120: Biggest Small Black Hole

Exoplanets, sure. Exo-moons too, apparently. But exo ... comets?! Yes indeed, they're a real thing, and we've known about them for ages! How do you spot something so tiny around another star, so far away? Emily has the insider knowledge, because it's something she's genuinely investigating in her job as an actual, real-life astronomer.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Comets: dirty snowballs• Exocomets• Famous comets• Shoemaker-Levy’s Jovian rendezvous• Beta Pictoris, HyperMegaMall of astrophysics• Exocomets around Beta Pic• TESS, everyone’s favourite exo-hunter

Way, way back in the early epochs of Syzygy (ep 19 in Oct 2018 if you must know) we talked about the exciting prospect of spotting the first exomoon — a moon orbiting a planet orbiting a star that is not our own. It seemed reasonable to expect that six years later exomoons would be a thing we've discovered, and maybe even started a catalogue. But turns out, observing a minute signal on top of an already minute signal is hard. Emily outlines our best prospects for exomoon discovery.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Syzygy ep 19: Moons, Exomoons & Moonmoons• Does Kepler 1625b have an exomoon?• Seems Unlikely …• What about Kepler 167e?• Volcanic exomoon around Wasp 49b?!

A short announcement: Syzygy is now seasonal! From now on we're going to release the podcast in seasons, and we're excited to announce the imminent release of the first episode of Syzygy Season Two. Yep. Two. Season One is everything we've done so far. Trust us, it's easier this way. Season Two is all about Exo-Stuff — exo-planets, exo-moons, exo-comets ... are they a thing? Apparently, yes. So keep an eye out in the days ahead for the new season of Syzygy.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced byChris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web:syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypod

Live from York's Festival of Ideas*, in front of an audience of ... what, had to be a few hundred thousand people, right? ... Emily and Chris discuss some awesome astronomy that you can go outside and see with your own eyes. In particular, they go deep on the incredible May 2024 aurora, and show what the 2024 total eclipse across the USA looked like, with a preview of amazing eclipses to look forward to in the coming years. Chris finishes with a song, as he does. Watch on YouTube!(* Apologies for the audio quality, it was a big echo-ey space and it didn’t record as well as I’d hoped)Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced byChris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web:syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodSome of the things we talk about in this episode:• Watch this live show on YouTube• York Festival of Ideas• The May 2024 Aurora• Solar Cycle 25• The Solar Dynamics Observatory• timeanddate.com• The 2024 total solar eclipse• Upcoming eclipses

A huge team of astronomers — and their even-huger team of tiny, fibre-obtic-wielding robots — are zeroing in on one of the great questions of cosmology: just what the heck is going on with Dark Energy? We know the Universe is expanding. Apparently, it's expanding faster. But maybe it is expanding faster, slower? Tiny robots measuring breathtakingly-huge cosmic bubbles may give us an answer.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced byChris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web:syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodSome of the things we talk about in this episode:• Announcement of the DESI results• A good video about the results• The DESI home page• Dark Energy• Heat Death or Big Rip• The 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics• BAO bubbles

This week, a new Black Hole Record (kinda), and with it a nice conundrum. the GAIA mission has found the biggest black hole ... of the stellar-mass variety ... in our galaxy. A lot of caveats there, but the fun thing is, it's just next door, which makes us wonder if that's coincidence or a harbinger of more big black holes to come in GAIA's data dumps! Plus, a riddle: why do we keep spotting black holes that are too big to make? Did we break physics? Emily has a few explanations.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodSome of the things we talk about in this episode:• The Biggest (small) Black Hole (in our galaxy)• The rapid-release paper• The GAIA mission• GAIA’s data release schedule• Types of Black Hole• LIGO gravitational wave telescope• Quasi-stars• Syzygy Episode 116: Black Hole Sun

We're live from the 10th birthday celebrations for the University of York's Astrocampus, Emily's home turf and all-round fabulous teaching and outreach space. Emily fields some amazing questions from kids and adults attending the event, and gives some of Astrocampus's highlights and achievements over the past decade, as well as some plans for the future!Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypod

After some lengthy follow-up (the Bennu sample is open at last! And SLIM is alive!), Emily investigates possibly the most podcasty story we’ve had on the show: six planets around distant star HD110067, all locked into resonances that play beautiful music. Turns out if you leave a planetary system alone for long enough, gravity tends to pull everything into simple harmonies. Maybe our own solar system has a song to sing in the far future?Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• The Bennu asteroid sample is open! • JAXA SLIM updates • First SLIM images • Sextuplet symphony: The Nature paper • A good article about the discovery • Blog post by Dr Hugh Osborn with exoplanet music video • Trappist-1 system • Orbital resonances • Multiple star systems • JWST finds methane in exoplanet atmosphere • A breathless headline

Emily and Chris tune in to JAXA’s livestream of SLIM — the Smart Lander for Investigating and Moon — as it attempted to slick the landing on the lunar surface on Friday 19 January 2023. We were prepared for success and champagne, or failure and lessons-learned. What we didn’t expect was … ambiguity, uncertainty and WE ARE STILL CHECKING THE STATUS SO PLEASE WAIT. Did SLIM and its fabulous little transformer rovers make it to the Moon OK or not?! Join us for all the anticipation, the wonder, and the confusion in this special syzygy episode.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• JAXA’s SLIM mission• YouTube livestream recording and press conference• Update article from 3 days later• Mission success!• The SLIM Rovers LEM 1 and LEM 2• Buy your own LEM-2 rover! (Or buy us one, we’d love you forever!)• Upcoming missions to the Moon• India’s Chandrayaan-3 landing• Israel’s failed moon landing• Moss Piglets on the Moon?

Long-time Syzygy listener Jack asks: "Hey Emily — what's the deal with quasi-stars?" (We're paraphrasing). Quasi-stars are hypothetical, enormous stellar-object-thingies that might have formed shortly after the Big Bang. They're so huge they might have formed with black holes at their cores. If they existed at all, it would explain why astronomers keep finding intermediate-mass black holes in gravitational wave experiments. And as a bonus for you, Jack, Emily presents Hawking stars: otherwise ordinary stars that could be hiding a tiny black hole deep in their core. Could the Sun be a Hawking star? The mind boggles.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• Quasi-stars• (… as opposed to Quasars)• Types of black hole• Intermediate-mass black holes and LIGO• Hawking stars• The research paper that seeded this episode• Asteroseismology, the music of the stars