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StarDate

StarDate, the longest-running national radio science feature in the U.S., tells listeners what to look for in the night sky.

science astronomy

All Episodes

00:02:14

Visiting Astronomers

StarDate ·

2026/01/25

Many of the features on the Moon are named for astronomers. So are features on Mars and other planets and moons. And hundreds of asteroids are named for astronomers as well. But you won’t find many features named for astronomers here on Earth. Quite a few streets and schools are named after them. But when it comes to major features, the list is pretty thin – especially in the United States. One of the few is Mount Langley, a 14,000-foot summit in California. It’s named for Samuel

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00:02:14

Medusa Nebula

StarDate ·

2026/01/24

When a dying Sun-like star exhales its final breath, it’s a doozy. The star blows its outer layers of gas into space. That surrounds the star’s dying core with a colorful bubble. The bubble can last for tens of thousands of years before it fades away. One of those bubbles is on the edge of Gemini, which is well up in the east at nightfall. Known as the Medusa Nebula, the bubble is about 1500 light-years away, and it spans more than four light-years. It’s named for one of the

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00:02:14

Doubling Up

StarDate ·

2026/01/23

There just aren’t enough superlatives to describe the galaxy OJ 287. It’s a quasar – an especially bright object powered by two supermassive black holes. One of them is about 150 million times as massive as the Sun. The other is 18 billion times the Sun’s mass – one of the heaviest black holes yet seen. They team up to produce outbursts that are a trillion times brighter than the Sun – brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy combined. OJ 287 is always

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00:02:14

Moon and Saturn

StarDate ·

2026/01/22

Saturn’s rings are among the most beautiful features in the solar system – and the most mysterious. Scientists continue to debate how and when the rings formed, and how much longer they might hang around. But the rings aren’t Saturn’s only beautiful and mysterious feature. An almost perfect hexagon of clouds wraps around the planet’s north pole. And scientists continue to debate how it formed and what keeps it going. Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar

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00:02:14

Osiris

StarDate ·

2026/01/21

Orion climbs high across the sky on winter nights. It’s in the east-southeast at nightfall, and it’s easy to pick out. Look for the constellation’s “belt” – a short line of three stars that points straight up. In ancient Greece and Rome, Orion was known as a mighty hunter. But in ancient Egypt, the figure was even mightier. It represented Osiris, the god of the underworld. In fact, he was thought to reside in the stars of the belt. The story of Osiris dates to

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00:02:15

Lambda Orionis

StarDate ·

2026/01/20

Orion is a land of monsters. It’s packed with stars that are among the most impressive in the galaxy – they’re big, heavy, and bright. Even among all those superstars, though, Lambda Orionis stands out. It consists of two monster stars. The largest is about 35 times the mass of the Sun, and perhaps 200 thousand times brighter.Orion is home to so many major stars because it’s on the leading edge of a spiral arm – a zone where many new stars are being born. Lambda

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00:02:15

Doomed Companion?

StarDate ·

2026/01/19

For a while now, astronomers have suspected that Betelgeuse has a companion. And they might have found it. If it really exists, though, it won’t be around for long. Betelgeuse is a supergiant. It’s about 15 times as massive as the Sun, hundreds of times wider than the Sun, and tens of thousands of times brighter. There’s a wobble in the star’s light that lasts about six years – possibly caused by the gravity of a smaller companion star. A team looked for the companion

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00:02:15

40 Eridani

StarDate ·

2026/01/18

A research paper published a couple of years ago featured an ominous title: “The Death of Vulcan.” A team of astronomers killed off a possible planet around the star 40 Eridani. In the lore of Star Trek, the star is the home of the planet Vulcan.40 Eridani is actually a triple star. The main star is the one that’s supposed to host Vulcan. It’s a little smaller and lighter than the Sun, and only about 40 percent as bright. It’s probably older than the Sun, so

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00:02:15

Epsilon Eridani

StarDate ·

2026/01/17

Epsilon Eridani is the third-closest star system that’s visible to the unaided eye – just 10 and a half light-years away. It was among the first stars found to be encircled by a disk of dust. And it was one of two stars targeted in the first search for radio signals from other civilizations. The star itself is a little smaller and lighter than the Sun, and only a third as bright. It’s also billions of years younger than the Sun. Younger stars generate stronger magnetic fields. So

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00:02:15

Riding the Wave

StarDate ·

2026/01/16

The stars on the rim of the galaxy are going for a ride. They’re bobbing up and down like the horses on a merry-go-round. They’re also rippling outward, away from the center of the Milky Way. The Milky Way consists of a thin disk of stars and gas that spans a hundred thousand light-years or more. For decades, we’ve known that the rim of the disk is warped like the brim of a wide hat. It’s bent upward on one edge, and downward on the opposite edge. A recent study found that

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00:02:15

Informative Beads

StarDate ·

2026/01/15

Almost 11 million years ago, a large asteroid slammed into Earth, somewhere around Australia. It could have gouged a crater more than 15 miles wide, and devastated life across tens of thousands of square miles. So far, though, the only traces of it are 14 tiny glass beads. Combined, they weigh just 53 grams – as much as a slice of bread. The beads are known as tektites. They formed from melted rock and sand that was blasted into the sky. Tiny blobs were shaped into balls by their passage

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00:02:15

Stormy Future?

StarDate ·

2026/01/14

Farmers in the American breadbasket are used to weather troubles: floods, droughts, hail, and more. But a storm in May of 2024 was something new. It caused machinery to go haywire during the peak of planting season. That caused an estimated 500 million dollars in losses.What was different about this storm was its source: the Sun. Massive outbursts of particles and energy bombarded Earth. That caused impressive displays of the northern lights. But it also messed with GPS satellites. From the central

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00:02:15

Moon and Antares

StarDate ·

2026/01/13

Earth is getting fainter. For proof, just look at the Moon – something that scientists have been doing for decades.They’ve been looking at earthshine – sunlight reflected off of Earth. We see it lighting up the nighttime portion of the Moon – the part that’s not brightly lit by the Sun. It gives that part of the Moon a ghostly appearance. Right now, most of the lunar hemisphere that faces our way is in earthshine. The Moon is a thin crescent in the early morning sky

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00:02:15

The Footstool

StarDate ·

2026/01/12

Mighty Orion the hunter has a mighty resting spot for his tired feet: Cursa, the second-brightest star of Eridanus, the river. The star’s name comes from a longer Arabic phrase meaning “footstool of the central one” – Orion himself. As night falls, the star stands above Orion’s foot: Rigel, the hunter’s brightest star. Cursa is about 90 light-years away. It’s easy to see from that distance because it’s a giant. It’s several times the size and

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00:02:15

Jupiter Opposition IV

StarDate ·

2026/01/11

Earth passed by Jupiter yesterday. Now, we’re beginning to leave the giant planet behind. We’ll loop past it again early next year.That passage is known as opposition – Jupiter lines up opposite the Sun in our sky. It’s closest to us then, so it shines brightest for the year. And it’s in view all night. Jupiter is much farther from the Sun than Earth is, so it takes about 12 years to complete a single orbit. Earth follows a much shorter path around the Sun, and it

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00:02:20

Jupiter Opposition III

StarDate ·

2026/01/10

The closer we look at the worlds of the solar system, the more places we see that could be homes for life. Some of those worlds orbit Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter itself isn’t on the list. It’s a big ball of gas with no solid surface. There has been speculation that large organisms could float through its skies. But that’s considered a long shot. It’s more likely that life could inhabit some of Jupiter’s moons. The leading candidate is

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00:02:20

Jupiter Opposition II

StarDate ·

2026/01/09

Jupiter looks like it’s wearing zebra stripes. Bands of clouds that run parallel to the equator alternate between bright and dark – zebra stripes. Each one is thousands of miles wide. The stripes are a result of Jupiter’s composition and its rotation. It’s basically a ball of gas – it’s made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. And even though it’s 11 times the diameter of Earth, it spins on its axis in less than 10 hours. That forces the clouds that top

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00:02:20

Jupiter at Opposition

StarDate ·

2026/01/08

If today is your birthday, then Happy Birthday! The next one is just one year away – 365 sunrises and sunsets. If today is your birthday and you happen to be from Jupiter – well, Happy Birthday, and … we’re sorry. Your next one is almost 12 Earth years away – almost 10,500 sunrises and sunsets. The Jovian year is so long for a couple of reasons. First, the planet is more than five times farther from the Sun than Earth is. So its path around the Sun is more than five

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00:02:20

Stellar Feedback

StarDate ·

2026/01/07

Stars are born when giant clouds of gas and dust break apart and collapse. And if that’s all there was to it, the Milky Way Galaxy would give birth to a couple of hundred stars every year. Instead, thanks to feedback from the stars themselves, it makes only a few.Feedback is a process that clears away the material for making stars, but can also trigger the birth of more stars. Young stars, for example, produce winds and jets that blow away the gas and dust around them. Since stars are born in

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00:02:20

Switching Sides

StarDate ·

2026/01/06

The planet Venus is switching sides today – sides of the Sun. It’s crossing behind the Sun as seen from Earth, so it’s moving from the morning sky to the evening sky. But we won’t be able to see it for several weeks.Venus is the second planet from the Sun, while Earth is third. So Venus crosses both behind the Sun and between Earth and the Sun. It switches between Morning Star and Evening Star appearances each time. Each of these crossings happens every 584 days –

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