Orbital Path

Series produced by PRX

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Orbital Path with Michelle Thaller takes a look at the big questions of the cosmos and what the answers can reveal about our life here on Earth. From podcast powerhouse PRX, with support from the Sloan Foundation.

About Our Host: Dr. Michelle Thaller is Deputy Director of Science Communcation at NASA. She is a research scientist who studies binary stars and the life cycles of stars. In her off-hours, Michelle often puts on about 30 lbs of Elizabethan garb and performs intricate Renaissance dances.


43 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Episode 20: Holy Sheet!
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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A NASA mission probes mysteries of a planet very much like our own....

Bought by KPIP-LP and KICI Iowa City


  • Added: Aug 04, 2017
  • Length: 20:49
  • Purchases: 2
Mini-sode 3: Dr. Thaller Helps You Prep for The Eclipse
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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The big one is coming! That is, the total solar eclipse of Aug. 21. Dr. Thaller shares her wisdom on how best to view the eclipse and its larger im...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KUFM - Montana Public Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 20, 2017
  • Length: 11:16
  • Purchases: 3
Mini-sode 2: What up, Jupiter?
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
Caption: <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/images/index.html">Jupiter from the Juno mission</a>
Recently, we’ve started to get the first images back from Juno, which is on a mission to Jupiter. Host Dr. Michelle Thaller walks us through the re...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, and XRAY.fm


  • Added: Jun 30, 2017
  • Length: 06:47
  • Purchases: 3
Episode 19: We Are Stardust
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Dr. Michelle Thaller visits the NASA lab that discovered that meteorites contain some of the very same chemical elements that we contain. Then, Mic...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, and XRAY.fm


  • Added: Jun 20, 2017
  • Length: 16:55
  • Purchases: 3
Episode 18: Cassini Countdown
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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When the Cassini spacecraft blasted into space on October 15, 1997, even the most optimistic scientists would have had a hard time predicting the m...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KUER, KRZA, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 23, 2017
  • Length: 22:30
  • Purchases: 4
Episode 17: Making (Gravitational) Waves
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Nearly 100 years after Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves — huge undulations in the fabric of space-time itself — in 2015, det...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, and KVSC


  • Added: Apr 21, 2017
  • Length: 26:21
  • Purchases: 3
Mini-sode 1: NASA’s NICER Mission
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Listeners requested more episodes, so we present the first of our mini episodes. They’ll arrive two weeks after each monthly regular episode, and i...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and Radio Newark


  • Added: Apr 03, 2017
  • Length: 06:28
  • Purchases: 4
Episode 16: Lessons in Landslides
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Space science can help track what’s happening on Earth. In this episode, Orbital Path talks landslides and the satellites that monitor them for the...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, Gallatin Valley Community Radio, KVSC, KWMR and more


  • Added: Mar 20, 2017
  • Length: 22:09
  • Purchases: 7
Space Robots to Europa!
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Galileo discovered Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, in 1610. In 1977, the Voyager spacecraft buzzed past and we realized it was covered in ic...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, KWMR, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KVSC and more


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 18:44
  • Purchases: 6
How the World Came Together to Avoid Ozone Disaster
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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In 1985, the British Antarctic Survey discovered something that shocked scientists around the world: the ozone layer had a hole in it. And the hole...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, and KRZA


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 18:02
  • Purchases: 3
Space May Wreak Havoc on Your Body
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Going to Mars is hot right now, just ask Matt Damon. But would you go if you knew your bones would turn into something called “pee brittle”? Forme...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, Radio Newark, and KWMR


  • Added: Feb 24, 2017
  • Length: 14:32
  • Purchases: 4
In Search of Planet 9
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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An Orbital Path episode all about... an orbital path! Planet 9's, to be exact. The replacement for Pluto as our solar system's ninth planet is out ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, WRST-FM Oshkosh, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Nov 18, 2016
  • Length: 16:23
  • Purchases: 3
Black Hole Breakthroughs
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Scientific discovery can happen in two ways: "Eureka!" moments of sudden understanding, where researchers glean unexpected insight into new phenome...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, Radio Newark, KUAF Public Radio, and WOUB


  • Added: Oct 21, 2016
  • Length: 13:11
  • Purchases: 5
Done in the Sun
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
Caption: A coronal mass ejection, Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/sdo/potw603-brief-outburst/index.html">NASA</a>
The sun can seem like a friendly celestial body, keeping us warm and happy. But just as sun decided when life on Earth could begin, it will also de...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, Radio Newark, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUAF Public Radio and more


  • Added: Sep 30, 2016
  • Length: 13:44
  • Purchases: 6
Howdy, Neighbor
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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When Proxima b’s discovery appeared in Nature on August 24, the media breathlessly announced a new Earth-like planet just 4.2 light years away from...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, Radio Newark, KUER, KUAF Public Radio and more


  • Added: Sep 02, 2016
  • Length: 12:03
  • Purchases: 9
A Tale of Two Asteroids
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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The asteroid belt is portrayed in movies as a crowded place with massive rocks bouncing each other like pool balls, capable of sending a mile-wide ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, WDBM, Radio Newark, KUAF Public Radio and more


  • Added: Aug 22, 2016
  • Length: 15:28
  • Purchases: 7
Chasing An Eclipse
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Michael Kentrianakis loves eclipses and has seen them from all over the world. Host Michelle Thaller and Mike talk about the stages of the eclipse ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, Radio Catskill, KISU, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jul 15, 2016
  • Length: 17:38
  • Purchases: 4
A World Without Boundaries
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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From space, the view of earth has no boundaries for countries, no barriers to achievement. Michelle Thaller speaks with Aprille Ericcson, a senior ...

Bought by KPIP-LP, KICI Iowa City, KUAF Public Radio, CHSR-FM 97.9, and KUER


  • Added: Jun 15, 2016
  • Length: 18:49
  • Purchases: 5
Michelle & Her Mom
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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In this special Mother’s Day episode, Michelle talks with her mom about what it was like raising a space-obsessed daughter in Wisconsin and watchin...

Bought by KPIP-LP, Radio Newark, and KUAF Public Radio


  • Added: May 02, 2016
  • Length: 14:56
  • Purchases: 3
In Praise of Volcanoes
From: PRX
Series: Orbital Path
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Astronomer Michelle Thaller talks with Ashley Davies, a research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, about the importance of volcanoes in t...

Bought by KPIP-LP, Radio Newark, WRST-FM Oshkosh, KUAF Public Radio, CHSR-FM 97.9 and more


  • Added: Apr 07, 2016
  • Length: 16:33
  • Purchases: 6

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