To better understand our cosmos, some astronomers and astrophysicists go old school. Preserved beautifully on a hundred years of glass plate photographs are images of our night sky and its ever changing variations. On this episode of The Quanta Podcast, host Samir Patel speaks with writer Liz Kruesi about how these antique plates are updating our modern understanding of the universe. 

This topic was covered in a recent story for Quanta Magazine.  

Each week on The Quanta Podcast, Quanta Magazine editor in chief Samir Patel speaks with the people behind the award-winning publication to navigate through some of the most important and mind-expanding questions in science and math.

Audio coda by Diana Chester. This project by Diana Chester was made possible through a Powerhouse Research Fellowship at the Museum of Arts and Applied Sciences in Sydney, Australia, a collaboration with Dr. Anna Raupach, and with the support of the Sydney Observatory and the New South Wales archives.