The Cosmic Companion w/ James Maynard
The Cosmic Companion - Astronomy, Space, Technology Advancing Humanity
Exoplanets in Your Backyard! w/ Allyson Johnson from National Geographic
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Exoplanets in Your Backyard! w/ Allyson Johnson from National Geographic

How to experience a taste of life on other worlds without leaving the comfort of your home planet. With Allyson Johnson, senior editor at National Geographic!
Allyson Johnson appears on The Cosmic Companion 3 December 2022. Released under Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution 2022 The Cosmic Companion.

Hello everyone!

This week on the Cosmic Companion, we take a look at Exoplanets in Your Backyard! Or, at least how you can get a small idea of what it might be like to visit these worlds, and you know… Survive. 

Later in the show, we’re going to be talking with Allyson Johnson, senior editor at National Geographic. We’ll be discussing their new release, Complete National Parks of the United States, and explore how some national parks can give us a small taste of life on distant worlds. 

Astronomers currently know of a little over 5,000 worlds orbiting stars other than the Sun. These range from small, hot rocky planets huddling close to their star, to massive Jupiter-like worlds. This largest class of worlds could themselves be encircled by families of Moons, some as large as Mercury — or perhaps even the Earth.

Listen to the podcast episode here or watch this program as a video!

Next week, we will begin a tour of the winter sky so grand, it will take two weeks (that’s a fortnight for those of you STILL refusing to use metric!). In part one, we welcome Andrew Fazekas - National Geographics’s “Night Sky Guy” back to the show. We’ll talk about what can be seen in the wintertide sky using just your eyes! (Part 2 will examine The Winter Sky w/ Telescopes! w/ Michael Petrasko from Insight Observatory!).

Clear skies!

James

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The Cosmic Companion w/ James Maynard
The Cosmic Companion - Astronomy, Space, Technology Advancing Humanity
Astronomy, space, and science news and education delivered in a fun, friendly format!
Short form Astronomy Minutes and full-length episodes featuring interviews with some of the top scientists, authors, and developers around the globe!