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Podcast Profile: Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage

Site • RSS • Apple Podcasts
78 episodes
2019 to 2025
Median: 6 minutes
Collection: Physics, Math, and Astronomy

Description (podcaster-provided):

It's cosmology in a cup! - Cosmic Coffee Time is bite sized podcasts making sense of space, astronomy, life, and the universe, best enjoyed with a coffee. A down to earth look at what's up there, and it's just for you spacefans. Grab a coffee and see where in the universe we go this time. Follow on Twitter @CosmicCoffTime

Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):

➤ Astronomy and space exploration topics • Cosmological phenomena • NASA missions • Planetary science • Space technology advancements • Interviews with experts • Historical space events

Cosmic Coffee Time with Andrew Prestage is a podcast that delves into the fascinating realms of space, astronomy, and cosmology. The show presents bite-sized episodes that make complex astronomical concepts accessible to a broad audience, often with a touch of lightheartedness to engage listeners. With topics as vast as the universe itself, the podcast explores various themes such as planetary science, space exploration, and astronomical phenomena.

Recurring subjects include historic and contemporary space missions, with several discussions focusing on NASA’s projects, including the Apollo, Gemini, and Mercury programs. The show also highlights significant scientific milestones, such as the detection of moonquakes, the return of asteroid samples, and the discovery of new moons. Listeners can expect to learn about lesser-known space endeavors, like the Chang’e 6 lunar mission and the Odysseus Moon Lander, as well as groundbreaking astronomical observations, such as the recent photograph of the black hole at our galaxy’s center.

A consistent theme throughout the podcast is the pondering of humanity’s relationship with space, evidencing through discussions on space ethics, astrobiology, and the potential habitability of celestial bodies like Saturn’s moon Titan. There’s an exploration of the scientific principles behind phenomena such as spaghettification and sunspots, alongside profiles of notable figures in astronomy, like Galileo and Caroline Herschel.

Entwining expert interviews and anecdotal narratives, the podcast aims to spark curiosity while providing informative content about the universe’s wonders. Whether discussing the past, present, or future of space exploration, Cosmic Coffee Time offers a relatable yet insightful look into what lies beyond our world.

Episodes:

#78 The Andromeda Galaxy is a cosmic neighbour that’s going to collide with our Milky Way Galaxy. Should we panic?
2025-Apr-30
8 minutes

#77 The stranded astronauts are finally home after 9 months in space. Let’s see how Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got home
2025-Mar-31
6 minutes

#76 The Apollo program was the high point of the space age. From test flights, to lunar landings and the moon buggies
2025-Feb-28
10 minutes

#75 NASA's Project Gemini was a spectacular program that bridged the gap from Project Mercury to Apollo. Gemini developed the incredible technology and techniques needed for the lunar program
2025-Jan-31
10 minutes

#74 At the beginning of the space race, Project Mercury was NASA’s first human crewed spaceflight program, and it was a significant step on the road to the moon. Let’s dive into the vault and check it out.
2024-Dec-31
11 minutes

#73 NASA’s Project Mercury Monument has turned 60! It’s a tribute to America's first attempt at human space flight. The monument has a time capsule that is scheduled to stay sealed for 500 years! Let’s check out what's inside.
2024-Nov-30
6 minutes

#72 The space pioneers from Earth weren’t humans, what? That’s right, long before humans launched into space, there were a whole team of dogs, monkeys, chimps, insects and more, who rode rockets to space. All in the name of research.
2024-Oct-31
9 minutes

#71 Earth has a new moon! For about the next 8 weeks... Asteroid 2024 PT5 will be captured by Earth's gravity before returning to its normal solar orbit.
2024-Sep-30
6 minutes

#70 The Boeing Starliner capsule's first crewed test flight has left two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station. What went wrong, and how are they going to get home?
2024-Aug-31
7 minutes

#69 NASA's Curiosity rover has just made the most incredible discovery of its 12 years on Mars. By running over a rock!
2024-Jul-31
7 minutes

#68 A piece of space history was written this month, a sample from the far side of the moon! Let's check out the Chang'e 6 lunar lander and it's history-making mission.
2024-Jun-30
7 minutes

#67 OSIRIS-REx NASA mission scientist Greg Brennecka brings us up to date on the incredible early findings from the Bennu asteroid sample.
2024-May-31
18 minutes

#66 Saturn’s largest moon Titan is an incredible place, but could anything live there? Canadian Astrobiologist Dr Catherine Neish led a study on Titan’s habitability. She joins us for a fascinating chat about what she found.
2024-Apr-30
23 minutes

#65 Spaghettification? This really is a thing. It happens if you get too close to a black hole, but what is it? And how did it get that name?
2024-Mar-31
6 minutes

#64 The Odysseus Moon Lander. The first private moon lander has touched down, but is it still ok?
2024-Feb-29
6 minutes

#63 Space Ethics. How do we navigate the ethical challenges of our journey beyond Earth?
2024-Jan-31
5 minutes

#62 The iconic Earthrise photograph. Is this the most influential picture from the Apollo era?
2023-Dec-31
5 minutes

#61 Will Saturn’s rings really disappear from view in 2025? What’s going on with that?
2023-Nov-30
5 minutes

#60 Astrophotography. It's photography with a completely different technique. How do the pros do it, and what can I do with my smartphone?
2023-Oct-31
6 minutes

#59 India's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to land in the south polar region of the moon. Let's see why the this incredible spacecraft and rover could be instrumental for the future of human spaceflight.
2023-Sep-30
6 minutes

#58 Resident space rock expert Greg Brennecka is back to preview the return to Earth of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft with a sample of asteroid Bennu.
2023-Aug-31
18 minutes

#57 Space junk! Most of the human made objects orbiting Earth aren’t functional. Some of them are incredible objects that have outlasted their mission durations by years. How will these fascinating relics affect future spaceflight?
2023-Jul-31
8 minutes

#56 The June solstice, it defines the Arctic circle, the Tropic of Cancer and the Antarctic circle. It has the longest daylight hours in the northern hemisphere, shortest in the southern. But why do those things happen on one day every year?
2023-Jun-30
6 minutes

#55 The spectacular Aurora Borealis and its southern partner Aurora Australis. The astronomical light show is such a cool thing to see, but its science was a mystery until the 20th century.
2023-May-31
5 minutes

#54 NASA’s VERITAS mission to Venus. There’s some good news, there’s some bad news and there’s one incredible discovery hidden for thirty years.
2023-Apr-30
6 minutes

#53 The Hayabusa2 Asteroid Ryugu sample return mission. Space rock expert Greg Brennecka joins us for an incredible up-close look at real life asteroid material.
2023-Mar-31
16 minutes

#52 Hundreds of years before GPS there was celestial navigation. Let's see how astronomy and some basic equipment kept old time mariners on course.
2023-Feb-28
6 minutes

#51 NASA's astronaut class of 1978. We have a compelling chat with Meredith Bagby about this ground breaking group of space shuttle astronauts, and her fascinating book The New Guys
2023-Feb-06
51 minutes

#50 We all love GPS, but what space science makes it work?
2022-Dec-31
7 minutes

#49 The new Mars meteorite impact. NASA Insight has detected a new meteorite impact on Mars! Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to talk about this breathtaking new discovery.
2022-Nov-30
10 minutes

#48 Caroline Herschel - So much more than just the sister of the guy who discovered Uranus
2022-Oct-31
6 minutes

#47 Have you ever heard of moonquakes? Let's take a look at how different they are from earthquakes.
2022-Sep-30
6 minutes

#46 Meteorite expert Greg Brennecka returns to the podcast to talk about the Nadir crater. An exciting new discovery that could be a 66 million year old meteorite impact.
2022-Aug-31
7 minutes

#45 NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's moon, Titan. A drone is going to fly in the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. Incredible!
2022-Jul-31
6 minutes

#44 About that black hole at the centre of our galaxy... Now we've got a picture! Sagittarius A*
2022-Jun-30
7 minutes

#43 Let's take a look at Sunspots. What are those darker spots on the surface of the sun?
2022-May-31
5 minutes

#42 Pulsars. What are these incredible objects and what makes them pulse?
2022-Apr-30
7 minutes

#41 Galileo. His observations in 1610 changed a lot of what we knew about astronomy. Let's see what he found.
2022-Mar-31
6 minutes

#40 Binary stars. Would you believe that most of the stars we see aren't just single stars? Incredible I know!
2022-Feb-28
6 minutes

#39 Meteorites! We meet with noted meteoriticist Greg Brennecka to talk meteorites, the origins of life on Earth, and his new book 'Impact'
2022-Jan-31
30 minutes

#38 The amazing Mars Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter. Let's take a look at the Mars 2020 project
2021-Dec-31
7 minutes

#37 What's in that unexpected gap between Mars and Jupiter? Let's take a look at the asteroid belt - a fascinating element of our solar system
2021-Nov-30
6 minutes

#36 The Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are the furthest travelled objects ever made by humans. What did they find on the grand tour of the solar system? And where are they now?
2021-Oct-31
8 minutes

#35 Planet Neptune. The most distant major planet in our solar system and the first to be located by mathematical calculations. Let's take a look.
2021-Sep-30
6 minutes

#34 Planet Uranus. Is that how you say it? The ice giant that was the first planet that needed to be 'discovered'.
2021-Aug-31
6 minutes

#33 Planet Jupiter. It's more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined and it's a gas giant. What makes Jupiter different from the rocky terrestrial planets, and does it really have planetary rings?
2021-Jul-31
6 minutes

#32 Kate the Chemist special. We meet with Dr. Kate Biberdorf to talk STEM, TV's Ice Road Truckers, and her new book It's Elemental
2021-Jul-12
20 minutes

#31 A conversation with Earl Swift about NASA's lunar rovers and his new book - Across the Airless Wilds
2021-Jul-05
21 minutes

#30 Planet Mars. Lets take a look at the friendliest planet beyond Earth and some of the cool spacecraft that have been there
2021-Jun-30
7 minutes

#29 Planet Earth. Let's take a look at our home - as a planet, in a solar system.
2021-May-31
6 minutes

#28 Planet Venus. It's Earth's twin - but somehow remains mysterious. Let's take a look.
2021-Apr-30
6 minutes

#27 Planet Mercury normally keeps a low profile, but let's take a closer look at the first planet from the sun.
2021-Mar-31
5 minutes

#26 What's the matter? Really, what is the matter that makes up 80% of the mass of the universe but can't be observed directly. The strange story of dark matter
2021-Feb-28
5 minutes

#25 A conversation with David W. Brown about his new book The Mission, and Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa
2021-Feb-11
14 minutes

#24 What went wrong with the Hubble Space Telescope?
2021-Jan-31
6 minutes

#23 Meteors and meteorites, what are they and why do they burn up?
2020-Dec-31
6 minutes

#22 The Sun. How does it it produce so much energy? And what does the future hold?
2020-Nov-30
5 minutes

#21 Let's take a look at the Moon part 5 - Artemis and the future of human Moon exploration
2020-Oct-31
5 minutes

#20 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 4
2020-Sep-30
7 minutes

#19 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 3
2020-Aug-31
6 minutes

#18 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 2
2020-Jul-31
6 minutes

#17 Let's take a look at the Moon - part 1
2020-Jun-30
6 minutes

#16 The incredible tale of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter. A special first birthday quadruple episode.
2020-May-31
10 minutes

#15 So are we really alone in the Universe? Where is everyone? And what are we doing to find extraterrestrial life?
2020-Apr-30
5 minutes

#14 So an asteroid caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs? Let's find the crater!
2020-Mar-31
5 minutes

#13 Comets? I know Halley's, but what other cool comet stuff should I know?
2020-Feb-29
5 minutes

#12 Proving Einstein's relativity in outback Australia. A cracking tale of spacebending gravity
2019-Nov-30
5 minutes

#11 So there are planets orbiting the stars? Tell me more about exoplanets!
2019-Oct-31
7 minutes

#10 How cool is Saturn. I mean really.
2019-Sep-30
6 minutes

#9 Hey tell me about the International Space Station
2019-Aug-31
5 minutes

#8 So Earth's magnetic field will make my compass needle point south one day?
2019-Jul-31
5 minutes

#7 A black hole sounds pretty weird
2019-Jun-30
3 minutes

#6 Why isn't Pluto a planet any more?
2019-Jun-17
4 minutes

#5 NASA Deep Space Communication Network
2019-Jun-17
5 minutes

#4 You've got to love an eclipse of the sun
2019-Jun-17
3 minutes

#3 What's with leap years anyway?
2019-Jun-16
5 minutes

#2 Big bang and the bookends of the universe
2019-Jun-16
5 minutes

#1 How much space is in space?
2019-Jun-16
5 minutes