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Episodes
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In this episode, we take a break from our usual astronomical antics to reflect on sustainability in the cosmos. Cormac, Cole and Shashank explore how the Universe manages to recycle material across all scales, from pepping up prostrated pulsars to cleaning up our orbital backyard. We conclude with a discussion of how analogies are (sometimes over)used in astronomy, and ponder when exactly a supernova remnant begins.
Astrobites:
Recycle your paper, plastic, and… pulsars?https://astrobites.org/2026/03/31/transitional_millisecond_pulsar
The Final Frontier for the Circular Economyhttps://astrobites.org/2026/04/24/the-final-frontier-for-the-circular-economy
Video about Swift boost mission:https://youtu.be/Up0LNTMPnjI
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We’ve known about the existence of galaxies for about a hundred years, but how well do we actually know the extragalactic universe? In today’s episode, we dive deep on the earliest galaxies in the universe. Sanika covers her first bite on paradoxical galaxies that seem to be the deadest where we expect them to be alivest, and Shashank shows us a source of hidden mass in ancient galaxies that for once isn’t dark matter.
Astrobites:
The Walking Red: Why are you so quiet and overdense?
https://astrobites.org/2026/04/03/walking-red/
Too Massive, Too Early… and Still Not Massive Enough?
https://astrobites.org/2026/04/07/too-massive-too-early/
Space Sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BPFHTVMmbQ
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Missing episodes?
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In this episode, we dive into the ripples of spacetime with a special focus on gravitational waves. Cole and Cormac are joined by a new host, Sanika, who introduces her research in gravitational wave astrophysics and sets the stage for the discussion. Together, they explore the role of neutron star and black hole mergers in producing gravitational waves, how we detect them, and what they reveal about some of the most extreme events in the universe. The conversation highlights major achievements from detectors like LIGO and Virgo, from the first historic detection to the growing catalog of binary mergers. Looking ahead, they discuss the exciting future of the field, including next-generation observatories and space-based missions like LISA. By the end, you’ll be tuned into the gravitational vibes shaping modern astrophysics.Fact sheet:https://ligo.org/detections/gw250114-10-years-of-gravitational-wave-astronomy/[email protected]
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In this episode, as we (at the time of recording) approach Astronomy’s (JWST) awards season, Cormac and Cole shed some light on just how ideas become astronomical datasets. Our two putative principal investigators discuss why grad students should consider applying for telescope time, the main components and categories of proposals, and how successful proposals are finally selected and scheduled. We conclude with our most memorable moments from our own efforts to get time on facilities like JWST, Roman and Gemini.
SPHEREx Data Tools:https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/spherex/
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In this episode, we move away from point particles to talk about fields. Shashank, Cole and Cormac start with a discussion of different kinds of fields in astrophysics. Then, Cole describes Lagrange points and why they can be useful for satellites and asteroids seeking a safe place to camp out (or lay siege). Cormac dives into the atmospheres of hot Jupiter exoplanets, where we get a glimpse of temperature and wind velocity fields on other planets. By the end, you’ll certainly have a lot more field experience!
What’s the (Lagrange) point?
https://astrobites.org/2026/01/29/whats-the-lagrange-point/
The Fires Within: Investigating the Atmospheres of Inflated Hot Jupiters
https://astrobites.org/2023/01/03/hot_interior_exoplanets/
Space sound:
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/The_scary_sound_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field
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In our valentines’ day special, Shashank, Cole, and Cormac explore the dating lives of stars and other compact objects by looking at the romantic couples of astrophysics: binary systems. Immediately ruining this theme, Shashank covers some particularly messy breakups (though these lovers are able to rebound and move on) while Cormac shows us how even stars’ healthy relationships involve some give and take.
Astrobites:
What are Partial Tidal Disruption Events, and How Do We Find Them?
https://astrobites.org/2025/08/04/partial-tdes-galactic-center/
Sharing is caring: how do binary stars actually transfer mass?
https://astrobites.org/2025/07/14/binary-mass-transfer/
Space Sound:
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasa-telescopes-tune-into-a-black-hole-prelude-fugue/
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Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
In today’s extra-special seasonal episode, Cormac, Lucia and Shashank share some of their highly curated metrics inspired by Spotify wrapped to end our a[s]b year. Much like ourselves, this episode is a mixed bag - we hope you enjoy it! This also marks the start of our long-awaited Winter (or Summer, depending on your hemisphere) break - see you in a few weeks!
Space sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmsOmqf7Hso
Bonus festive EWOCS JWST image released after we recorded:
https://esawebb.org/images/potm2512a/
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Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
This week, Shashank, Cole, and Cormac dive into the many disks of the universe, from planet-forming disks to AGN and galactic structures. Cole explores a misbehaving protoplanetary disk that hints at chaotic early planet formation. Cormac follows by showing how external radiation can erode disks and hinder the birth of giant planets. We then zoom out to compare these turbulent young systems to the massive disks around galaxies and supermassive black holes, tying together why disks form across so many cosmic environments and the methods we use to explore them.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2025/09/18/forming-misaligned-discs/
https://astrobites.org/2025/11/01/planet_formation_vs_stellar_uv_radiation/
ALMA images: https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/alma-campaign-provides-unprecedented-views-of-the-birth-of-planets/attachment/20181212-andrews-et-al-all-disks/
Space Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8__1mSFS7vQ
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Episode 113: Black Holes? Here? It’s more likely than you think.
In today’s episode, Cole, Cormac, and Shashank celebrate our glorious return from hiatus by tackling an astronomical favorite: black holes. These guys are important to astronomers for a wide range of reasons, but what happens when you find a black hole somewhere weird? Like in another black hole’s accretion disk? Or in your model of dark energy? Or in a Hot dog? Shashank covers a lot of similar-sounding acronyms for when we find black holes living inside (the accretion disks) of other black holes, while Cormac does his second ever Astrobite with a type of sausage in the title, establishing a worrying precedent. If you’re interested in Science Communication, make sure you apply to Astrobites:https://astrobites.org/2025/10/31/apply-to-write-for-astrobites-2025/
And to cohost our show!
https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025/
Questions?
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2025/10/28/the-black-hole-meet-up-emris-and-imris-in-the-same-agn-disk/
https://astrobites.org/2025/10/23/hide-hot-dog/
Space Sound:
https://www.nasa.gov/universe/new-nasa-black-hole-sonifications-with-a-remix/
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In today’s mini-episode, Cormac highlights how a proposed industrial megaproject threatens the pristine observing conditions at Paranal Observatory - home of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, as well as the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope and Cherenkov Telescope Array South facilities. We will also be taking our summer break a little later than usual - see you in a few weeks!
Roel’s interview:https://astrobites.org/2025/08/29/the-looming-drama-for-the-paranal-observatory/
Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
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Episode 112: It’s not fun to be in a YMC, eh?
Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
In today’s episode, Cormac, Shashank and Lucia come together to crack open the craziness inside Young Massive (Stellar) Clusters - some of the most exciting neighbourhoods in our Universe. They’re a very hot topic at the moment, and not just because of their intense radiation - they host the majority of massive stars, and ancient YMCs might be the ancestors of the globular clusters that orbit our own Milky Way today. Shashank shares a recipe for cooking up YMCs through a computational collision, and Lucia takes a peek at YMCs emerging from their dust-embedded embryonic environs. We round off with a casual discussion of whether simulationists are taking Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus a bit too literally and chat about our favourite star clusters.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2025/07/23/ymc_formation/
https://astrobites.org/2025/07/09/gmc-dispersal/
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The only thing better than studying the largest compact objects in the universe is smashing them together. In this episode, Lucia, Shashank, and Cole cover binary black hole mergers and what these violent events can tell us about our universe! Lucia talks us through some mergers' specific spins and Cole forces Shashank to talk about cosmology again. Astrobites:https://astrobites.org/2025/06/27/pisngap_gws_flexible_models/
https://astrobites.org/2025/07/17/lss-bbhgw-expansionrate/
Space Sound:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/
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Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
This week, Shashank, Cole and Cormac discuss a concept that has come up on many an ASB episode past: Bayesian statistics. They start by trying to wrap our heads around what a probability really means. Cole introduces us to a recent and attention-grabbing paper on a potential biosignature in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, with lots of statistics along the way. Then, Cormac brings up some counterpoints to this detection. They debate what it would take—statistically and scientifically—for a detection of biosignatures to cross the line from intriguing to compelling.
New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8
Are there Spectral Features in the MIRI/LRS Transmission Spectrum of K2-18b?
https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15916
Insufficient evidence for DMS and DMDS in the atmosphere of K2-18 b. From a joint analysis of JWST NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI observations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13407
Space Sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGdk49LRB14
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Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025
This week, Lucia, Cole and Cormac discuss cosmic sandwich kids: intermediate mass black holes. Where are they hiding? How do they form? And can they grow up to become supermassive black holes? To answer questions like these, we take a look at globular cluster simulations and a famous gravitational wave event: GW190521. The discussion takes us to alien civilisations in the far, far future.
From Globs to Gravitational Waves: A Simulated Cosmic Choreographyhttps://astrobites.org/2025/06/19/from-globs-to-gravitational-waves-a-simulated-cosmic-choreography/
Uncovering Precession for GW190521: How the Last Cycle Cracked the Casehttps://astrobites.org/2025/06/21/precession_gw190521/
Space Sound: https://soundcloud.com/esa/sound-of-a-juice-boom-deploying
The clock ticking sound is by “opticalnoise” on freedsound.org (https://freesound.org/people/opticalnoise/sounds/201194/).
The alarm sound is by “hypocore” on freesound.org (https://freesound.org/people/hypocore/sounds/164090/).
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This week, Lucia, Cormac, and Shashank dive into the depth of the Mediterranean Sea to discover more about the most energetic neutrino measured to date, which had an energy of a whooping 120 PeV! They then pay a visit to the South Pole to discuss what the ICECUBE neutrino observatory can tell us about the proton fraction of cosmic rays at the highest energies.
Casting a wide (KM3)NeT for a record-breaking neutrinohttps://astrobites.org/2025/05/29/km3net-neutrino
Kachow! Three high energy neutrinos speed through IceCubehttps://astrobites.org/2025/05/31/template-post-33
Space Sound: https://youtu.be/VKvuohsicZs (Particle of Doubt by David Ibbett)
Gammapy Song: https://gammapy.org/gammapy_song.mp3 (Gammapy Python package: https://gammapy.org)
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The more things change, the more they, uh, change. This episode Cole, Shashank, and Cormac cover the exciting events that change what we see on the night sky. Ancient astronomers tracked the motions of the planets and the arrival of “guest stars” (supernovae), and nowadays we’re lucky enough to see some really wild and energetic events. Cormac gives us a view into what happens when a star punches through a black hole’s accretion disc, Shashank shows us a particularly persnickety pulsar, and Cole gets his twenty minute monologue on modern classical music cut for time.
Astrobites:
This Pulsar Has Mood Swings
https://astrobites.org/2025/05/21/this-pulsar-has-mood-swings/
X-treme X-rays in an X-tra young system
https://astrobites.org/2025/04/16/x-treme-x-rays-in-an-x-tra-young-system/
Space Sound:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2_3RgX-RIY&list=PPSV
Gif of Sagittarius A* we mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0QRpid5_QU
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In this episode, we say goodbye to one of our beloved hosts, Sabrina Berger. We take a voyage through the depths and breadths of Sabrina’s research experience. Cole tells us how Sabrina investigates JWST’s ability to estimate the masses of galaxies through the glare of their quasars, and Lucia tells us how Sabrina used navigation satellites to calibrate radio telescopes. In between, we quiz Sabrina on her own ASB episodes and finish with Sabrina’s experience in 3 different countries and Sabrina’s advice for future grad students!
Arxiv links:
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.06144
- https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12130
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In this episode, the (domestic) American sector of Astro[sound]bites covers the recent proposed budget cuts to NASA, the largest in NASA’s entire history. We cover the downsides that these cuts would have for science and the economy, and what you can do to speak out.
How to reach out:
Find your representative:
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
AAS Letter Writing Guidelines for Astronomers:
https://aas.org/advocacy/get-involved/action-alerts/action-alert-2025-support-science
Planetary Society Letter Writing Guidelines for the General Public
https://www.planetary.org/advocacy-action-center#/53
Astrobite with Guidelines for Letter Writing
https://astrobites.org/2025/04/15/help_nasa/
Sources:
The Budget Request (NASA Stuff begins on page 39 of the pdf)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fiscal-Year-2026-Discretionary-Budget-Request.pdf
Original ArsTechnica Report:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/04/trump-white-house-budget-proposal-eviscerates-science-funding-at-nasa/
NASA’s economic output:
https://www.nasa.gov/fy-2023-economic-impact-report/#:~:text=NASA%20Boosts%20the%20U.S.%20Economy,D.C.%2C%20in%20fiscal%20year%202023.
NASA’s economic output reaches all 50 states:
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-economic-benefit-reaches-all-50-states/
NASA’s research on climate change
https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/
NASA’s research on asteroid defense
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense/
NASA Education and Outreach
https://www1.grc.nasa.gov/space/education-outreach/
Cuts disproportionately affect marginalized groups:
https://www.fastcompany.com/91328007/trumps-federal-layoffs-are-disproportionately-impacting-women-and-people-of-color
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In today’s episode, Cormac, Cole and Lucia catch you up with all things Citizen Science. In the epoch of ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini (no, not the telescope), it’s easy to forget about the 20 Watt computer you’re using to read this sentence. Yes, even YOU can contribute to cutting-edge astronomical research, as we present two examples of cosmic crowdfunding in action. Cole convinces us that nearby galaxies need some Clump Scouts, and Lucia shows us how volunteers have been the (tur)key to finding a new star-studded dwarf galaxy. We also discuss the non-research benefits of democratising science, and in a fourth-wall-shattering pivot, we ask you, yes YOU, what you’d like to hear more of on a[s]b.
Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2024/07/29/galaxy-zoo-clump-scout/
https://astrobites.org/2023/11/18/a-lonely-little-galaxy-at-the-edge-of-our-neighborhood/
Space Sound:
Adapted from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6vbST9iMOU
XKCD Comic:
https://xkcd.com/1425/
Article about the (not so?) amateur astronomer:
https://astro.arizona.edu/news/tucson-doctor-wins-national-award-his-second-act-amateur-astronomer
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That stars die will be old news for most listeners. But sometimes, stars don’t just die, they get ripped apart by supermassive black holes. Cormac, Cole and Lucia discuss these so-called tidal disruption events. Specifically, how these events are connected to X-ray absorption features called extreme coronal lines. The hosts also take a look at one of the true superstars of supernova remnants: the Crab Nebula. As it turns out, studying the ejecta can give clues about the pulsar at the heart of the nebula. The discussion revolves around the every-day of doing science. Spoiler: it’s not all like solving exercise sheets.
A New Look at Our Old Friend, the Crab Nebulahttps://astrobites.org/2025/03/16/new-look-at-crab/
Exploring the remains of a destroyed (death) starhttps://astrobites.org/2025/03/08/exploring-the-remains-of-a-destroyed-death-star/
Space Sound: https://youtu.be/aG300vtQ1es
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