George's Random Astronomical Object

George Bendo

George's Random Astronomical Object is a biweekly astronomy podcast featuring science discussions about astronomical objects at randomly selected locations in the sky. The wide range of topics discussed in the show include stars, variable stars, variable variable stars, supermassive black holes, ultracool dwarf stars, exoplanets, howler monkeys, infrared radiation, acronyms, more acronyms, starbursts, measurements of less than 12 parsecs, jellyfish galaxies, diffuse ionized gas, and general overall weirdness. read less

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Object 123: More Dampness

Object 123: More Dampness

The quasar QSO 1331+170 is best known for having a darker galaxy in front of it that is absorbing its light.

Episodes

Object 123: More Dampness

Object 123: More Dampness

The quasar QSO 1331+170 is best known for having a darker galaxy in front of it that is absorbing its light.

Object 122: Wait For It...

Object 122: Wait For It...

The cluster of galaxies MACS J1149.5+2223 is so massive that it has gravitationally bent (or lensed) the light from multiple things behind it, including one of the most distant galaxies in the universe and a supernova.

Object 121: Can You Find the Supermassive Black Hole?

Object 121: Can You Find the Supermassive Black Hole?

NGC 34 (also known as NGC 17) is a chaotic-looking galaxy that formed from two smaller galaxies merging together, and it is a place where astronomers have easily found lots of stars forming in a starburst but where they have had difficulty concluding whether the galaxy also contains a supermassive black hole.

Object 120: A Possible Source of the Cosmic Rays that Gave the Fantastic Four Their Superpowers

Object 120: A Possible Source of the Cosmic Rays that Gave the Fantastic Four Their Superpowers

The Monogem Ring, which is one of the largest sources of X-rays in the Earth's sky, was created by a supernova explosion about 86000 years ago, and the core of the star that exploded has been identified as the pulsar PSR B0656+14 at the center of the ring.

Object 119: Alpha Table

Object 119: Alpha Table

Even though Alpha Mensae is in one of the faintest and dumbest constellations in the sky, it's an intriguing star system because it is very close to the Earth, because one of the stars is very Sun-like, and because it may contain an exoplanet or a disk of dust in orbit around that Sun-like star.

Object 118: The Golden Standard

Object 118: The Golden Standard

The Type Ia supernova SN 2005cf was observed at multiple wavelengths for three months after its appearance, allowing astronomers to create templates of its spectrum that could be used to measure distances to other Type Ia supernovae.

Object 117: No Shockingly Dumb Jokes in This Episode

Object 117: No Shockingly Dumb Jokes in This Episode

Kappa Cassiopeiae is a large blue variaable star that is most potentially interesting because of the bow shock between its stellar winds and the interstellar medium.

Object 116: The Really Really High Expectations Exoplanetary System

Object 116: The Really Really High Expectations Exoplanetary System

47 Ursa Majoris is a nearby Sun-like star that astronomers have intensely studied in an effort to find an Earth-like exoplanet, and while three exoplanets have been found orbiting the star, none of them are remotely similar to the Earth.

Object 115: Oyster?

Object 115: Oyster?

While the planetary nebula NGC 1501 is a popular amateur astronomy target, the newly formed, hot, pulsating white dwarf at its center is much more interesting to professional astronomers.

Object 114: George's 2020 Data Processing Project from Hell

Object 114: George's 2020 Data Processing Project from Hell

As the second closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way, Messier 33 has been a very popular observing target for both amateur and professional astronomers, and even I have made images of the galaxy.

Object 113: The Mystery Spot

Object 113: The Mystery Spot

The white dwarf GD 394 seems to have an abnormal amount of heavy elements in its outer atmosphere and also varies in brightness with a period of 1.146 days, and no one understands why.

Object 112: Imagine Marilyn Monroe in a Movie Named the Great Attractor

Object 112: Imagine Marilyn Monroe in a Movie Named the Great Attractor

The Norma Cluster lies near the center of a giant supercluster of galaxies that is pulling in everything else in the local universe, including our galaxy.

Object 111: The 1925 Classic

Object 111: The 1925 Classic

The classical nova RR Pictoris was one of the brightest and closest to ever appear in the sky.

Object 110: We Came, We Saw, We Measured

Object 110: We Came, We Saw, We Measured

The spiral galaxy Markarian 766 contains an active galactic nucleus with a supermassive black hole, which means that everyone needs to apply their favorite technique to measure the black hole's mass.

Object 109: A Water World without Kevin Costner

Object 109: A Water World without Kevin Costner

The Kepler-138 star system contains at least four exoplanets, one of which may be a "water world" covered in a very deep ocean.

Object 108: Objects in the Mirror May Be More Complicated Than They Appear

Object 108: Objects in the Mirror May Be More Complicated Than They Appear

The protostellar object PDS 70 has a very complicated protoplanetary system that includes a disk of gas and dust and two protoexoplanets.

Object 107: The Red Rectangle

Object 107: The Red Rectangle

The Red Rectangle (yes, the Red Rectangle) is a uniquely weird protoplanetary nebula formed by a uniquely weird binary star system.

Object 106: A Tale of Two Binary Star Systems

Object 106: A Tale of Two Binary Star Systems

While some astronomers are interested the globular cluster NGC 6712 because it appears to have been severely tidally disrupted by orbiting too close to the center of the Milky Way, other astronomers are interested in the cluster because it contains a couple of weird yet similar binary star systems.

Object 105: Super-Slow Star Formation

Object 105: Super-Slow Star Formation

Located at the edge of the Local Group, the Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy has some of the stars with the fewest elements other than hydrogen or helium in the known universe.

Object 104: Going Cross Country for a Supermassive Black Hole

Object 104: Going Cross Country for a Supermassive Black Hole

Observations with a telescope as large as the Untied States were needed to prove that J16021+3326 is a blazar, a type of galaxy containing a supermassive black hole.