Best Ally Pelphrey Podcasts (2024)

1
Catch the (Alien) Rainbow 31:00

19h ago31:00

31:00

As scientists discover and explore the atmospheres of more and more planets orbiting stars other than our Sun, we are learning that if you can imagine it, it probably exists. In a new paper discussing the planet WASP-76b, researchers describe what appears to be a giant rainbow in the atmosphere of another world... a circular rainbow... and it's not…

1
Following the Water Toward Climate Change 30:25

16d ago30:25

30:25

This week’s episode is brought to you by last week’s terrible weather. While experiencing hail and thunder IRL, we also saw press release after press release and article after article discussing climate change. This one-two punch of new science and the need for a new roof means we will touch on climate change in our closer look this week. We apolog…

1
Planet Formation is (Still) Not Well Understood 30:52

28d ago30:52

30:52

One of our recurring topics is “Planet formation is not well understood,” and a trio of new papers is making it clear why planet formation continues to... not be well understood. Put simply: the universe likes to create more diverse solar systems than an entire planet’s worth of sci-fi writers can imagine.…

1
SPECIAL SHORT: How NASA Budget Cuts Will Hurt Space Science 14:15

1M ago14:15

14:15

Earlier in March, Congress voted into place the FY2024 budgets for multiple agencies, including NASA. The agency is being asked for an overall 2% cut. Combined with inflation rates over 3%, we are looking at a fairly significant cut to the U.S. budget for space science. Dr. Pamela Gay breaks down what these cuts will affect, including people and mi…

1
Grindavik, Iceland, and Volcanoes with Dr. Melissa Scruggs 38:26

1M ago38:26

38:26

As you know, our team loves volcanoes, and since we’ve been focused on Iceland for months, we brought in Dr. Melissa Scruggs (aka VolcanoDoc on Twitch) for a chat about Grindavik and all things volcanic in Iceland.

1
Stability, Instability, Drama, and How We are Space Stuff 33:54

2M ago33:54

33:54

It is possible to buy stickers, sweatshirts, mugs, and other stuff and things emblazoned with the simple phrase, “We are star stuff”. This phrase was popularized by Carl Sagan, and it serves as a gentle reminder that all the complex atoms - by which I mean most everything heavier than helium - found their start either in the nuclear core of a star …

1
Early Black Holes Formed Before Stars? 36:16

2M ago36:16

36:16

One of the unexpected realities of JWST is the discovery that we have really been asking the wrong questions in many astronomy areas. For instance: we generally asked how supermassive black holes and galaxies formed, with a basic assumption that these things happened in some interrelated process. We thought stellar mass black holes came from stars …

1
Yes, Scientists DO Look at the (Dark Energy Survey) Data 33:49

2M ago33:49

33:49

Every time I get the digital “why can’t you scientists just look at the data” lecture, I wonder what people think scientists do. All we do is look at data, and when that data tells us our understanding of the universe is wrong, we’re pretty good at accepting the data and throwing out our false understandings… even when the data makes our life a who…

1
Celebrating the Mars Robots that Could 32:36

3M ago32:36

32:36

Robots on Mars have a long history of exceeding all possible expectations. From Spirit and Opportunity lasting far beyond their planned 90-day missions to Ingenuity lasting 72 flights out of a planned five, these craft have become so beloved that we mourn their missions ending. Today, while we recognize NASA's Day of Remembrance, we also celebrate …

1
The Compass (Sometimes... Kinda) Points North 33:10

3M ago33:10

33:10

If you take a compass and follow its pointy little needle, you will end up in Northern Canada but not at the North Pole. If you have a boat, you'll end up on Ellesmere Island wondering where Santa is hiding. The fact that the rotational north pole of the Earth and the magnetic pole of the Earth don’t align means that if you want to actually get to …

1
Spooky Season Space Images 54:05

4M ago54:05

54:05

From October 25, 2023: Around our parent collaboration, CosmoQuest, Halloween is, hands-down, the most beloved season of the year. Costumes are worn. Yards are decorated. We are here for all the strangers that knock on our door - the weirdos, the witches, and the oh-so-many werewolves - and there will be as much candy as we can afford given out. We…

1
Making Anti-Matter... Matter 40:46

4M ago40:46

40:46

In this episode, we look at what tree rings can teach us about past earthquakes, and how well machine learning can identify life, like trees, from carbon-rich materials that were never alive to distant galaxies and spinning black holes. We even take a deep dive into anti-matter, but not a literal deep dive… just a conceptual deep dive.…

1
Whales and (Possible) Space Whales 26:56

4M ago26:56

26:56

As the Thanksgiving leftovers reach the stage of possibly gaining intelligence in the back of our refrigerators, we’re going to take a look at the origins of life, how we might find simple life on icy moons, and even how we can practice learning to communicate with other civilizations by chatting up a humpback whale.…

1
Blast From the Past: Watch the Annular Eclipse on October 14! 37:35

4M ago37:35

37:35

When we headed into recording this episode, I didn’t know if there would be a government shutdown or not, and I have to admit, on Saturday, September 30, I spent more than a few hours binge-watching TV shows while frequently updating my news feeds. This episode would have looked very different with a shutdown. Since we got a budget, today’s episode…

1
Solar Cycle to the Maximum, 2025 29:51

5M ago29:51

29:51

Researchers currently think solar maximum - when the Sun is most active - will occur sometime in late 2024 to early 2025. With this cycle, we will experience just what a good blast of solar radiation can do to the small sats, CanSats, and other satellites in low-earth orbit. If history is to be listened to, it’s only a matter of time before a solar…

1
Planetary Formation Leads to Strange New Worlds 30:55

5M ago30:55

30:55

We keep tweaking our format a little bit every episode, trying to find the right mix for YouTube, podcasts, and now, short-form video. We think we the setup is on the mark now and thank you for your patience as we made adjustments. Soon, we will have content to share on TikTok and Reels. For now, enjoy this week's deep dive into planetary formation…

1
It's Not Aliens (We Also Want Aliens) 47:00

5M ago47:00

47:00

There are some news cycles that are just plain weird, and this news cycle tried really, really hard to be one of them. Headlines last week highlighted that JWST observed methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet, which is entirely true. This headline was followed by stories that the reason could be aliens… and there is not enough dat…

1
The Volcano That Could... But Didn't 29:35

5M ago29:35

29:35

Dr. Pamela is big on volcanoes, and she hoped we’d have an awesome new eruption to report, but we don't. There is, however, still a lot of news this week that doesn’t include an Iceland eruption. Instead, the news includes the first images from a new spacecraft, updates on Lucy’s discovery of a contact binary, and more on the OSIRIS-REx sample retu…

1
More (Failed) Observations of Dark Matter 38:58

5M ago38:58

38:58

In this week's episode, we look at the upcoming solar maximum, how solar activity affects Neptune, the robotic invasion fleet on Mars, and how some of the weirdest star systems in reality have been able to form. In our closer look, we fail to see dark matter - like everyone - but observe its gravitational impact on light from objects we can see. (T…

1
A River Runs Through It - Mars and Titan 44:09

5M ago44:09

44:09

This episode reminds you to look up, look out, and reflect on what we see around us. Stories cover a weird white dwarf that is doing things our Sun may do billions of years from now, how satellite images can now be used to measure river flows here and on Mars, and Titan, as well as the emerging field of planetary geoarcheology, that will help us un…

1
Satellite Constellations and Early Warning Systems 41:31

5M ago41:31

41:31

According to satellite cataloger Jonathan McDowell, there are now 18 satellite constellations, like Starlink, being planned. These constellations will contain 543,811 satellites. This is a whole lot of missions to try and keep from colliding and all it takes is one particularly bad collision to transform the more than half-million objects from usef…

1
The Universe is (Still) Trying to Murder Us 41:49

6M ago41:49

41:49

In today’s episode, we’re going to look at everything from how past Earth couldn’t support photosynthesis because the days were just too short, to current Earth letting us get hit by more Cosmic Rays prior to Earthquakes going off, and to supernovae threatening our world while alien stars eat other planets. Science, sometimes, is just kind of viole…

1
Once and Future Life on Venus, Earth, and Mars 41:55

6M ago41:55

41:55

Each week, when we set off to do this show, we start with one core idea: We want to tell you what is new in space and astronomy… and remember Earth is a planet too. When we select stories, we try to find the ones we’re excited to talk about over coffee, or the ones we know we will be sharing randomly with strangers who make the mistake of asking, “…

1
Earth Science is Planetary Science 51:41

6M ago51:41

51:41

In this episode, we need to take one of our periodic looks at our planet's science and understand what it means to life as we know it. But we will only look at Earth for the first two segments. Then we’re going to race away to enjoy an interview by Beth Johnson with Dr. Kat Volk about the icy Trans-Neptunian Objects that fill the spaces around Nept…

1
A New Space Race? 48:49

7M ago48:49

48:49

Space science isn’t where the money is… at least not yet. Astronomy and planetary science in the U.S. are funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and a variety of smaller foundations and extremely wealthy individuals. And this means that sometimes science can only advance at the speed Congress is willing to budget. The U.S. is in a new spa…

1
The History of Life As We Know It 40:17

7M ago40:17

40:17

In this episode, we’re going to look at how we now work to understand the history of life - including human life - on Earth by studying the geology of our planet, and we’re going to take those lessons learned and apply them to Mars, and exoplanets beyond our solar system. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 13, 2023.)…

1
Meteors, Meteor Showers, and their Parent Bodies 42:56

8M ago42:56

42:56

In this episode, we’re going to be talking more about meteors - including the source of the Geminids meteor shower, asteroid Phaethon - as well as hot planets, hungry black holes, and how we’re working to uncover the identity of dark matter. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 6, 2023.)…

1
SETI and the Very Large Array 53:08

8M ago53:08

53:08

While we could spend an entire episode on Earth, there is just too much going on in the universe to linger anywhere too long. From our world, we journey out to look at the super massive black hole in the core of M87, and then Beth Johnson will join us with an interview of the SETI Institute’s Dr Chenoa Tremblay and how radio astronomers are one ste…

1
Do Not Look Directly at this Podcast 45:11

8M ago45:11

45:11

This episode features the kind of news week where we looked at the April 20th eclipse in the South Pacific and decided it just wasn’t a huge priority. Between watching Starship's “will it won’t it” launch attempts and getting news of discoveries in cosmology and new software in planetary science… and the discovery of a totally weird rock formation …

1
In Venus VERITAS 49:42

8M ago49:42

49:42

For decades now, our planetary science news cycles have been dominated by Mars. Mars is relatively close, and we have a lot of experience landing there and science goals to pursue. But it has left our other closest neighbor, Venus, off the mission list. That is, until 2021, when NASA and the European Space Agency announced three separate but compli…

1
Pareidolia, Pattern Matching, and AI Art 52:37

9M ago52:37

52:37

Humans are the ultimate pattern matchers - at least for now. I have to admit I’m looking forward to the day I can give some new AI a set of images and ask it to tell me what animals it can find among the nebulae. The software isn’t there yet… But we’re also going to take a closer look at how art and AI look at space. And also science: From looking …

1
The Search for Life on Other Worlds 43:48

9M ago43:48

43:48

Right now, humans are tantalizingly close to being able to search for life on other worlds where it is reasonable to think life could exist. We can’t do it yet - at least not in a way that would be safe for any potential life, but this is a long game, and as we’ll discuss in this episode, the technologies we need are being actively developed and te…

1
Will Asteroid 2023 DW Collide with Earth in 2046? (All signs point to no.) 44:23

10M ago44:23

44:23

A new asteroid has been discovered with an orbit that crosses our own planet’s orbit. In general, this object and Earth are very good and not trying to occupy the same space at the same time, and we’ve managed to coexist for a fair amount of time. We are going to have a close approach, however, in 2046, and for the first time in a long time, the po…

1
Is 2023 the Year of Io? 51:18

10M ago51:18

51:18

In general, the kind of year we’ll experience gets its label at the end of the year. 2005 was the year of the never-ending hurricane season. 2017 was the year we experienced an eclipse and lost Cassini. 2020 was the year satellite constellations went from a handful to hundreds of spacecraft. 2022 was the year of Mars exploration with Curiosity, Per…

1
Bring on the JWST Science Results 48:05

11M ago48:05

48:05

OK so this is actually episode six, but our producer Ally numbered the episodes weird and we got mixed up. This week, thanks to the support of so many, we’re going to be looking at earthquakes, early results from JWST, spherical novae, the Dark Side of the Moon, and a whole lot more. (This episode originally aired on television March 4, 2023)…

1
Is This How We Get Cylons? 55:56

11M ago55:56

55:56

In this show, we’ll go through more than 20 studies and observations ranging from planetary climates to galaxy mergers, and we’ll take a closer look at how Artificial Intelligence is being asked to play a role in every area of this research. And we’ll ask, “Is this how we get Cylons?” (This episode originally aired on television February 18, 2023)…

1
Cosmology: From Particles to Galaxy Clusters 51:53

11M ago51:53

51:53

We live at a time when technological advances are allowing us to explore ideas faster than ever before. So today, we bring you lab results on ice that affect how we see the outer solar system, and observations of galaxies that affect our understanding of the universe’s formation. We go from things smaller than a proton – which we just learned is 0.…

1
Mass Extinction, Volcanoes, and Rings Around an Asteroid 57:35

11M ago57:35

57:35

In this episode, we discuss one mass extinction, three stories with volcanoes, star formation, galaxy dissolution, and space mission synchronized observing. We also take a closer look at dark energy and dark matter and how giant galaxies in the early universe seem to indicate we may know even less than we thought. And rockets. There are always more…

1
Space science potpourri and a more hopeful look at climate change 50:57

12M ago50:57

50:57

This episode has a little bit of everything as we bring you results from astronomers, geoscientists, climate scientists, imaging scientists, glaciologists, meteorologists, planetary scientists, engineers, and even bioarchaeologists. This diversity of research allows us to better understand our world and beyond. In our first segment, we look at how …

1
New science from AAS rearranges our understanding of the universe 46:55

12M ago46:55

46:55

Hello and welcome! This show - Escape Velocity Space News - is new, and we’re so glad that you’re here with us, right from the beginning. Dr. Pamela Gay, along with a great production team, is here to put science in your brain. In this episode, we’re going to bring you the best of what’s been discovered and dive deep into the hottest topic of the w…

1
EVSN announcement for DS 1:59

1y ago1:59

1:59

Audition Template: 1 Mono Host track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Mono Interview track (with Speech Volume Leveler), 1 Stereo Sound FX with effects, 1 Stereo Music Bed track. 44.1k, 16 bit, Stereo Master.

1
Dealing with Potentially Hazardous Asteroids 16:49

1+ y ago16:49

16:49

A trio of asteroid-related stories crossed our emails this week: Bennu’s sample is on schedule for next year’s return, researchers have developed a tool to measure an asteroid’s density distribution, and 3200 Phaeton’s rotational period has accelerated. Plus, JWST’s new Pillars of Creation image, and this week in rocket history, we look back at Ven…

1
JAXA Triggers Flight Termination of Launch 22:28

1+ y ago22:28

22:28

Space is hard, and some days, getting rockets to work doesn’t go as well as expected. An Epsilon rocket launched by JAXA and carrying eight payloads including RAISE 3 was lost when mission control triggered the flight termination system due to an attitude issue. Plus, stars blowing dust rings, stars exploding, asteroids getting hit with spacecraft,…

1
BONUS CONTENT: Full-length interview with Jochen Grandell 18:48

1+ y ago18:48

18:48

Catch the full-length interview with Jochen Grandell, Program Scientist for the Meteosat third generation, from our October 4th episode.

1
Dinosaurs Washed Away in Largest Wave to Wrap Earth 18:36

1+ y ago18:36

18:36

As if getting set on fire and tossed into space wasn’t enough, new research finds evidence that after the Chicxulub impact, dinosaurs were also the victims of a massive global tsunami and worldwide earthquakes. Plus, the Milky Way’s stellar graveyard, a new timeline for the Moon’s formation, and this week in space history, we look back at the Meteo…

1
Observed: It’s a Star-Eat-Star Universe 20:21

1+ y ago20:21

20:21

While astronomers have observed white dwarfs consuming companion stars on numerous occasions, for the first time, they have now observed the consumption of the companion’s helium and not just hydrogen. Plus, galactic alignment, rocket launches including Crew 5, a new Europa image, and a review of the video game “Tinykin”.…

1
Firefly Makes Orbit on Second Try 22:44

1+ y ago22:44

22:44

Early Saturday morning, another company entered the exclusive club of successful orbital launchers, Firefly Aerospace, when their second attempt to reach orbit, named To The Black, lifted off on October 1. Plus, a crater in Spain, a new DART image, Juno flies by Europa, and an interview with Jochen Grandell regarding the Meteosat program.…

1
BONUS CONTENT: Shape modeling Didymos before DART's arrival 24:38

1+ y ago24:38

24:38

Catch the full-length interview with Eric Palmer from our September 30th show.

1
Globular Clusters: Already Old Nine Billion Years Ago 22:15

1+ y ago22:15

22:15

The quest to understand the formation mechanisms of globular clusters was limited by the Hubble Space Telescope’s ability to peer back in time. Now, JWST’s larger mirror has allowed astronomers to find gravitationally lensed galaxies that have globular clusters almost nine billion years old. Plus, two new super-mercury exoplanets, This Week in Spac…