Allan I Carswell Observatory Presents: York Universe

Tonight we discuss some fun history items, and of course the recent news about sugars and more on Bennu! The host is Dr. Elaina Hyde and we are joined by special guest Mahesh Aravamudan, a RASC Toronto Center member and astronomy enthusiast to investigate. The allsky camera for AICO mentioned in this episode can be found at: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/observers/ Image credit: Aview across asteroid Bennu's southern hemisphere and into space. The image was obtained on March 7, 2019, by the PolyCam camera on NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

Welcome to our holiday show! What was the star of Bethlehem? What is a great gift for an astronomer?

Here we look at a few Mars related topics, including possible karstic (water eroded) caves and other findings around the solar systems.   Image (open access) from Ravi, Sharma et al 2025 APJL 993 L36  

Tonight the Leonid meteor shower peaks.  Here we look at the Leonids in detail as well as comets and Frank Drake. Image: Leonid meteor storm of 1833 (Public Domain)    find out more about the observatory at https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/  

Julie Tomé and Dr. Elaina Hyde discuss many satellites - most good, some bad! From Lunar Orbiter 2, San Marco 1, and Sputnik to giant space mirrors (shudder) and the JWST (hurray!), explore some of the history and news around satellites. Podcast Image: AICO, Sunna Withers, Zena Khadour

Tune in to go back in time to Tycho's Supernova of 1572, the history of daylight savings time, and how our view of the Universe was revolutionized, twice! This week's host's Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers also discuss astronomy news, including Comet 3I/Atlas and the chaos of galaxies in the early Universe.  Image Description: Comet 3I/Atlas on July 21, 2025, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope   Image Credit: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This episode features a round up of comets past and current, a bit of fun history, and some discussion of the 2025 Astronomer in Residence program. The host Dr. Elaina Hyde is joined by special guest John Wilmot, one of our 2025 astronomers who went out to Killarney Park as both an expert, and an amateur! Join us for a bit of fun, and keep in mind that the live views on YouTube for this episode include one of our comets from THIS season C2025/R2 (SWAN). The link to the observatory website mentioned in this episode is: https://www.yorku.ca/science/observatory/ .   Image credit: Comet C2025/R2 SWAN as imaged by the AICO 1m telescope on YouTube during the live broadcast for this podcast on Oct 27, 2025: AICO, Sunna Withers, Nakul Sethuram Ramjee 

Here we look at a number of interesting objects in our solar system, and missions to the less frequented places in the inner solar system like Mercury and Venus. 

Julie and Jeremy chat about the history of exoplanet discovery, notable astronomers Riccardo Giacconi and Ejnar Hertzsprung, and the discovery of Triton. In the news, a rogue planet is acting like a star, old data sets are reanalysed to get new insights into Venus and Enceladus, and the Universe might not expand forever. Episode image credit: Sunna Withers, AICO

Join hosts Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss spacecraft and astronomers who have gone boldly! We discuss both astronomy and sci-fi, including the nature of our Universe and the impact of Star Trek.  Image: DART Impact Image Credit: NASA/Farnham et al. 2025

This week's episode is all about planets and solar systems! Join this week's hosts as we disucss the Earth's autumnual equinox, planetary exploration, the search for extraterrestrial life, and an important milestone in exoplanet discovery!  Podcast Image: Cassini image of Saturn near its equinox in 2009 Photo Credit: NASA

Here we have special guests Nathan Minuk and Robin Metcalfe. Nathan is a member of York student rocketry group.  They are talking about the Canada Launch competition If any York students are interested please see arbalestrocketry.ca   We also talk about Osiris- Rex,the contributions of amateur astronomers, and other recent news.   Episode Artwork courtesy TheSkyLive.com

It's all about the Solar System this week! Join our hosts Professor Jeremy Webb and Sunna Withers as we discuss history surrounding Jupiter's Moon Europa, Pluto's declassification, and the discovery of S/2025 U1, a new moon of Uranus!  Image description: Uranus and its New Moon S/2025 U1 Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Maryame El Moutamid (SwRI), Matthew Hedman (University of Idaho) 

Here we look at a number of phenemenon we have observed in the solar system including, eclipses, aurora, lunar quakes and rainbows on Enceladus. Apollo 11 Seismic Experiment Image Courtesy NASA

Join Paul Mackin and Sunna Withers as we discuss interstellar visitors, the most distant black hole ever observed, and what's up in the sky this week. Also tune in for special guest Robin Metcalfe to learn about the upcoming Launch Canada Challenge! Image: Apollo 8 Command Module - Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Il. Photo Credit: Paul J. Mackin  

Here we touch on Vera Rubin and Maria Mitchell, two prominent female astronmers of the late 19th and early 20th century.   We also look at some aspects of life beyond our solar system and speculation about 31/Atlas   Image of 1878 eclipse - Public domain image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_29,_1878#/media/File:Solar_eclipse_1878Jul29-Corona_Pikes_peak_Langley.png  

Join us as we discuss exploring our Solar System! Hosted by Paul Mackin and Professor Mary-Helen Armour, this week we discuss one of the most significant events in space history - landing humans on the Moon - and how we aim to achieve a repeat performance.    

In this week's episode we highlight missions with milestones on this day like Mariner 4, and New Horizons. We also look at aspects of asteroids and comets in the news, now in in this day in history.   Image  Credit: Hubble Space Telescope Comet Team and NASA  

Julie and Mary-Helen discuss Newton, Shklovsky, and Bethe - three scientists with many achievements to list. They explore how technology has evolved while talking about Roswell, a bolide captured by a weather satellite, and new frontiers being pushed by JWST. Episode image credit: NOAA-CIRA

In this episode Dr. Mary-Helen Armour and Dr. Jeremy Webb discuss the summer solstice touching on what a solstice is, and what historical significance it has in everything from time keeping, finding the size of the Earth, and how ancient monuments were aligned. In the news we touch on the early images from the Vera Rubin telescope. Image courtest NASA at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14366/