Universe Today Podcast

Who will name Planet X if/when it is discovered? How will cats deal with the toilet situation if they go to space? Can a star block an entire galaxy? And in Q&A+ what happens if we find proof that there's no life elsewhere?

Can we make Earth invisible for possible alien invaders? What's the deal with the pyramids and their alignment to stars? Can an interstellar ship casually crash into a black hole? And what's the difference between cosmology and astronomy after all?

Has Perseverance found signs of life on Mars? Webb scans TRAPPIST-1e for signs of an atmosphere. 3I/ATLAS grows a tail, and could get a mission. And on Space Bites+, Webb sees a cloud of methane around the dwarf planet Makemake.

What's the highest energy a photon can have? Is Titan just a huge fire hazard floating in space? How do they measure the masses of planets with just satellites? And in Q&A plus, what realistic scifi is worth watching?

3I/ATLAS is very different from any comet we’ve ever seen before, Mars is filled with fragments from ancient impacts, ESA loses contact with JUICE right before an important flyby, and the highest resolution image of a solar flare ever seen. And on Space Bites+, why asteroid made of the same material can have different colors.

Which is a bigger showstopper for a human Mars mission: food or radiation exposure? Does Vera Rubin leave any chance for aliens to still sneak upon us? Can something like space whales actually exist? And in Q&A+, when can we find out what dark matter and dark energy actually are?

Why are galaxies and star systems flat? What does the future of the space race look like? Are we going to Mars to mine it? And in Q&A+, what sparked my personal interest for space as a kid?

The Wow signal was even more Wow. Starship Flight 10 makes it space and returns to Earth, more red dwarf planets get crossed off the list as lacking an atmosphere, a supernova spilled its guts into space. And on Space Bites+, finding supernovae as quickly as possible.

The boys are back! Discussing all the things that happened during Starship IFT-10. Why didn't they catch the Super Heavy booster? What did explode near the engines? Why was Starship orange? What's next for SpaceX? Looking for all the answers with Scott Manley and Marcus House.

Can the difficulty of interstellar travel the answer to the Fermi paradox? Or maybe it's the fact that we can only apply it to our galaxy and not further? Or maybe we can even find life in our solar system?

We definitely won't see a space elevator built in any foreseeable future. But there is a similar but much more practical approach – a skyhook. How close are we to creating one? Why is it useful? What challenges does it bring and when can we expect first practical demonstrations? Finding out in this interview.

When is a supernova too close for comfort? Will USA's Moon race against China accelerate a race towards a Mars base? How can we see the Oort cloud? And in Q&A+, what do I tell to space deniers?

Ryugu and Bennu are related, a star tried to eat a black hole and it didn’t go well, using moons to save fuel, and China tests its new human lunar lander. In Space Bites+, how climate change will impact satellite orbits.

Why do people believe Starships will go to Mars? Can we use molten salt batteries on the Moon? What's the difference between the Universe and the Observable Universe? And in Q&A+, what's the chance of hitting an stone during an interstellar voyage?

Satellites are causing light pollution. Every year there a more of them. So, why don't they just paint them all vantablack, the ultra-black coating that doesn't reflect almost any light? Finding out in this interview.

Is living in the clouds of Venus better than living in sub-surface habitats on Mars? Can we really lock ourselves from orbit with space junk? Should we build another version of Biosphere before going to Mars? And in Q&A+, is abiogenesis really unlikely?