When you look up at the night sky, it’s easy to think of it as static and permanent, like the stars are painted on up there and never change. But if you look really carefully, sometimes you can catch something dramatic unfolding. Andy Tzanidakis is a PhD candidate in astronomy at the University of Washington. His job is to look through massive amounts of data produced from telescope sky surveys to search out anomalies in space. One time, when he was going through the data he discovered something amazing. It was a rare catastrophic event…two planets colliding. 

Pocket Science is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. It is hosted by Gabriel Spitzer, edited by Jim Gates and produced by Shane Mehling. 

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