George's Random Astronomical Object

Oct 28 2024 136 ep. 10 mins 73
George's Random Astronomical Object Podcast artwork

George's Random Astronomical Object is a biweekly astronomy podcast featuring science discussions about astronomical objects at randomly selected locations in the sky. The wide range of topics discussed in the show include stars, variable stars, variable variable stars, supermassive black holes, ultracool dwarf stars, exoplanets, howler monkeys, infrared radiation, acronyms, more acronyms, starbursts, measurements of less than 12 parsecs, jellyfish galaxies, diffuse ionized gas, and general overall weirdness.

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Object 1: Not the Pope

Aug 12 2019 8 mins  
The Leo IV Dwarf Galaxy is one of several ultra faint dwarf galaxies that orbit the Milky Way. Galaxies like this are weird relics of when the universe first formed; they contain very old stellar populations and abnormally large amounts of dark matter.

Object 2: Variable Variability

Aug 26 2019 9 mins  
HS Hydrae is a variable eclipsing binary star, which sounds more unusual than it actually is. However, it's precessing, which is not only unusual but also causes the variability to vary over time.

Object 3: Room Temperature

Sep 09 2019 8 mins  
HD 85512 is a nearby star slightly smaller and more orange than the Sun. It happens to have an exoplanet that could be close to Earth-like.

Object 4: A Damp Lyman Alpha Elephant

Sep 23 2019 13 mins  
The most interesting thing about the quasar LBSQ 0058+0155 is not the quasar itself but the galaxy between the quasar and Earth.

Object 5: Some Unexpected Helium

Oct 07 2019 10 mins  
RV Octantis would be considered a run-of-the-mill RR Lyrae variable star if it wasn't for the unexpected discovery of helium in its atmosphere.

Object 6: Extra Peculiar

Oct 21 2019 8 mins  
HD 98851 is both an Am chemically peculiar star and a delta Scuti variable star, and it has two different pulsation cycles, which makes it really peculiar.

Object 7: Circles within Circles

Nov 04 2019 11 mins  
30 Ari contains four stars and an exoplanet all arranged in a rather complex set of nested orbits.

Object 8: A Misbehaving LIRG

Nov 18 2019 10 mins  
II Zw 96 is a luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) where most of the infrared emission comes from some type of off-center region, which is weird compared to most other LIRGs.

Object 9: A Cruise Holiday with a Peculiar Carbon Star

Dec 02 2019 9 mins  
The star HD 214714 contains not only a large amount of carbon in its stellar atmosphere but also a peculiar combination of other heavy elements as well.

Object 10: Ram Your Jellyfish

Dec 16 2019 11 mins  
Abell 85 is a large, nearby cluster of galaxies with so many things happening inside that it could be called a ball of chaos.