Cosmoquest Science Hangout Wednesday August 1: Mihály Horányi, lunar dust expert

Posted by Jason Davis

2012/07/30 12:31 CDT

Topics: explaining science, podcasts and videos, the Moon

I guest hosted this week's Cosmoquest Science Hangout on Wednesday, August 1. My special guest was be Mihály Horányi, a scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Mihály is the principal investigator at the Colorado Center for Lunar Dust and Atmospheric Studies, which runs a mammoth contraption called the dust accelerator, capable of accelerating particles of dust to speeds of 100 kilometers per second. That's almost thirteen times the speed of the International Space Station!

Mihály and I chatted about lunar dust, a surprisingly fascinating topic. Did you know moon dust can levitate, or that the moon has an atmosphere? Did you know NASA has a mission launching next year to study these phenomena, and one of the mission objectives contains the phrase 'Apollo astronauts'?

Here's the replay of our chat. We had some technical difficulties that delayed our start, and then once we got rolling, my headset cut out. Therefore, please excuse the rough patch between 1:23 and 3:40. Once things got moving, we had a great chat. Check it out!