The Cosmic Companion VIP Newsletter June 8, 2020

Interview with Anna Ho of Caltech, the strange case of quark matter, exoplanets, and "ring around the Mars." PLUS - SuperMax first appearance!

Hello everyone!

Welcome to an exciting week in astronomy, and for the show. With just three weeks remaining in the current season of the show, we welcome Anna Ho, an astronomer and astrophysicist from Caltech who recently contributed to the discovery of a previously-unknown form of supernova explosion.

But first, in this week's episode of Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion, we look at quark matter, a bizarre state of matter which could make up a large percentage of some neutron stars. We will travel out to the Kepler-160 planetary system, where we will examine a planet and star much like the Earth and Sun. Next, we find evidence that may help answer one of the mysteries of planets around other stars – if they are as common as they now seem, why do some stars travel through space alone? Then, we learn how Mars, typically known as the Red Planet, may have also once also been the ringed planet, as well.