Travelers in the Night - Eps. 257 & 258: Raw Asteroid & Odds of Aliens

Dr. Al Grauer hosts. Dr. Albert D. Grauer ( @Nmcanopus ) is an observational asteroid hunting astronomer. Dr. Grauer retired from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2006. Today's 2 topics: - Dr. Karen J. Meech of the University of Hawaii has studied comet C/2014 S3 (Pan-STARRS) which appears to be a very old asteroid in a comet's orbit in the Oort cloud. It's one that hasn't been "baked" by long exposure to the Sun. - Dr. Adam Frank of the University of Rochester & Dr. Woodruff Sullivan of the University of Washington have published a paper ( https://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3851 ) addressing the odds of technologically capable alien life appearing in a given volume of space. They posit that it's possible that we are the first such species in a cube 1,000 LY on a side. Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/ Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org. While you're at it, do support our Learning Space educator training program by going to this site: https://www.patreon.com/LearningSpace Please help us keep training the trainers! Learning Space is a weekly G+ Hangout on Air about topics in astronomy education, outreach and other ways to share science both in the school setting and outside it. We bring you interviews, hands-on demonstrations, lists of our favorite educational resources and more!