Universe Today Podcast

When it comes to telescopes, bigger is better. That’s true down here on Earth, and it’s especially true out in space. As astronomers and engineers design the next generation of giant space telescopes, they’re running up against the limits of current launch providers. There are only so many ways you can fold a huge telescope to get it to fit inside a 5-meter launch fairing.

The upcoming James Webb Space Telescope is pretty much the very limit of what you can construct on Earth and put into space in a single launch. To go bigger, space agencies will need to consider assembling their next-generation space telescopes… in space.

In this week's questions show, I tackle all the questions about James Webb generated by the videos we did this week. Can it be refueled? How can it see the entire sky? Is the delay a blessing? And more...

Today I'll be joined by Paul Geithner, the Deputy Project Manager for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. You've had questions about this mission. Well... now's your chance to get them answered directly from the source.

Paul started working with NASA in 1991 on the Hubble Space Telescope, shifting over to James Webb. In 2011, he became the Deputy Project Manager, Technical for James Webb.

On March 30, 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will blast off from the European Space Agency’s European spaceport in Kourou, French Giana on board an Ariane 5 rocket.

It’ll fly to the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, a relatively stable spot in space that keeps the glare from the Sun, Earth, and Moon all in a tiny spot in the sky. Then, it’ll unfurl its tennis court-sized sunshade, fold out its gigantic 6.5-meter mirror, and peer out into the distant cosmos.

Over the course of the next 10 years, this infrared observatory will help astronomers learn about the earliest moments of the Universe, directly observe the atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars, and peer at newly forming stars and planets.

And if you listened to the words I just said with equal parts terror and skepticism, I don’t blame you. James Webb’s path to space has been long and tortuous. And the risks that the mission still faces are very real. Hopefully, the science will be worth it. Hopefully, nothing else goes wrong from now until deployment.

So today, I want to do a deep dive into James Webb. To talk about the history of the mission, why it exists, how the development went, and where it stands today.

I’ll warn you though, the length of this video is going to go way over budget.

Today's guest is Dustin Gibson from Oceanside Photo and Telescope (OPT). Dustin will talk about his journey to becoming an astrophotographer and eventually running one of the most successful telescope retailers in the world.

In this week's questions show, I answer what will bring geostationary satellites back to Earth, if you could use the heat on Venus to power a rover, why are we so arrogant to believe that life formed only here on Earth, and more.

It was another solo live QA this week and I did my best to answer as many audience questions as I could do, closing in on 60 questions during the hour. Needless to say it was a wide-ranging conversation with questions about where I think rovers should go, what do I think about time travel, and whether we should do more SETI or build more space telescopes.

Solar energy is the ideal way to power a spacecraft. There’s no weather, there’s no pesky atmosphere, just pure photons streaming from the Sun to harvest for whatever you need. Well, as long as you’re within the inner Solar System.

But solar panels are complicated and fragile made of sensitive electronics and glass - not to mention, really heavy. Any spacecraft equipped with solar panels needs to handle the gravity down here on Earth for the construction and testing, then the shaking and high Gs of launch. The solar panels need to unfold perfectly once they get to space. And the total amount of energy you can harvest is limited by the size of your rocket’s launch fairing.

Maybe there’s a new strategy. NASA is currently funding research into a new type of solar panel that can be carried into space as a liquid and then sprayed onto a surface to turn it into a power generating surface.

In this week's questions show, I tackle questions about seeding Europa with hardy Earth life, what makes galaxies spin, what are we competing with aliens for, and why is it so hard for second stages of rockets to land?

The race is on to find life in other places in the Solar System, from underground reservoirs on Mars to the subsurface oceans on Europa and Enceladus.

If spacecraft, rovers or even astronauts make the momentous discovery of life on another world, that’ll just open up new questions. Did it originate all on its own, completely independently from Earth, or are we somehow related? And if we are related, how long ago did our evolutionary trees branch away from each other.

Even though Mars is millions of kilometers away, it could be possible that we’re still related thanks to the concept of Panspermia; the idea that meteor impacts could transfer rocks and maybe even living creatures from world to world.

But could you go one step further? If we find life on another star system, could we discover that we’re actually related to them too? Is Galactic Panspermia possible?

If you’ve watched this channel enough, you might have the impression that I hate Venus. It’s possible, just possible I’ve even suggested that the planet is so terrible it should be pushed into the Sun.

The reality, of course, is that it’s an absolutely fascinating world - the closest twin to the Earth that we have in the Solar System. It’s nearly the same mass and has the same surface gravity.

While Earth is the beautiful life-filled world we all enjoy, Venus is a tortured hellscape, with temperatures hot enough to melt zinc. With atmospheric pressures more than 93 times what we experience here on the surface of Earth. And I always forget about the sulphuric acid rain.

The Soviets sent a series of landers to a horrible demise for a glimpse of the surface of Venus in the 70s and 80s. But nobody’s been back since.

There have been new techniques and technologies in development that might make a serious exploration of the surface of Venus possible again. Exploration that could help us understand why the planet went so horribly horribly wrong.

In this week's questions show, I explain why it's probably not time to reconsider the definition of a moon, if we could make artificial gravity with a chunk of a neutron star, and why a supermassive black hole isn't the anchor for an entire galaxy.

Scientists have had the opportunity to examine several asteroids in the Solar System now, and what they’ve learned is how much variety is out there, depending on the mass, distance from the Sun and composition.

Astronomers currently know of 829,400 asteroids across the Solar System, and they’d love to visit as many of them as possible to learn more about them.

Considering the price of a single spacecraft, that’s going to get expensive. Fortunately, there are places in the Solar System that have trapped a large number of asteroids in a way that a single spacecraft can visit several of them as part of a mission.

They’re at Jupiter’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points, and this week NASA approved a new mission that’ll explore 7 different asteroids over a 12-year journey.

It’s called Lucy.

In this week's live QA, we talked about rotating space stations, the materials that can be made in space, what telescopes and binoculars I use. And there were a lot of questions about James Webb.

People always ask me how I think humanity will react if we discover life somewhere out there in the Universe, whether it’s bacteria under the surface of Mars, a biosignature of alien life in the atmosphere of another world, or a radio signal from another civilization.

Will our civilization lose its collective mind and have a temper tantrum on a global scale? Will we become one of those purge planets from Rick and Morty?

Will the discovery suddenly end all religion, as we wait for guidance from our new alien overlords?

Will we gather together as a species to present a common front to whatever cosmic horrors await us beyond the Solar System?

In my opinion, if I could sum up the collective response in a single word, it would be: meh.

In this week's questions show, I explain why we'll never know which stars have no planets. How we could prevent a catastrophe to Earth, and why aliens might still be a threat to us.