered Uranus | 31 Oct 2022 | 00:06:32 | |
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 was a great astronomer in her own right, having made numerous discoveries using telescopes she helped make herself. She was also an outstanding musician and was the first female professional astronomer in the world, and was recognised with the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. | |||
| #47 Have you ever heard of moonquakes? Let's take a look at how different they are from earthquakes. | 30 Sep 2022 | 00:06:16 | |
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 earthquakes? | |||
| #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. | 31 Aug 2022 | 00:07:46 | |
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 undersea structure off the coast of Guinea in western Africa is a proposed meteorite impact site. How was this discovered? when did the impact happen and how do we know if the impactor hit land or sea. | |||
| #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! | 31 Jul 2022 | 00:06:22 | |
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 get there and what sort of science is it going to do when it gets there? | |||
| #44 About that black hole at the centre of our galaxy... Now we've got a picture! Sagittarius A* | 30 Jun 2022 | 00:07:02 | |
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 observational data. It's a fascinating story. | |||
| #43 Let's take a look at Sunspots. What are those darker spots on the surface of the sun? | 31 May 2022 | 00:05:33 | |
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? | |||
| #42 Pulsars. What are these incredible objects and what makes them pulse? | 30 Apr 2022 | 00:07:13 | |
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? | |||
| #41 Galileo. His observations in 1610 changed a lot of what we knew about astronomy. Let's see what he found. | 31 Mar 2022 | 00:06:34 | |
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 planetary astronomy on its head. He described the phases of Venus, came agonisingly close to discovering the true nature of Saturn's rings, and studied what became to be his namesake system, the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. | |||
| #67 OSIRIS-REx NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka brings us up to date on the incredible early findings from the Bennu asteroid sample. | 31 May 2024 | 00:18:05 | |
In September 2023, Greg Brennecka stopped by to preview the return to Earth of the OSIRI-REx asteroid Bennu sample return capsule. The sample landed safely and the mission scientists like Greg Brennecka have started their analysis. Some of our toughest questions are being answered by the data already. How old is Bennu? Is there organic material? Where was the asteroid formed? Is Bennu different from what we expected? | |||
| #40 Binary stars. Would you believe that most of the stars we see aren't just single stars? Incredible I know! | 28 Feb 2022 | 00:06:08 | |
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. | |||
| #39 Meteorites! We meet with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka to talk meteorites, the origins of life on Earth, and his new book 'Impact' | 31 Jan 2022 | 00:30:51 | |
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 might even have provided the complex organic molecules that allowed life to develop on our planet. In this episode we have an awesome chat with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka. We explore some of the history of meteorite research, the origins of life on Earth and the free samples of Mars rock that arrived on Earth in the form of meteorites. Greg also gives us a highlights package from his new book 'Impact, How Rocks From Space Led to Life, Culture, and Donkey Kong'. | |||
| #38 The amazing Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Let's take a look at the Mars 2020 project | 31 Dec 2021 | 00:07:16 | |
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. | |||
| #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 | 30 Nov 2021 | 00:06:47 | |
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 that's just as amazing, it's the asteroid belt. Let's take a look at the four main asteroids and see what makes up the other million identified objects. | |||
| #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? | 31 Oct 2021 | 00:08:09 | |
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 reach us. | |||
| #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. | 30 Sep 2021 | 00:06:18 | |
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 discovered. Let's take a look at Neptune and its major moon Triton. | |||
| #34 Planet Uranus. Is that how you say it? The ice giant that was the first planet that needed to be 'discovered'. | 31 Aug 2021 | 00:06:10 | |
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. | |||
| #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? | 31 Jul 2021 | 00:06:03 | |
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 Jovian system, and we find out how it subtle set of planetary rings were discovered. | |||
| #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 | 12 Jul 2021 | 00:20:22 | |
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 chemistry at the University of Texas and she's a science entertainer. She amazed Stephen Colbert with the elephant's toothpaste experiment on Late Night, and blasted a thousand ping pong balls into the air on the Kelly Clarkson Show. | |||
| #31 A conversation with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book - Across the Airless Wilds | 05 Jul 2021 | 00:21:30 | |
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 regarded as the pinnacle of human exploration. | |||
| #66 Saturn’s largest moon Titan is an incredible place, but could anything live there? Canadian Astrobiologist Dr Catherine Neish led a study on Titan’s habitability. She joins us for a fascinating chat about what she found. | 30 Apr 2024 | 00:23:46 | |
Titan. The largest moon in the Saturnian system has been a candidate as a habitable world ever since NASA’s Cassini mission sent back the first radar images of its surface in 2004. Astrobiologist Dr. Catherine Neish of Western University in Canada has spent years studying Titan, and has just published a study on the habitability of Titan. Catherine joins us to step through the findings, what is needed for life? Is there enough of it on Titan? And does it all come together? Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on X for some special content | |||
| #30 Planet Mars. Lets take a look at the friendliest planet beyond Earth and some of the cool spacecraft that have been there | 30 Jun 2021 | 00:07:33 | |
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 astronauts to Mars. | |||
| #29 Planet Earth. Let's take a look at our home - as a planet, in a solar system. | 31 May 2021 | 00:06:37 | |
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 astronomical cause. And what about all that water, and all that life! | |||
| #28 Planet Venus. It's Earth's twin - but somehow remains mysterious. Let's take a look. | 30 Apr 2021 | 00:06:24 | |
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 Venus super difficult to study so in a way it remains mysterious. | |||
| #27 Planet Mercury normally keeps a low profile, but let's take a closer look at the first planet from the sun. | 31 Mar 2021 | 00:05:50 | |
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. | |||
| #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 | 28 Feb 2021 | 00:05:37 | |
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 mass and gravity to hold everything together, but where is it? It can't be seen. And this problem produced the theory of dark matter. | |||
| #25 A conversation with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, and Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa | 11 Feb 2021 | 00:14:34 | |
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 moon Europa. | |||
| #24 What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope? | 31 Jan 2021 | 00:06:17 | |
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. | |||
| #23 Meteors and meteorites, what are they and why do they burn up? | 31 Dec 2020 | 00:06:02 | |
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 meteorite? | |||
| #22 The Sun. How does it it produce so much energy? And what does the future hold? | 30 Nov 2020 | 00:05:44 | |
Let's take a closer look at the Sun - but not literally. How does it it produce so much energy and why can it do this for billions and billions of years? It's the source of practically all light and heat on Earth, so it's cool to know. | |||
| #21 Let's take a look at the Moon part 5 - Artemis and the future of human Moon exploration | 31 Oct 2020 | 00:05:44 | |
We've had a look at the history of human lunar exploration, but this time we're going to look to the future. We're going back to the moon with project Artemis. Apollo was great, but that was 50 years ago. How are we doing it this time? It will be more flexible and more sustainable. | |||
| #65 Spaghettification? This really is a thing. It happens if you get too close to a black hole, but what is it? And how did it get that name? | 31 Mar 2024 | 00:06:46 | |
Space and cosmology throws up some strange effects sometimes, none stranger than spaghettification. Stephen Hawking coined the term for the stretching out that happens when you get close to a black hole. Let's take a look at what it really is, how it works, and if we should have anything to fear from spaghettification... Follow Cosmic Coffee Time on X for some special content | |||
| #20 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 4 | 30 Sep 2020 | 00:07:29 | |
We love the moon. Sometimes we just step outside and it's there waiting for us. There's so much to explore with the moon, we're taking a few episodes to get right into it. Here's part 4. | |||
| #19 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 3 | 31 Aug 2020 | 00:06:13 | |
There's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going to take a few episodes to get right into it. Here's part 3. | |||
| #18 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 2 | 31 Jul 2020 | 00:06:40 | |
There's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going to take a few episodes to get right into it. Here's part 2. | |||
| #17 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 1 | 30 Jun 2020 | 00:06:50 | |
There's so much to explore with the moon. It's our little companion in space, like our next door neighbour. We're going to take a few episodes to get right into it. Here's part 1. | |||