S02E02: What Is The Cosmic Distance Ladder?

And...we’re back, Astro Nuts! We kick off a fun-filled Season 2 with some corrections from Season 1. If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

This episode’s question is,  what is the Cosmic Distance Ladder and how does it work? If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

This episode’s question comes from a listener named Todd who asks, “How do standard candles work? It seems like a really huge assumption that all of these stars are truly identical.” If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

This week, we welcome special guest and science enthusiast Ed Robertson. Ed is the frontman of Barenaked Ladies and wrote the theme song for Big Bang Theory. He asks, “Where does earth’s atmosphere end and where does space begin?” If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

This episode is part 1 of 2 on the structure of the Sun, based on a question from listener Todd who asks, “How do we know what's going on inside the Sun? We can see the outside, but it's not like we can place seismometers on it like we do to measure the layers of the Earth.” If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

This episode is part 2 on the structure of the Sun after listener Todd asks, “How do we know what's going on inside the Sun? We can see the outside, but it's not like we can place seismometers on it like we do to measure the layers of the Earth.” If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

Building on earlier episodes about the structure of the sun, this episode tackles: what is the solar wind? If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

What is Earth’s magnetosphere and what does it have to do with those amazing light shows in the sky called auroras? If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

An overview of the Earth’s magnetosphere on the last episode begs the question, do other objects in our solar system have magnetospheres? If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.

Occasionally rather than asking a specific question, we ask Stuart why he finds something interesting. On this episode: what is so interesting about Jupiter’s moon Io? If you have feedback or a topic suggestion, email us.