Episode 56: Interview with Musician and Astronomer Konstantin Batygin (from early punk bands to searching for planets!)My guest in this episode is the one the only Konstantin Batygin. He is a musician and astronomer whose day job is as a professor of Planetary Sciences and Orbital Mechanics at Caltech. Yes, that means if the sitcom The Big Bang Theory were real, he would have an office in the same department as Sheldon. As an astronomer, his research mostly focuses on the formation and evolution of planetary systems. He is most famous for his research with Michael E. Brown on the proposed existence of a ninth planet in the Solar System. Brown and Batygin are using various methods to search for a massive planetary body they believe is in the outer solar system.
Before we get into all the nerdy planetary stuff, we talk about Batygin’s upbringing in Japan and Santa Cruz. How he discovered Metallica and the guitar. His early attempts at punk bands and the new albums he is working on with his current band The Seventh Season.
In this conversation, we talk about music, planetary science, and how they recently came together when Batygin helped compose the guitar elements of a symphony dedicated to his planet nine research with the Miami symphony. From power cords to planetary orbital mechanics this is one of my favorite interviews.
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