Science @ NASA Feature Stories Podcast
The Science and Technology Directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center sponsors the Science@NASA web sites. The mission of Science@NASA is to help the public understand how exciting NASA research is and to help NASA scientists fulfill their outreach responsibilities.

A podcast is basically a series of audio files available for download, with a special kind of web page (called an RSS feed) describing when new content is available. There are three basic ways to listen to the Science@NASA stories in audio.

1. You can listen to the stories while viewing this web site. A preview of the stories currently presented in the Science@NASA podcast are listed below. This is usually the last 20 stories we've published. There are also audio links for each story on our front page, on subject area pages, and in our recent archives pages. Perhaps the best way to listen is to go to the story page, so you can read along with the story and look at any images while you listen.
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2. There are various podcast directories on the Internet that list available podcasts, and allow you to search for and listen to podcasts through their web site. Some sites offer tools for keeping track of your favorite podcasts, or offer other useful features. Links to the Science@NASA listing for several directories are available in the left column of this web page.
3. A podcast client program allows you to subscribe to your favorite podcasts. Such programs can tell you when new episodes of your subscribed shows are available, download the audio for you to listen to at your convenience, and even copy the podcasts to a portable MP3 player for you to listen to while away from your computer. You can subscribe to the Science@NASA podcast by entering the Podcast RSS feed URL into the podcast client program. If you use iTunes, you can just enter the iTunes link below, and then click the "Subscribe" button.
   + Podcast RSS/XML feed http://science.nasa.gov/podcast.xml
   + iTunes Link

2.5.2010 - Solar Dynamics Observatory: The 'Variable Sun' Mission
The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), slated for liftoff on Feb. 9th, will make IMAX-quality movies of solar explosions, peer beneath the stellar surface to see the sun's inner dynamo, and--researchers hope--unravel the mysteries of solar variability.
+ Audio Podcast (.mp3 file)
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+ Transcript (.htm file)

2.2.2010 - Hubble Sees Suspected Asteroid Collision
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed a mysterious X-shaped debris pattern and trailing streamers of dust that suggest a head-on collision between two asteroids.
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1.29.2010 - Firefly Mission to Study Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes
There's a mystery in the skies of Earth: Something is producing bright flashes of gamma radiation in the upper atmosphere of our own planet. A new NASA-NSF mission called Firefly is going to investigate.
+ Audio Podcast (.mp3 file)
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+ Transcript (.htm file)

1.26.2010 - Close Encounter with Mars
This week Earth and Mars are having a close encounter. On Jan. 27th, the Red Planet will be only 99 million kilometers away and look bigger through a telescope than at any time between 2008 and 2014.
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1.26.2010 - Spirit is Now a Stationary Science Platform
NASA announced today that Mars rover Spirit cannot be freed from its Martian sandtrap. Now the rover will begin a second career as a stationary science platform.
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1.15.2010 - Mystery of the Giant Ribbon, Solved?
Evidence is mounting that a strong magnetic field lurks just beyond the edge of the solar system. This could explain the recent discovery of a "giant ribbon" in space by NASA's IBEX spacecraft.
+ Audio Podcast (.mp3 file)
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1.14.2010 - Alien Planet Safari
NASA's next great observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, is designed to study stars and galaxies. Astronomers are beginning to realize, however, that Webb will make a great planet hunter too.
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1.8.2010 - Flying Telescope Passes Key Test
Most astronomers wouldn't dream of opening their observatory's doors in 100 mph winds. Yet NASA's new SOFIA telescope recently flew in an airplane at 250 mph with doors wide open.
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1.7.2010 - Why Won't the Supernova Explode?
NASA is building a new space telescope named "NuSTAR" to answer a question that has been vexing astrophysicists for decades: Why won't the supernova explode?
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1.4.2010 - Kepler Discovers Five Exoplanets
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets.
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12.31.2009 - Spirit Faces Uncertain Future as New Year Dawns
NASA's Mars rover Spirit is about to mark six years of Red Planet exploration. However, the upcoming Martian winter could end the roving career of the beloved, scrappy robot.
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12.29.2009 - Blue Moon on New Year's Eve
Party planners take note. For the first time in almost twenty years, there's going to be a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve.
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12.23.2009 - Voyager Makes an Interstellar Discovery
The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
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12.18.2009 - A Flash of Light from Titan
NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.
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12.17.2009 - Colliding Auroras Produce Explosions of Light
A continent-wide network of all-sky cameras has photographed a never-before-seen phenomenon: colliding auroras that produce explosions of light. The must-see images have solved a long-standing mystery of Northern Lights.
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12.11.2009 - "Climate One Stop" Web Site Unveiled in Copenhagen
This week, researchers attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen unveiled a unique web site that gathers and organizes climate data for decision makers, professional scientists and lay people.
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12.8.2009 - The 2009 Geminid Meteor Shower
The Geminid meteor shower has been intensifying in recent years, and researchers say 2009 could be the best year yet. This year's display peaks on Dec. 13th and 14th.
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12.2.2009 - Sandtrapped Mars Rover Makes Big Discovery
While stuck in a sandtrap, Mars rover Spirit has made a discovery one researcher calls "supremely interesting."
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11.24.2009 - Monster Waves on the Sun are Real
Data from NASA's STEREO spacecraft have confirmed the stunning reality of monster waves on the sun known as "solar tsunamis."
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11.19.2009 - SOFIA Seeks Secrets of Planetary Birth
Imagine cutting retractable doors in the side of a 747 airliner, installing a 17-ton telescope, and flying to the stratosphere to solve one of astronomy's greatest puzzles. That's what NASA and the German Aerospace Center plan to do with a cutting-edge airborne observatory named SOFIA.
+ Audio Podcast (.mp3 file)
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More Science@NASA stories are available in audio in our Story Archive