Show Notes
A white dwarf star is the compact, dense remnant of a once-thriving solar system. Long after the original star has died and turned into a white dwarf, it can still interact with its solar system. We can even see white dwarfs eating up the rocky debris that once made up their solar system, and apparently making sense of all of this requires a detailed understanding of how convection works in these dead stellar remnants.
More from The Astrophysics Podcast
Shockwaves are a familiar phenomenon here on Earth. In astrophysics, they play a role in some of the most powerful events in the universe, from exploding stars to gamma ray bursts. Shockwaves can transform enormous amounts of energy and carry information about events that are otherwise impossible to observe directly. Dr. Chris Irwin studies how these shocks form and evolve, and how we can use them to learn about cosmic explosions.
The Theory of Relativity was discovered by Einstein over a century ago, and it tells us how time and space are distorted when moving close to the speed of light. We mere earthlings don't get the opportunity to move that fast, but there are some phenomena in astrophysics that move very fast; more than 99.9999% of the speed of light. Ranadeep Dastidar is a computational modeler who writes code to predict and interpret these "relativistic" phenomena.
Abigail Polin is back, and we are doing another astrophysics Q&A! This time, our questions come from a class of third graders in Indiana. You'll be surprised at how some of the simplest questions can lead us down a very complex path!
This episode we get back to the objects that inspired the whole field of astrophysics -- stars. Those little points of light that first inspired us as children are incredible physics laboratories that we can still use today to learn about plasma physics, turbulence, and nuclear reactions. Dr. Jeff Gerber tells us why he made his career out of studying how stars work, and how much we still have to learn about these giant balls of plasma.
Just how much do we know about how the planets formed? How much of this can we learn from getting images of young solar systems? Why does it help to look at the disk using radio waves instead of optical wavelengths? Dr. Charles Law discusses these questions and more as we talk about radio astronomy and the birth of the solar system.