Episode 56: Interview with Musician and Astronomer Konstantin Batygin (from early punk bands to searching for planets!)

My guest in this episode is the one the only Konstantin Batygin.
He is a musician and astronomer whose day job is as a professor
of Planetary Sciences and Orbital Mechanics at Caltech. Yes, that
means if the sitcom The Big Bang Theory were real, he would have
an office in the same department as Sheldon. As an astronomer,
his research mostly focuses on the formation and evolution of
planetary systems. He is most famous for his research with
Michael E. Brown on the proposed existence of a ninth planet in
the Solar System. Brown and Batygin are using various methods to
search for a massive planetary body they believe is in the outer
solar system.


Before we get into all the nerdy planetary stuff, we talk about
Batygin’s upbringing in Japan and Santa Cruz. How he discovered
Metallica and the guitar. His early attempts at punk bands and
the new albums he is working on with his current band The Seventh
Season.


In this conversation, we talk about music, planetary science, and
how they recently came together when Batygin helped compose the
guitar elements of a symphony dedicated to his planet nine
research with the Miami symphony. From power cords to planetary
orbital mechanics this is one of my favorite interviews.


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