Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
Listen to exciting, non-technical talks on some of the most interesting developments in astronomy and space science. Founded in 1999, the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures are presented on six Wednesday evenings during each school year at Foothill College, in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. Speakers include a wide range of noted scientists, explaining astronomical developments in everyday language. The series is organized and moderated by Foothill's astronomy instructor emeritus Andrew Fraknoi and jointly sponsored by the Foothill College Physical Science, Math, and Engineering Division, the SETI Institute, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the University of California Observatories (including the Lick Observatory.)
Podcasting since 2021 • 57 episodes
Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures
Latest Episodes
Dark Energy in the Universe and the Largest Telescope Ever
A nontechnical talk by Dr. Robert Kirshner, Jan 28, 2026.One hundred years ago, Edwin Hubble showed that the universe is expanding. In the 1990s, astronomers found that the expansion is not slowing down, as expected, but speeding up. Thi...
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Season 26
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Episode 3
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1:11:39
The Search for Life on Saturn’s Intriguing Moon Enceladus
Dr. Alfonso Davila (NASA Ames Research Center)Nov. 24, 2025In 2005, NASA's Cassini spacecraft made a groundbreaking discovery—it found massive plumes of ice and gas erupting from the south pole of Enceladus, a small but geological...
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Season 26
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Episode 2
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1:14:09
The Amazing Vera Rubin Observatory and Its Movie of the Sky
A Nontechnical talk by Dr. Steven Kahn (University of California, Berkeley)Oct. 8, 2025The amazing Vera Rubin Observatory is a unique astronomy facility just built in Chile, with the largest digital camera in the world, designed t...
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Season 26
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Episode 1
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1:26:05
Science at the Edge of the Solar System
A Talk by Dr. Oliver White (SETI Institute)May 28, 2025Ten years ago, the New Horizons spacecraft flew by the Pluto system and revealed an unexpectedly diverse range of landscapes on that dwarf planet and its largest moon Charon -...
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Season 25
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Episode 6
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1:23:12
New Worlds: Analyzing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets with the James Webb Space Telescope
Non-technical Talk by Prof. Jonathan Fortney (U. of California, Santa Cruz) Apr. 9, 2025Over 6000 planets have now been found around other stars, but we only have information about what their atmospheres are like for a few d...
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Season 25
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Episode 5
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1:22:52