Western Slope Skies By Zach Schierl
Credit NASA/ESA
When it comes to astronomy, the dark night skies of the Western Slope command most of our attention. It can be easy to forget that the most important astronomical object actually lives in the daytime sky: the Sun!
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Episode aired Friday, Feb. 19th and Wednesday, Feb. 24th, 2021
Our Sun is a star, and a dynamic one at that. While some details about the inner workings of the Sun remain poorly understood, one thing we do know is that the Sun experiences an 11-year solar activity cycle. For the last several years, the Sun has been in a period of relative calm, known as solar minimum. As we head into 2021 however, the Sun is beginning to awaken. Our backyard star is entering a period of increased activity leading up to the next solar maximum estimated for 2025. The frequency of solar storms and flares is already on the rise.
Western Slope Skies By Alice de Anguera
Credit NASA
A starry night sky sparkles with mysteries, such as whether Earth is the only inhabited planet. Are we alone?
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Episode aired Friday, Feb. 5th and Wednesday, Feb. 10th, 2021
In recent years, astronomers have developed some ingenious tools for discovery. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS,) is a great example, having just finished its initial two-year mission in 2020. From its orbit around Earth, TESS surveys the brightest dwarf stars across the local sky for exoplanets, meaning planets outside our solar system. Dwarf stars are smaller stars, like our own sun, a yellow dwarf star. So far, TESS has found 66 confirmed new exoplanets, and identified over 2000 more candidates for further study.
Western Slope Skies By Art Trevena
Credit NASA
Step outside on a clear night this week and gaze upward. You’ll see a bright gibbous Moon – or a full Moon on January 28.
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Episode aired Friday, Jan. 22nd and Wednesday, Jan. 27th, 2021
The Moon is our neighbor in space and the only celestial body that humans have visited. The Moon is the subject of poetry, songs, books, and films. The lunar cycle provides the basis for calendars in many cultures. So, the Moon has been important to us in many ways.
But why would geologists, who mostly study the Earth, be interested in the Moon, a world that many consider to be geologically dead? Earth is an active planet that has oceans, an atmosphere, volcanoes, and constantly moving tectonic plates. Landscapes on Earth have constantly changed through geologic time due to uplift, erosion, volcanism, and burial by sediments. The upshot of this activity is that the average age of the Earth’s surface, including the ocean
Western Slope Skies By Joanne Ensley
The Orion Constellation
Humans have always felt connected to the night sky. Throughout time, we have looked to the stars and found meaning. We have grouped stars into constellations and attached stories to them. These constellations were passed down, generation to generation, creating and influencing culture. However, different cultures haven’t always seen the same things, even in the same stars. Humans have been looking at the stars of the constellation Orion for thousands of years, yet their meaning is different in different cultures.
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Episode aired Friday, Dec.11th and Wednesday, Dec. 16th, 2020