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Host: Fraser Cain
Guests: David Dickinson, Matthew Francis, Casey Dreier, Sondy Springmann

David:
ISON Appears To Be Fading, But Astronomers Keeping Eyes Peeled
Zombie ISON 'Behaving Like A Comet', Stunned Astronomers Say
Spotting Venus in the Daytime Sky
A Naked Eye Nova in Centaurus
SpaceX Faclon 9 Launch

Casey:
Planetary Scientists Face Lack of Funding
Bill Nye's Letter to the President
Chinese 'Jade Rabbit' Rover Aims For The Moon On Sunday

Sondy:
Saturn hexagon

Matthew:
Tricksy hobbit-sized black hole pretends to be a giant
Could dark matter be hiding in plain sight in existing experiments?

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/106999/w...

Host: Fraser Cain
Guests: Nicole Gugliucci, Jason Major, Amy Shira Teitel, David Dickinson, Elizabeth Howell

Today's topics!
Jason: Gaia Launches to Map the Milky Way
Amy: Apollo 8, Earthrise
Nicole: Starless cloudcores
David: MiniMoons
2014 skywatching stuff- look for it soon here on UT!
Elizabeth:
Chang'e-3Emergency spacewalks
Simulated Mars mission at MDRS
Kirobo robot
2 Morpheus flights
We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/107385/w...

Host: Fraser Cain
Guests: Thad Szabo, Scott Lewis, Ian O'Neill, Alan Boyle, Nancy Atkinson, David Dickinson, Jason Major, Matthew Francis, Nicole Gugliucci

LINKS:
(Check out the comments for some more excellent discussion!)
+Alan Boyle on Virgin Galactic: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/nbc-ai...
+Nancy Atkinson on the hybrid solar eclipse: http://www.universetoday.com/106045/h...
+Jason Major on baby supermassive black holes http://www.universetoday.com/106187/e...
+Ian O'Neill on quasars (BLACK HOLES DON'T SUCK) http://news.discovery.com/space/astro...
+Alan Boyle on Chelyabinsk http://www.nbcnews.com/science/russia...
Security cam of Chelyabinsk: http://www.universetoday.com/106226/n...
+Matthew Francis on LUX: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/1...
+Nancy Atkinson on the sun (not literally) http://www.universetoday.com/106278/s...
+Scott Lewis on Frontier Fields: http://www.knowthecosmos.com/astronom...
+Matthew Francis on Earth-density exoplanet: http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/1...
+David Dickinson on GOCE: http://o.canada.com/technology/space/...
Kepler Orrery: http://www.universetoday.com/106168/h...
Fireball FAQs: http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireballs/f...

I get this question... a lot.

"Since astronomers know that the Universe is expanding, what's it expanding into? What's outside of the Universe?"

The short answer is that this is a nonsense question, the Universe isn't expanding into anything, it's just expanding.

The definition of the Universe is that it contains everything.

If something was outside the Universe, it would also be part of the Universe too.

Outside of that? Still Universe. Out side of THAT? Also more Universe. It's Universe all the way down.

But I know you're going to find that answer unsatisfying, so now I'm going to break your brain.

Either the Universe is infinite, going on forever, or its finite, with a limited volume.

In either case, the Universe has no edge.

When we imagine the Universe expanding after the Big Bang, we imagine an explosion, with a spray of matter coming from a single point. But this analogy isn't accurate.

A better analogy is the surface of an expanding balloon. Not the 3 dimensional balloon, just its 2 dimensional surface.

If you were an ant crawling around the surface of a huge balloon, and the balloon was your whole universe, you would see the balloon as essentially flat under your feet.

Imagine the balloon is inflating. In every direction you look, other ants are moving away from you. The further they are, the faster away they're moving.

Even though it feels like a flat surface, walk in any direction long enough and you'd return to your starting point.

You might imagine a growing circle and wonder what it's expanding into. But that's a nonsense question. There's no direction you could crawl that would get you outside the surface. Your 2-dimensional ant brain can't comprehend an expanding 3-dimensional object.

There may be a centre to the balloon, but there's no center to the surface. Just a shape that extends in all directions and wraps in upon itself.

And yet, your journey to make one lap around the balloon takes longer and longer as the balloon gets more inflated.

To better understand how this relates to our Universe, we need to scale things up by one dimension, from a 2-d surface embedded in a 3-d world, to a 3-d volume embedded within a 4-d universe.

Astronomers think that if you travel in any direction far enough, you'll return to your starting position. If you could stare far enough into space, you would be looking at the back of your own head.

And so, as the Universe expands, it would take you longer and longer to lap the Universe and return to your starting position.

But there's no direction you could travel in that would take you outside or "off" of the Universe.

Even if you could move faster than the speed of light, you'd just return to your starting position more quickly.

We see other galaxies moving away from us in all directions just as our ant would see other ants moving away on the surface of the balloon.

A great analogy comes from my Astronomy Cast co-host, Dr. Pamela Gay.

Instead of an explosion, imagine the expanding Universe is like a loaf of raisin bread rising in the oven.

From the perspective of any raisin, all the other raisins are moving away in all directions.

But unlike a loaf of raisin bread, you could travel in any one direction within the bread and eventually return to your starting raisin.

Remember that our entire comprehension is based on 3-dimensions. If we were 4-dimensional creatures, this would make much more sense.

For a much deeper explanation, I highly recommend you watch my good friend, Zogg the Alien explain how the Universe has no edge.

After watching his videos, you should totally understand the possible topologies of our Universe.

I hope this helps you understand why there's no answer to "what is the Universe expanding into?"

With no edge, it's not expanding into anything, it's just expanding.

Host: Fraser Cain
Guests: David Dickinson, Amy Shira Teitel, Jason Major, Nicole Gugliucci

David:
The Geminid meteors
China landing on the Moon
Space Station Coolant Issues

Fraser:
The Year in Space Calendar Giveaway on Universe Today
Kerbal Space Program game on sale on Steam TODAY!
UT's Phases of the Moon App on iOS is FREE Monday, 12/16/2013

Jason:
Jets on Europa
Star not a star
Lakes on Titan

Amy:
Exoplanet with the biggest orbit

Nicole:
New Cosmoquest Android App -- Earth or not Earth?
Molecular cloud M51

We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Google+, Universe Today, or the Universe Today YouTube page.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/107162/w...

We owe our entire existence to the Sun.

Well, it and the other stars that came before.

As they died, they donated the heavier elements we need for life.

But how did they form?

Stars begin as vast clouds of cold molecular hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang.

These vast clouds can be hundreds of light years across and contain the raw material for thousands or even millions of times the mass of our Sun.

In addition to the hydrogen, these clouds are seeded with heavier elements from the stars that lived and died long ago.

They're held in balance between their inward force of gravity and the outward pressure of the molecules.

Eventually some kick overcomes this balance and causes the cloud to begin collapsing.

That kick could come from a nearby supernova explosion, collision with another gas cloud, or the pressure wave of a galaxy's spiral arms passing through the region.

As this cloud collapses, it breaks into smaller and smaller clumps, until there are knots with roughly the mass of a star.

As these regions heat up, they prevent further material from falling inward.

At the center of these clumps, the material begins to increase in heat and density.

When the outward pressure balances against the force of gravity pulling it in, a protostar is formed.

What happens next depends on the amount of material.

Some objects don't accumulate enough mass for stellar ignition and become brown dwarfs - substellar objects not unlike a really big Jupiter, which slowly cool down over billions of years.

If a star has enough material, it can generate enough pressure and temperature at its core to begin deuterium fusion - a heavier isotope of hydrogen.

This slows the collapse and prepares the star to enter the true main sequence phase.

This is the stage that our own Sun is in, and begins when hydrogen fusion begins.

If a protostar contains the mass of our Sun, or less, it undergoes a proton-proton chain reaction to convert hydrogen to helium.

But if the star has about 1.3 times the mass of the Sun, it undergoes a carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle to convert hydrogen to helium.

How long this newly formed star will last depends on its mass and how quickly it consumes hydrogen.

Small red dwarf stars can last hundreds of billions of years, while large supergiants can consume their hydrogen within a few million years and detonate as supernovae.

But how do stars explode and seed their elements around the Universe? That's another episode.

Hosts: Fraser Cain, Scott Lewis

Astronomers: Bill McLaughlin, David Dickinson, Tom Nathe, Mike Phillips

Viewing: M103, Cocoon Nebula, Comet Lovejoy, more to come!

Hosts: Fraser Cain and Scott Lewis
Astronomers: Gary Gonella, Roy Salisbury, Steven Coates, Tom Nathe, Stuart Foreman

Topics: Andromeda Galaxy, Venus and Altair, simulations of smashing spiral galaxies, Comet ISON's current fluffy state after passing the sun thanks to Phil Plait, Pac-Man Nebula, NGC 253, IC 59 - Gamma Cass Nebula in Casseopeia, NGC 7000 North America Nebula, Hydrogen alpha filtering, the Bubble Nebula, Scientific images vs. pretty images, Caldwell 9 - the Cave Nebula,

We recently interviewed Dr. Kevin Grazier, on of the scientist who has worked extensively on the Cassini mission. Here's what he had to tell us about that mission's discoveries.
"My name is Kevin Grazier. I am a planetary scientist, and for my research I do long-term integrations or simulations of early solar system evolution. I'm a former scientist on the Cassini mission and a consultant to several TV series such as Defiance, Falling Skies, the movie Gravity, and formerly, Battlestar Galactica."
What are Cassini's most amazing discoveries?
"Cassini has essentially rewritten the book on the Saturn system. I was on the spacecraft team for 15 years. I worked as a science planner and as the Investigation Scientist on the ISS instrument. (That's Imaging Science Subsystem, not International Space Station.) And of the discoveries we found, I'm trying to think of what I'd call or classify as the most exciting."
"One was predicted -- the fact that it was believed that there could be ice volcanoes on Enceladus. And as a matter of fact, there are volcanoes on Enceladus, or active venting, however you want to look at that. Those vents create the "E" ring, so we have a ring created by material vented off Enceladus. That's pretty exciting, because we see an active object venting material, and there aren't a lot of active objects in the solar system."
"The surface of Titan is really fantastic. We have open oceans or seas of hydrcarbons on Titan. We have the possibility of an open ocean underneath the crust, just like we believe is under the surface of Europa."
"We have one image which seems to capture what might be a volcanic eruption. That's important, because in the outer solar system, planetary science considers ice a rock. What a rock is defined as depends on where you are in the solar system. So in the outer solar system, ice is a rock. All of the moons in the outer solar system except Io have icy crusts. Now, if you have a volcanic eruption on Titan, we have an eruption of magma, and if ice is a rock, that eruption is water. So we have evidence of magma chambers which could be cauldrons of life-giving water."
"How cool is that? How counter-intuitive is that? How science-fiction-y is that? That one of the most interesting places to look for is a lava chamber or magma chamber that could be suitable for sustaining life. I think that's really exciting."
You can follow Dr. Kevin on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/kevingrazier

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/?p=10799...