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Listen to exciting, non-technical talks on some of the most interesting developments in astronomy and space science. Founded in 1999, the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are presented on six Wednesday evenings during each school year at Foothill College, in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Speakers include a wide range of noted scientists, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. The series is organized and moderated by Foothill's astronomy instructor emeritus Andrew Fraknoi and jointly sponsored by the Foothill College Physical Science, Math, and Engineering Division, the SETI Institute, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the University of California Observatories (including the Lick Observatory.)Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Nontechnical astronomy talks • Exoplanet discovery, imaging, atmospheres, habitability • Ocean worlds and life-search missions • Solar-system exploration (Mars, Pluto, asteroids) • JWST results, first stars/galaxies • Black holes, pulsars, gravitational waves • Dark matter/energy, multiverse • New observatories and sky surveys • SETI and cultural impactsThis podcast presents public, nontechnical astronomy lectures by working scientists, focused on explaining current ideas and missions in space science in everyday language. Across the episodes, the discussions range from our local neighborhood to the largest scales of the cosmos, often emphasizing how new instruments and surveys are changing what astronomers can measure and infer.
A major thread is exploration of the solar system through robotic missions and planned expeditions, including close looks at asteroids, Pluto and its moon Charon, Mars rover discoveries, and targeted investigations of potentially habitable “ocean worlds” such as Europa and Enceladus. Related talks consider planetary geology, the role of water in habitability, caves and subsurface environments, and the practical challenges of human and human-robot exploration beyond Earth, including radiation and space weather.
Another recurring theme is exoplanets and astrobiology: how planets around other stars are found, how their atmospheres can be analyzed with space telescopes, what “Earth-like” might mean in practice, and how the search for life and intelligence is pursued through both astronomical observations and SETI projects. Some episodes also explore the cultural and philosophical implications of possible life elsewhere.
On the astrophysics and cosmology side, the lectures cover black holes, pulsars, neutron star mergers, gravitational waves, fast radio bursts, dark matter and dark energy, and even speculative frameworks such as multiverse ideas—framed through the evidence, the open questions, and the technology enabling progress. The podcast also includes occasional behind-the-scenes perspectives on how astronomy is done and how discoveries unfold.
| Episodes: |
Why Do We Exist: The Nine Realms of the Universe that Make You Possible2026-May-27 80 minutes |
The NASA Psyche mission: First Journey to an Unknown World2026-Apr-15 76 minutes |
Pictures of Distant Worlds2026-Mar-15 62 minutes |
Dark Energy in the Universe and the Largest Telescope Ever2026-Feb-04 71 minutes |
The Search for Life on Saturn’s Intriguing Moon Enceladus2025-Dec-01 74 minutes |
The Amazing Vera Rubin Observatory and Its Movie of the Sky2025-Oct-16 86 minutes |
Science at the Edge of the Solar System2025-Jun-07 83 minutes |
New Worlds: Analyzing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope2025-Apr-16 82 minutes |
Copernicus 4.0: How the Views of Earth's Importance and the Search for Life are Changing2025-Mar-13 73 minutes |
Human-Robotic Exploration from the Moon to Mars2025-Feb-06 72 minutes |
Observing with the James Webb Space Telescope: Glimpsing the First Stars2024-Nov-16 64 minutes |
Profound and Staggering: The Impact on Religion of the Discovery of Life around Other Stars2024-Oct-14 80 minutes |
The Copernicus Complex: Are We Special in the Cosmos2024-Aug-25 78 minutes |
Black Widow Pulsars: The Vengeful Corpses of Stars2024-Jul-09 61 minutes |
Europa Clipper: Exploring Jupiter's Ocean World2024-May-25 82 minutes |
The Allure of the Multiverse (with Dr. Paul Halpern)2024-Apr-24 76 minutes |
The Black Hole Wars: My Battle with Stephen Hawking2024-Apr-15 94 minutes |
Black Holes and the Technology to Find Them2024-Apr-10 62 minutes |
Exploring the Gravitational Wave Universe2024-Feb-21 69 minutes |
Water Above, Water Below: The Many Roles of Water in Making Planets Habitable2023-Dec-05 74 minutes |
The Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects2023-Oct-29 70 minutes |
SPECIAL: An Interview with Frank Drake: The Founder of SETI Science (conducted by Andrew Fraknoi)2023-Jul-17 44 minutes |
Ashes to Ashes, Earth to Earth, Dust to Dust: The Birth and Death of Worlds2023-Jul-14 65 minutes |
An Eclipse Double-Header: Two North American Eclipses of the Sun in 2023 & 2024 (with Andrew Fraknoi)2023-May-18 62 minutes |
The First Results from the James Webb Space Telescope (with Dr. Alex Filippenko)2023-Mar-13 89 minutes |
Our Boldest Effort to Answer our Oldest Question: Breakthrough-Listen Search for Intelligent Life2023-Feb-20 85 minutes |
Spacetime Symphony: Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes2023-Jan-26 69 minutes |
100 Years of Einstein's Relativity (And How it Underlies Our Modern Understanding of the Universe)2022-Dec-29 79 minutes |
Space Weather and the Question of Human Survivability (with Dr. Tom Berger)2022-Dec-12 92 minutes |
Is Anyone out There: The Hundred-Million Dollar "Breakthrough: Listen" Project2022-Dec-05 77 minutes |
A Planet for Goldilocks: Kepler and the Search for Living Worlds2022-Oct-31 89 minutes |
The Fast Radio Sky: A New Window on the Violent Universe2022-Oct-25 84 minutes |
Colliding Neutron Stars, Gravity Waves, and the Origin of the Heavy Elements2022-Aug-23 81 minutes |
When Mars Was Like Earth: Five Years of Exploration with the Curiosity Rover2022-Aug-02 90 minutes |
Rubble Piles in the Sky: The Science, Exploration, and Danger of Near-Earth Asteroids2022-Jul-15 62 minutes |
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto (with Alan Stern & David Grinspoon)2022-Jun-24 103 minutes |
Do Humans Have What it Takes to Thrive in this Universe?2022-Jun-01 82 minutes |
A Sharper Image: Seeing Colliding Galaxies with Adaptive Optics (with Dr. Claire Max)2022-May-12 76 minutes |
Cosmobiology: Recent Progress in Cosmology, Exoplanets, and the Prerequisites for Life in the Universe2022-May-03 73 minutes |
Cosmology and Ambition: Losing the Nobel Prize (with Dr. Brian Keating)2022-Apr-08 76 minutes |
Planets Under Our Feet: The Caves on Earth, Mars, and Beyond (with Dr. Penelope Boston)2022-Mar-26 83 minutes |
Dark Star: The Invisible Universe of Brown Dwarfs (with Dr. Adam Burgasser)2022-Mar-15 86 minutes |
Charon, Pluto’s Companion: What We’re Learning from New Horizons (with Dr. Ross Beyer)2022-Mar-01 76 minutes |
Living with a Star: A Life-friendly Planetary Environment (with Dr. Michelle Thaller)2022-Feb-17 85 minutes |
Beyond: Our Future in Space (with Dr. Chris Impey)2022-Jan-30 92 minutes |
Ocean Worlds in Our Solar System (with Dr. Kevin Hand)2022-Jan-07 93 minutes |
Meet the Neighbors: Exploring Planets Orbiting Nearby Stars (with Dr. Courtney Dressing)2021-Dec-21 65 minutes |
The Biggest Sky Survey Ever Undertaken: Exploring the Universe with the Rubin Observatory (with Dr. Phil Marshall)2021-Dec-14 69 minutes |
Postcards from Mars: The Latest from Our Robot Explorers (with Dr. Jim Bell)2021-Nov-22 93 minutes |
The Last Stargazers: Behind the Scenes in Astronomy (with Dr. Emily Levesque)2021-Nov-02 80 minutes |
Will the 21st Century be the Time we Discover Life Beyond Earth (with Dr. Jill Tarter)2021-Oct-22 74 minutes |
The Monster Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way (with Nobel Laureate Andrea Ghez)2021-Oct-09 71 minutes |
Encounter with Ultima Thule: The Most Distant Object Humanity Has Ever Explored (with Dr. Jeff Moore)2021-Sep-26 55 minutes |
What Does a Black Hole Look Like: How We Got our First Picture (With Prof. Eliot Quataert)2021-Sep-15 77 minutes |
A Little Talk about Aliens with Dr. Adam Frank2021-Aug-23 79 minutes |
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Planet 9 from Outer Space with Dr. Michael Brown 2021-Aug-14 77 minutes |
Black Hole Survival Guide with Dr. Janna Levin2021-Aug-01 70 minutes |
Lick Observatory During Pandemics: 1918 and 2020 (with Dr. Elinor Gates)2021-Jul-06 71 minutes |
The Hunt for Dark Matter in the Universe with Dr. Tom Shutt2021-Jun-29 88 minutes |
How a Smooth Early Universe Grew into Everyone You Know (with Nobel Laureate John Mather)2021-Jun-20 63 minutes |