Episode 171: Ploonets: When Moons Go Rogue, with Jorge Zuluaga

Feature Guest: Jorge Zuluaga Astronomers have yet to confirm a single detection of an exomoon, that is a moon orb iting a planet outside our solar system. Now it turns out at least part of the explanation is that we may have been looking in the wrong place all this time. Introducing ploonets. No, I did not just mispronounce the word planet . Today we're joined here at The Star Spot by Jorge Zuluaga, whose team coined the name to describe a moon that has gone rogue, and while it may sound exotic, a speculative theory posits that ploonets could have played a key role in the evolution of our very own planet. Current in Space Tony is back with an exciting discovery made in fresh snow in Antarctica: an isotope that can only have been manufactured in one place – the infernal heart of a supernova. Then Joseph and Tony once again ask the cosmic question: what are fast radio bursts, or FRBs, as eight more repeating FRBs have been detected in deep space, and we just may be on the cusp of solving the mystery. Finally, Amelia and Tony talk about a glitch. A software glitch? No. A neutron star glitch! About Our Guest Jorge Zuluaga is Professor of Astronomy at the Institute of Physics at the University of Antioquia in Colombia. His research interests include astrophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. He also enjoys teaching and popularizing Astronomy and Physics in his hometown.

You can listen to Episode 171: Ploonets: When Moons Go Rogue, with Jorge Zuluaga online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 171: Ploonets: When Moons Go Rogue, with Jorge Zuluaga is an episode from The Star Spot by Justin Trottier.

This episode is 41:49 long.

This episode was published on Sep 2, 2019.

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