Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

The Star Spot


The Star Spot, with Justin Trottier, is a space themed podcast and radio show focusing on all aspects of astronomy and space exploration. Episodes feature timely news along with fascinating interviews with guests of wide-ranging background: scientists, engineers, artists, politicians, and entrepreneurs. Topics are broad, from the latest space mission to how the universe began to why humans explore.

Dec 24, 2018

Feature Guest: Darren Grant

A one hundred year old astronomical mystery may finally have been solved. Scientists have long wondered just what caused high energy particles called cosmic rays, which arrive on Earth from the far unknown reaches of the universe. But now we have a discovery by the South Pole Neutrino Observatory, appropriately named IceCube, which points the finger at a peculiar phenomena known as blazars. The IceCube Collaboration’s Professor Darren Grant joins us today here at The Star Spot.

Current in Space

Dave reports on the arrival of the Osiris-Rex mission at the asteroid Bennu. Then, when it comes to climate change, desperate times call for desperate measures, such as the plan we hear from Simon to spray chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect the sun’s heat back into space. And Tony explains the possible outcome of an astronomical event so energetic we detected its gravitational waves back in August 2017. Finally Amelia tells us we may have finally come a step closer to understanding what fuels the least-understood type of supernova.

About Our Guest

Darren Grant is Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Alberta. He is the Spokesperson for the IceCube Collaboration, referring to the South Pole Neutrino Observatory. Grant is Canada Research Chair in Astroparticle Physics and received an E.W.R. Steacie Memorial Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.