astro[sound]bites

Episode 117: A Field Day

In this episode, we move away from point particles to talk about fields. Shashank, Cole and Cormac start with a discussion of different kinds of fields in astrophysics. Then, Cole describes Lagrange points and why they can be useful for satellites and asteroids seeking a safe place to camp out (or lay siege). Cormac dives into the atmospheres of hot Jupiter exoplanets, where we get a glimpse of temperature and wind velocity fields on other planets. By the end, you’ll certainly have a lot more field experience! 

 

What’s the (Lagrange) point?

https://astrobites.org/2026/01/29/whats-the-lagrange-point/

 

The Fires Within: Investigating the Atmospheres of Inflated Hot Jupiters

https://astrobites.org/2023/01/03/hot_interior_exoplanets/

 

Space sound: 

https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/The_scary_sound_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field

Episode 116: Love’s Gonna Get you killed, but Tide’s gonna be the death of you

 

In our valentines’ day special, Shashank, Cole, and Cormac explore the dating lives of stars and other compact objects by looking at the romantic couples of astrophysics: binary systems. Immediately ruining this theme, Shashank covers some particularly messy breakups (though these lovers are able to rebound and move on) while Cormac shows us how even stars’ healthy relationships involve some give and take.

 

Astrobites:

 

What are Partial Tidal Disruption Events, and How Do We Find Them?

https://astrobites.org/2025/08/04/partial-tdes-galactic-center/

 

Sharing is caring: how do binary stars actually transfer mass?

https://astrobites.org/2025/07/14/binary-mass-transfer/

 

Space Sound:

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasa-telescopes-tune-into-a-black-hole-prelude-fugue/

Episode 115: Star Wrapped Holiday Special

Apply to join us as a co-host! https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025

In today’s extra-special seasonal episode, Cormac, Lucia and Shashank share some of their highly curated metrics inspired by Spotify wrapped to end our a[s]b year. Much like ourselves, this episode is a mixed bag - we hope you enjoy it! This also marks the start of our long-awaited Winter (or Summer, depending on your hemisphere) break - see you in a few weeks!

Space sound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmsOmqf7Hso

Bonus festive EWOCS JWST image released after we recorded:

https://esawebb.org/images/potm2512a/

Episode 114: A World of Disc-overy

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This week, Shashank, Cole, and Cormac dive into the many disks of the universe, from planet-forming disks to AGN and galactic structures. Cole explores a misbehaving protoplanetary disk that hints at chaotic early planet formation. Cormac follows by showing how external radiation can erode disks and hinder the birth of giant planets. We then zoom out to compare these turbulent young systems to the massive disks around galaxies and supermassive black holes, tying together why disks form across so many cosmic environments and the methods we use to explore them.

 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2025/09/18/forming-misaligned-discs/

https://astrobites.org/2025/11/01/planet_formation_vs_stellar_uv_radiation/

 

ALMA images: https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-releases/alma-campaign-provides-unprecedented-views-of-the-birth-of-planets/attachment/20181212-andrews-et-al-all-disks/

Space Sound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8__1mSFS7vQ

Episode 113: Black Holes? Here? It’s more likely than you think.

Episode 113: Black Holes? Here? It’s more likely than you think.

 

In today’s episode, Cole, Cormac, and Shashank celebrate our glorious return from hiatus by tackling an astronomical favorite: black holes. These guys are important to astronomers for a wide range of reasons, but what happens when you find a black hole somewhere weird? Like in another black hole’s accretion disk? Or in your model of dark energy? Or in a Hot dog? Shashank covers a lot of similar-sounding acronyms for when we find black holes living inside (the accretion disks) of other black holes, while Cormac does his second ever Astrobite with a type of sausage in the title, establishing a worrying precedent.
If you’re interested in Science Communication, make sure you apply to Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2025/10/31/apply-to-write-for-astrobites-2025/

And to cohost our show!

https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025/

 

Questions? 

astrosoundbites@gmail.com

 

Astrobites:

https://astrobites.org/2025/10/28/the-black-hole-meet-up-emris-and-imris-in-the-same-agn-disk/

https://astrobites.org/2025/10/23/hide-hot-dog/

 

Space Sound:

https://www.nasa.gov/universe/new-nasa-black-hole-sonifications-with-a-remix/

Episode 112.5: Extremely Looming Trouble?

In today’s mini-episode, Cormac highlights how a proposed industrial megaproject threatens the pristine observing conditions at Paranal Observatory - home of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, as well as the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope and Cherenkov Telescope Array South facilities. We will also be taking our summer break a little later than usual - see you in a few weeks!

Roel’s interview:
https://astrobites.org/2025/08/29/the-looming-drama-for-the-paranal-observatory/

Apply to join us as a co-host! 
https://astrosoundbites.com/recruiting-2025

Episode 112: It’s not fun to be in a YMC, eh?

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/

Episode 111: Mergers for Nothing and Your Chirps for Free

The only thing better than studying the largest compact objects in the universe is smashing them together. In this episode, Lucia, Shashank, and Cole cover binary black hole mergers and what these violent events can tell us about our universe! Lucia talks us through some mergers' specific spins and Cole forces Shashank to talk about cosmology again. 

Astrobites:
https://astrobites.org/2025/06/27/pisngap_gws_flexible_models/

https://astrobites.org/2025/07/17/lss-bbhgw-expansionrate/

 

Space Sound:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/multimedia/sonifications/

Episode 110: Bayesian Biosignatures

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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

Episode 109: Big, Small and In-Between

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This week, Lucia, Cole and Cormac discuss cosmic sandwich kids: intermediate mass black holes. Where are they hiding? How do they form? And can they grow up to become supermassive black holes? To answer questions like these, we take a look at globular cluster simulations and a famous gravitational wave event: GW190521. The discussion takes us to alien civilisations in the far, far future. 

From Globs to Gravitational Waves: A Simulated Cosmic Choreography
https://astrobites.org/2025/06/19/from-globs-to-gravitational-waves-a-simulated-cosmic-choreography/

Uncovering Precession for GW190521: How the Last Cycle Cracked the Case
https://astrobites.org/2025/06/21/precession_gw190521/

Space Sound: https://soundcloud.com/esa/sound-of-a-juice-boom-deploying

The clock ticking sound is by “opticalnoise” on freedsound.org (https://freesound.org/people/opticalnoise/sounds/201194/).

The alarm sound is by “hypocore” on freesound.org (https://freesound.org/people/hypocore/sounds/164090/).