Episodes
Cosmic Vertigo presents.. Little Tiny
Feb 11 2019
ABC podcast Little Tiny explores world history via the small things that have shaped it - all in the space of a coffee break! In this episode, host Kara Schlegl delves into the discovery of the cosmic microwave background. To hear more, search for Little Tiny on the ABC Listen app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Host Kara Schlegl Producer Bryce Halliday History consultant Zoë Tan Executive Producer Joel Werner
Cosmic Query | Total eclipse of the Sun
Jul 17 2018
We join two observers for a total eclipse of the sun.
019 | Faster than slow
Jul 10 2018
The International Space Station is travelling in low Earth orbit at a leisurely 7.66km per second (approx). Moving at that speed, the crew of the ISS witnesses a sunrise and sunset every 90 minutes.
Cosmic Query | First contact
Jul 03 2018
The search for alien life continues but at what point do we declare that we are alone in the Universe?
018 | Quicker than quick
Jun 26 2018
You'd think we'd notice thousands of explosions in the night sky. Shorter than a millisecond, these bursts were first recorded in 2007 and while scientists know they're there, we are still unsure of their origin.
017 | Longer than long
Jun 26 2018
If you wait long enough, would another Universe spontaneously arise in front of you? Chances are it won’t happen in your lifetime… But it could.
Cosmic Query | clusters and milkshakes
Jun 19 2018
A serving of Globular Clusters and Amanda's favourite milkshake (it's not chocolate).
016 | Cooler than Cool
Jun 12 2018
Temperature levels across the Universe vary wildly. The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object, but back on Earth scientists are working towards achieving absolute zero. It doesn't get any cooler than that.
015 | Hotter than hot
Jun 12 2018
The hottest thing in the Universe isn't the core of a planet, or the centre of an exploding star. It's created here on Earth by scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider.
Cosmic Query | Lighting up the night
Jun 05 2018
Could there be a time when we look up at the night sky and see more objects, planets and stars, than dark space? Join Alan and Amanda as they tackle another of your Cosmic Queries.
Cosmic Vertigo | Stargazing Special
Jun 01 2018
Stargazing Live on ABC TV gathered astronomers and astrophysicists for three nights of discoveries and record-breaking observation. Join Alan as he explores the Siding Spring Observatory, where Amanda worked, and asks these professional stargazers (plus one red-haired comedian) what makes them feel Cosmic Vertigo. Featuring Karlie Noon, Fred Watson, Becky Smethurst, Greg Quicke, Andrea Boyd, Amalia Sicardi, Tim Minchin and Kumi Taguchi.
014 | Emptier than empty
May 29 2018
We’re told space is a vast empty vacuum. But how empty can it be, if we know it’s full of stars and black holes, nebulas and galaxies? Alan and Amanda hop aboard a space elevator and rise through the Earth's atmospheric layers to explore our not-so-empty Universe.
013 | Denser than dense
May 29 2018
Imagine the mass of the sun crushed into something the size of the earth – what you're picturing is a white dwarf. But things can get much more dense than that. Amanda and Alan deliver a lesson in density with a side of salt and aioli (BYO chips).
Cosmic Query | Robots on the moon?
May 23 2018
In Season one, Amanda and Alan took an inventory of what we've left on the Moon: golf balls, a couple of flags, 96 bags of human waste ... But Ashton, a listener, wonders whether any robots (or humans) are up there.
012 | Smaller than small
May 15 2018
Zooming right in from the decommissioned dwarf planet Pluto to the humble yet powerful atom helium, Amanda and Alan measure up the smallest things in the Universe — with the aid of a strand of your hair.
011 | Bigger than big
May 15 2018
The biggest things in the Universe don't necessarily last the longest. Massive swollen stars, hundreds of times bigger than our own sun, burn through their fuel and either explode into a supernova or become a black hole.
Cosmic Query | Red planet... Wet planet?
May 10 2018
Cosmic Vertigo is back — and when they're not discussing the extremes of the Universe, Alan and Amanda are answering the big questions. Your questions. This week, it's the little issue of water on Mars.
GUESS WHO'S BACK?!
Feb 07 2018
Cosmic Vertigo season 2 is COMING SOON! And we need your help. Want to share your own personal experience of Cosmic Vertigo? Or do you have a spacey question you're burning to ask Alan and Amanda? Grab a smartphone, and use the inbuilt audio recorder to record your message. Then email that file to cosmicvertigo@abc.net.au
Cosmic Vertigo presents.. Sum of All Parts
Oct 12 2017
Cosmic Vertigo producer Joel Werner has a new podcast! Sum of All Parts tells extraordinary stories from the world of numbers. The episode featured here is.. 'Phoenix + Electron'.. Melbourne, 1989. Two teenagers hack Australia's recently established internet connection, and infiltrate some of the world’s most secure computer networks. Listen online or wherever you get your podcasts.. iTunes (AU) iTunes (US) Pocket Casts RSS
Total Solar Eclipse [BONUS SHORT]
Aug 18 2017
Amanda and Alan are back (for a hot minute) to celebrate the total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017!
Cosmic Vertigo presents.. Off Track
May 24 2017
Missing Cosmic Vertigo? Well, check out this story about a telescope so powerful it listens to time..
Outer Space Takes [BONUS EPISODE]
May 18 2017
Surprise! Bonus episode! Take a trip behind the scenes in the making of Cosmic Vertigo - LIVE! from the 2017 World Science Festival in Brisbane, Australia.
010 | Baby pictures and bird poo
May 04 2017
It’s amazing what you find when you try to see the dawn of time. This season of Cosmic Vertigo ends at the very beginning: the Big Bang.
009 | Emptier than empty and getting even emptier
Apr 27 2017
In the unimaginably vast gaps between galaxies, something is accelerating the universe towards a lonely future. Alan and Amanda shake their heads at Dark Energy.
008 | The invisible wind
Apr 20 2017
Dark Matter flies through solid walls like a ghost. Humans have buried super-sensitive crystals to try and detect it - and our Universe doesn’t make any sense without it.
007 | Black holes don't suck
Apr 13 2017
Science fiction movies make it pretty clear that black holes are terrifying, all-consuming monsters. For astronomers there’s no cooler place to try and see.
006 | A pretty exciting place
Apr 06 2017
It's a patchy, pale river in the sky - and a twirling spiral of 400 billion stars. It’s also headed for a dazzling intergalactic train wreck. Welcome to our Milky Way.
005 | Where are all the aliens?
Apr 04 2017
Alan and Amanda debate the number of civilisations that might be out there, get the maths wrong, and argue about whether our biggest barriers to coexistence would be linguistic or… dietary.
004 | Wobble and wink
Mar 30 2017
The science of exoplanets is stupendously fast-moving. The more we look for alien worlds, the more of them we find. Thousands and thousands of them, all with terrible names.
003 | The bigger they are, the faster they burn
Mar 23 2017
What makes a star a star? When will Betelgeuse explode? Amanda explores what "any day now" means in astronomy and Alan starts measuring mass in millions of marsupials.
002 | Measly little specks of dust
Mar 16 2017
Our Solar System started out as a chaotic Primordial Pancake. Now it hosts the eight planets we know and love, plus poor old Pluto, plus some other stuff. Like asteroids with their own moons.
001 | A giant lump of rock and iron
Mar 15 2017
It’s drifting away from Earth at the same rate that your fingernails grow, but the Moon is still our closest neighbour - so close, that we’ve left quite a lot of litter on its surface…
000 | Welcome to the party! (That's us)
Mar 07 2017
Meet your hosts, astronomers Dr Amanda Bauer and Dr Alan Duffy.