Astronomer and host Michelle Thaller takes a look at the big questions of the cosmos and what the answers can reveal about life here on Earth. From podcast powerhouse PRX, with support from the Sloan Foundation.

Visit our site: orbital.prx.org

Orbital Path

Host Michelle Thaller talks with astronomer and author Phil Plait of Slate's Bad Astronomy blog about this conundrum: why are humans so quick to give aliens the credit for mysteries of the cosmos?

About the Show: Astronomer and host Michelle Thaller takes a look at the big questions of the cosmos and what the answers can reveal about life here on Earth. From podcast powerhouse PRX, with support from the Sloan Foundation.  

Visit our site: orbital.prx.org

Episode 1: Must Be Aliens

Dr. Michelle Thaller talks to Prof. Lisa Randall, a theoretical particle physicist at Harvard, about her new book, Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe. The scientists explore what caused the dinosaurs' extinction and the role dark matter plays in the universe and our world.

About the Show: Astronomer and host Michelle Thaller takes a look at the big questions of the cosmos and what the answers can reveal about life here on Earth. Produced by Lauren Ober. From podcast powerhouse PRX, with support from the Sloan Foundation.

Visit our site: orbital.prx.org

Episode 2: Mass Extinctions Get Personal

The most rare objects in the night sky are only visible in some extreme places. Dr. Michelle Thaller introduces us to Dr. Anna Moore, a scientist whose trips to Antarctica help us better understand the solar system.

Learn more about the show at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 3: The Most Dramatic Sky

Astronomer Michelle Thaller talks with Ashley Davies, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about the importance of volcanoes in the creation of Earth and how the study of volcanoes in space can help us understand life here. Davies has journeyed to remote volcanoes like Mt. Erebus in Antarctica and Erta Ale in Ethiopia as a way to help map volcanoes like those on Jupiter's moons, Io and Europa, and in turn come that much closer to understanding how life began.

Episode 4: In Praise of Volcanoes

In this special Mother's Day episode, Michelle talks with her mom about what it was like raising a space-obsessed daughter in Wisconsin and watching her grow into a scientist.

Orbital Path is produced for PRX by Lauren Ober. Subscribe iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Image: Michelle's sister (top L), Michelle (top R), and their mom in the '80s.

Episode 5: Michelle & Her Mom

From space, the view of earth has no boundaries for countries, no barriers to achievement. Michelle Thaller speaks with Aprille Ericcson, a senior engineer at NASA, about her career path and about current challenges recruiting more women and minorities into engineering and space science.

Produced by Lauren Ober. Learn more at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 6: A World Without Boundaries

Michael Kentrianakis loves eclipses and has seen them from all over the world. Host Michelle Thaller and Mike talk about the stages of the eclipse we can see in his video that went viral a few months ago after an Alaska Airlines flight. That flight was diverted for better eclipse viewing thanks to Joe Rao, who has convinced airlines to do this before. We’ll hear how he pulled it off and learn where best to view the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse.

Get episode videos and photos at: 
https://orbital.prx.org/2016/07/chasing-an-eclipse/

Orbital Path is produced by Justin O’Neill and hosted by Michelle Thaller.

Episode 7: Chasing An Eclipse

The asteroid belt is portrayed in movies as a crowded place with massive rocks bouncing each other like pool balls, capable of sending a mile-wide missile hurtling toward Earth at any moment. The reality is much more fascinating.

Host Dr. Michelle Thaller speaks with Dr. Lucy McFadden, Co-Investigator of NASA’s Dawn Mission to orbit the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. She shares what they’ve learned by traveling 130 million miles to visit places we’ve always viewed from afar.

Learn more about Orbital Path at orbital.prx.org.

Image of Vesta from: 
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-detail.html?id=PIA15506

Episode 8: A Tale of Two Asteroids

When Proxima b's discovery appeared in <em>Nature</em> on August 24, the media breathlessly announced a new Earth-like planet just 4.2 light years away from Earth. 

Astronomers have, for years, anticipated a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. Michelle Thaller talks with astrophysicist Dr. Patricia Boyd about NASA’s ongoing search for exoplanets and what’s the next step in human exploration of other worlds.

Episode 9: Howdy, Neighbor

The sun can seem like a friendly celestial body. It is the source of summer, crops, and basically all life on Earth. But the sun has a dark side too. Just as sun decided when life on Earth could begin, it will also decide when life on Earth will definitely end.

Dr. Michelle Thaller speaks with Dr. C. Alex Young, Associate Director for Science in the Heliophysics Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. We'll hear about the impressive fleet of spacecraft NASA uses to monitor the sun, including the upcoming Solar Probe Plus, an exciting new mission to delve closer to our star than ever before.

Photo: Coronal mass ejection courtesy of NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo/potw603-brief-outburst/index.html

Learn more about Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 10: Done in the Sun

Scientific discovery can happen in two ways: “Eureka!” moments of sudden understanding, where researchers glean unexpected insight into new phenomena. Or, a slower, less glamorous hunt for truth that happens day-after-day, for years. But both methods can lead to new understandings that pushes the field forward for future breakthroughs.

In this episode: the sudden realization that led to the discovery of the first ever black hole, and another more methodical search for the moment that a star dies and a black hole is born.

Guests:
Jeremy Schnittman
Paul Murdin
Christopher Kochanek

Learn more about Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 11: Black Hole Breakthroughs

An Orbital Path episode all about… an orbital path! Planet 9's, to be exact. The replacement for Pluto as our solar system’s ninth planet is out there somewhere, and astronomers can see the ripples it creates, especially at this time of year.

Episode 12: In Search of Planet 9

Going to Mars is hot right now, just ask Matt Damon. But would you go if you knew your bones would turn into something called “pee brittle”?

Former astronaut Michael Massimino reveals the uncomfortable side of liftoff. And Dr. Jennifer Fogarty from NASA’s Human Research Program elaborates on the physical challenges humans face with longterm weightlessness.

Learn more about Orbital Path at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 13: Warning: Space May Wreak Havoc on Your Body

In 1985, the British Antarctic Survey discovered something that shocked scientists around the world: the ozone layer had a hole in it. And the hole was growing very quickly.

When they were presented with the problem, politicians and world leaders quickly came up with an international agreement to immediately reduce chlorofluorocarbons released into the atmosphere. It was a success story, and we could learn from it on climate change.

Learn more at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 14: How the World Came Together to Avoid Ozone Disaster

Galileo discovered Europa, Jupiter's fourth-largest moon, in 1610. In 1977, the Voyager spacecraft buzzed past and we realized it was covered in ice. It took a few more years to understand that it also likely had unfrozen liquid water oceans.

In this episode, Kevin Hand, deputy project scientist for the Europa mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) explains how his team plans to launch a series of missions to orbit, land on, and hopefully explore the curious moon's deep salty oceans with a self-driving space submarine.

Hand thinks Europa has the best chance of fostering living alien life at this moment in time. "If we've learned anything about life on Earth, where there's water, you find life and there's a whole ton of water out at Europa," Hand says.

And Tom Cwik, manager for JPL's space technology program, describes how he looks to Earth-bound submarines, ice drills and self-driving cars for inspiration of how to explore this distant world.

Learn more about Orbital Path hosted by Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 15: Space Robots to Europa!

Space science can help track what's happening on earth. Orbital Path talks landslides and the satellites that monitor them for the third anniversary of the deadliest landslide in US history.

On March 22, 2014 a 650-foot hillside collapsed and covered the community of Oso, Washington. Forty-three people died. 

David Montgomery studied the Oso landslide's remains as part of the 'Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance' (GEER) team that investigated the landslide and tried to pinpoint the causes that lead to the Oso landslide.

Dr. Dalia Kirschbaum, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, studies landslides from space using satellites to create various models. Her goal is to develop a model that can be used as the foundation for a global landslide predicting software that can help keep people living in wet, mountainous regions safe from the slides.

And Asheley Bryson is the manager at the Darrington Sno-Isles Library, which is just a few miles from the site of the landslide. She shares her memories from that day.

Learn more about Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 16: Lessons in Landslides

Listeners, we’ve heard you! You requested more episodes, so we present the first of our mini episodes. They’ll arrive two weeks after each monthly regular episode, and include Michelle’s insight on the latest space news. Enjoy episode one:

NASA’s NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) mission will launch in May. Michelle explains the NICER mission’s many applications, including the possibility of using neutron stars as intergalactic global positioning systems.

Learn more about our podcast at orbital.prx.org.

Mini-sode 1: NASA's NICER Mission

Nearly 100 years after Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves — huge undulations in the fabric of space-time itself — in 2015, detectors here on Earth finally picked up the signal of these massive disturbances. 

Dr. Michelle Thaller pulls apart the power and mystery of gravitational waves, and talks with Dr. Janna Levin, theoretical astrophysicist and author of the book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs From Outer Space.

Learn more about the podcast Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 17: Making (Gravitational) Waves

When the Cassini spacecraft blasted into space on October 15, 1997, even the most optimistic scientists would have had a hard time predicting the mission’s success. Dr. Michelle Thaller speaks with the Cassini mission’s Project Scientist Linda Spilker, as well as Julie Webster, a longtime Cassini engineer and a manager for spacecraft operations. One of Cassini’s biggest legacies will be how she gave a much clearer picture of Saturn’s 62 moons, including two worlds that scientists now think could potentially host life.

Nearly twenty years later, Cassini will crash-land into Saturn’s atmosphere this September, ending a rich chapter in exploration and discovery of our own solar system.

Learn more about Orbital Path at orbital.prx.org and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to them!

Episode 18: Cassini Countdown

Dr. Michelle Thaller visits the NASA lab that discovered that meteorites contain some of the very same chemical elements that we contain. Then, Michelle talks to a Vatican planetary scientist about how science and religion can meet on the topic of life beyond Earth.

Learn more about the Orbital Path podcast at orbital.prx.org.

Episode 19: We Are Stardust

PRX is a leading media company, shaping the future of audio by connecting talented producers with their most engaged, supportive audiences.
PRX builds technology and creates cutting-edge content that reaches millions of listeners worldwide.

For 15 years, PRX has operated public radio’s largest distribution marketplace, offering thousands of shows including This American Life, The Moth Radio Hour and Reveal. Named one of Fast Company’s "Ten Most Innovative Companies in Media" in both 2015 and 2017, the company has pioneered new approaches to technology and talent.

In 2014, PRX launched Radiotopia, a curated network of extraordinary podcasts anchored by 99% Invisible from Roman Mars. The network has quickly grown to over 19 million downloads per month (November 2017, Podtrac).