Tag Archives: Planet

How many moons does Uranus have?

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Uranus has 29 moons, as of 20 August 2025. These moons are divided into three groups: 5 major moons (Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, all named for characters in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), 19 small inner moons and ten irregular moons orbiting further out. The largest of these is Titania, which is the 8th largest moon in the Solar System with a diameter of 1528 km. The most recently discovered moon has not yet been named, but has … Continue reading →

Why did I defend the geocentric model?

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In this eighth episode of the second season, I defend my defense of the Ptolemaic geocentric system of crystal spheres! I hadn’t even realized till I started recording that this is our 50th ever episode. I really should be so blown away that I’ve kept things going this long, but I’m not, somehow? Perhaps it’s just become a habit, and I stopped noticing milestones! But anyway, 50 episodes, I think that’s pretty amazing and I’m very proud to have made … Continue reading →

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Saturn’s Rings older than we thought

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One of the oldest mysteries in modern astronomy is the age of Saturn’s Rings. The Cassini mission seemed to have settled the question once and for all, but now a team of researchers have just claimed that things might not be so clear-cut. Cassini showed that the rings were mostly made up of clean ice particles. There wasn’t much of the dust and organic gunk you’d expect to accumulate over time. This meant that the rings couldn’t have been around … Continue reading →

Why are planets always round?

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Welcome to the second episode of this second season of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! Two of Two, sounds like it should be special… and it kinda sort of is, because this week we’re presenting the first of our unique patented Science Explainy Bits! Now to be clear, it’s the name that’s new, not the science explaining, because I’ve done explainy stuff for science concepts before on this show, back in our super-extended 42 episode long first season. I got quite … Continue reading →

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Podcast #34: The Equinox Show

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Welcome to this special Equinox edition of the Urban Astronomer Podcast! This episode I share the microphone with Clem Unger for the first of a quarterly series. Clem has been on the show before, and he’ll be back every equinox and every solstice. In this episode We start with a look at coming attractions in the sky over the next three months. Clem discusses the state of current asteroid missions OSIRIS-Rex and Hayabusa 2 Allen and Clem butt heads over … Continue reading →

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