Starts With A Bang Podcast #71: Rare Stars and Stargazers

The rarest stars in the Universe are the ones we need the most to make humanity possible.

Like everything in the Universe, stars are born, they live a little while, and then they die. But despite their similarities in terms of where they come from and what they’re made of, these objects can have an enormous variety of fates that they experience, and there are some fascinating intermediate and near-final states along the way. Beyond that, the unique stories of the people who made those key discoveries that have brought us to where we are can help us understand exactly how we pieced together the stellar picture of our Universe’s history together.

I’m so pleased to welcome Emily Levesque, professor at the University of Washington, author of The Last Stargazers, and enthusiastic lover of the Universe beyond planet Earth to the podcast. This ~80 minute episode was one of my favorites, and showcases Emily’s knack for combining her vast knowledge of astronomy with her passion for sharing those stories with the entire world. Have a listen on the latest installment of the Starts With A Bang podcast!

Starts With A Bang is written by Ethan Siegel, Ph.D., author of Beyond The Galaxy, and Treknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive.