astro[sound]bites

Episode 112: It’s not fun to be in a YMC, eh? Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025 In today’s episode, Cormac, Shashank and Lucia come together to crack open the craziness inside Young Massive (Stellar) Clusters - some of the most exciting neighbourhoods in our Universe. They’re a very hot topic at the moment, and not just because of their intense radiation - they host the majority of massive stars, and ancient YMCs might be the ancestors of the globular clusters that orbit our own Milky Way today. Shashank shares a recipe for cooking up YMCs through a computational collision, and Lucia takes a peek at YMCs emerging from their dust-embedded embryonic environs. We round off with a casual discussion of whether simulationists are taking Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus a bit too literally and chat about our favourite star clusters. Astrobites: https://astrobites.org/2025/07/23/ymc_formation/ https://astrobites.org/2025/07/09/gmc-dispersal/

Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025 This week, Shashank, Cole and Cormac discuss a concept that has come up on many an ASB episode past: Bayesian statistics. They start by trying to wrap our heads around what a probability really means. Cole introduces us to a recent and attention-grabbing paper on a potential biosignature in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, with lots of statistics along the way. Then, Cormac brings up some counterpoints to this detection. They debate what it would take—statistically and scientifically—for a detection of biosignatures to cross the line from intriguing to compelling. New Constraints on DMS and DMDS in the Atmosphere of K2-18 b from JWST MIRI https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adc1c8 Are there Spectral Features in the MIRI/LRS Transmission Spectrum of K2-18b? https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15916 Insufficient evidence for DMS and DMDS in the atmosphere of K2-18 b. From a joint analysis of JWST NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI observations https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.13407 Space Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGdk49LRB14

This week, Lucia, Cormac, and Shashank dive into the depth of the Mediterranean Sea to discover more about the most energetic neutrino measured to date, which had an energy of a whooping 120 PeV! They then pay a visit to the South Pole to discuss what the ICECUBE neutrino observatory can tell us about the proton fraction of cosmic rays at the highest energies. Casting a wide (KM3)NeT for a record-breaking neutrinohttps://astrobites.org/2025/05/29/km3net-neutrino Kachow! Three high energy neutrinos speed through IceCubehttps://astrobites.org/2025/05/31/template-post-33 Space Sound: https://youtu.be/VKvuohsicZs (Particle of Doubt by David Ibbett) Gammapy Song: https://gammapy.org/gammapy_song.mp3 (Gammapy Python package: https://gammapy.org)

In this episode, we say goodbye to one of our beloved hosts, Sabrina Berger. We take a voyage through the depths and breadths of Sabrina’s research experience. Cole tells us how Sabrina investigates JWST’s ability to estimate the masses of galaxies through the glare of their quasars, and Lucia tells us how Sabrina used navigation satellites to calibrate radio telescopes. In between, we quiz Sabrina on her own ASB episodes and finish with Sabrina’s experience in 3 different countries and Sabrina’s advice for future grad students! Arxiv links: - https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.06144 - https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.12130

In today’s episode, Cormac, Cole and Lucia catch you up with all things Citizen Science. In the epoch of ChatGPT, Grok and Gemini (no, not the telescope), it’s easy to forget about the 20 Watt computer you’re using to read this sentence. Yes, even YOU can contribute to cutting-edge astronomical research, as we present two examples of cosmic crowdfunding in action. Cole convinces us that nearby galaxies need some Clump Scouts, and Lucia shows us how volunteers have been the (tur)key to finding a new star-studded dwarf galaxy. We also discuss the non-research benefits of democratising science, and in a fourth-wall-shattering pivot, we ask you, yes YOU, what you’d like to hear more of on a[s]b. astrosoundbites@gmail.com Astrobites: https://astrobites.org/2024/07/29/galaxy-zoo-clump-scout/ https://astrobites.org/2023/11/18/a-lonely-little-galaxy-at-the-edge-of-our-neighborhood/ Space Sound: Adapted from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6vbST9iMOU XKCD Comic: https://xkcd.com/1425/ Article about the (not so?) amateur astronomer: https://astro.arizona.edu/news/tucson-doctor-wins-national-award-his-second-act-amateur-astronomer

Shoot, someone made the mistake of letting Cole pick the episode topic. In this episode, Cole, Cormac, and Shashank talk about the big boy on cosmology campus: Lambda CDM. This model has gotten a bit too big for its britches we think: what are the things about the universe that this model can’t explain? Shashank gives us a tour through the dark matter hearts of galaxies which don’t match up with cosmological predictions and Cormac shows us how 1500 (ish? We’re not clear on this one.) supernovae could hint at a fundamental flaw in Lambda CDM. Astrobites: Testing cosmology with the DES 5-year supernovae dataset: https://astrobites.org/2024/03/22/template-post-21/ Digging into the Core: Dark Matter and Dwarf Galaxies https://astrobites.org/2015/07/14/digging-into-the-core-dark-matter-and-dwarf-galaxies/ Space Sound: Listen to the hum of NANOGrav's gravitational wave background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGO0wQK9ns4

Episode 101: Weather Woes In this episode, we take a dive into weather phenomena in space. Shashank, Cormac and Lucia discuss what the terms hot and cold mean in space and the temperature ranges we tend to see outside the Solar System and the galaxy. Then, Cormac tells us about the climate on Venus, and Lucia delves into cold fronts between galaxies. Finally, we round off with some hot takes about the most underrated parts of the electromagnetic spectrum in astrophysics! Astrobites: https://astrobites.org/2024/12/24/its-getting-hot-in-here-so-take-off-all-your-h2o/ https://astrobites.org/2024/11/11/cold-front-outside/ Space sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYXAdXf5gWU

Danger - explosive! This week’s episode is all about supernovae. These star-ripping, neutrino spewing explosions are important to various fields of astrophysics. Cormac, Cole, and Lucia discuss just when stars actually go supernova. And also, whether we can use gravitational waves to tell which compact object is left behind. Everybody gets to share their favourite supernova science and (as we all love to do) to complain about how much astronomers love old, inconsistent nomenclature. Enjoy! Intro questions: Powering a Supernova https://astrobites.org/2024/10/04/how-to-power-supernovae/ The explodability criterion: How to make a star go supernova https://astrobites.org/2024/09/13/explodability-criterion/ Can we perform a Supernova Autopsy Via Gravitational Waves? https://astrobites.org/2024/10/08/gwautopsy/ Space Sound: https://youtu.be/S-saaAyaW0c