The Case of Pluto: Discovery, Demotion, and Redemption
In 2006, a group of astronomers gathered in Prague and made a decision that shocked the world: Pluto was no longer a planet.But the story of Pluto is far more complicated—and far more fascinating—than...
15 Mar 26min
Beyond the Frost Line: The Giant Planets of Our Solar System
This week we leave the rocky inner planets behind and journey into the deep cold of the outer solar system. From the storm-wracked atmosphere of Jupiter to the ringed elegance of Saturn and the myster...
8 Mar 30min
Four Worlds, One Sun; Plus, a Total Lunar Eclipse
In this milestone 100th episode of Star Trails, we bring the cosmos back home.After months of exploring distant stars, nebulae, and black holes, March begins with a tour of our own neighborhood: Mercu...
1 Mar 27min
How Stars Die (Including the One That Keeps Us Alive)
In this episode, we wrap up our month-long series on stars by exploring their final acts.Most stars don’t explode. They grow old. We’ll follow the Sun’s future as it swells into a red giant, sheds its...
22 Feb 22min
The Quiet Majority of Stars
This week we take a nerdy detour into the lives of stars by building a tiny simulated galaxy in Python. We form half a million stars, roll the clock forward 10 billion years, and discover something co...
15 Feb 29min
What Stars Do While They’re Alive
Stars are easy to take for granted. They rise, they set, and they seem unchanged from one night to the next. But in this episode of Star Trails, we shift our focus to what stars are actually doing rig...
8 Feb 18min
What a Star Is (and What It Isn’t)
This week, we begin a month-long exploration of the most familiar objects in the night sky, and wonder why they’re still so often misunderstood.In this episode, we take a deep dive into what a star re...
1 Feb 30min
The Myth of the Perfect Night
What if the problem isn’t the sky, but our expectations?In this episode we step back from targets, charts, and techniques to talk about something every stargazer eventually encounters: the myth of the...
25 Jan 23min
