Universe Today Podcast

Could stars and planets be living organisms? Is LHC dangerous for the Earth? How do neutrino detectors work? Does the Big Bang suggest that everything around us came from nothing? What will happen if we create a black hole on Earth? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A.

If an extra-terrestrial civilisation saw the Earth, what technosignatures could they pick up? What could they learn about life on our planet and human civilisation in particular? I'm discussing that with Dr Michael Garrett who is the Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.

NASA tests out a snake bot that could explore difficult terrain. An independent way to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. JUICE successfully deploys its radar antenna.

In the second part of my conversation with Dr Christopher Morrison, we discuss his second NIAC award. It suggests creating a power source that can also be a science instrument.

How can we get artificial gravity in space without rotating a spacecraft? Will there be bigger Mars helicopters in future? How exactly will they deorbit the ISS? Who will be selecting the crew for the Mars mission? Where are the Voyagers today and how can we find them? Answering all that and more in this week's Q&A episode.

Moon Dust will be a major problem once people will return and settle there. We need to find ways to clean it from space suits, equipment, etc. In this interview I'm talking with Ian Wells, who is a cryogenics researcher suggesting a way to battle Moon dust with liquid nitrogen.

There could be liquid oceans in the moons of Uranus. Saturn takes the lead for the most moons in the Solar System. James Webb gazes into the Eye of Sauron aka Fomalhaut.

This is the first part of my interview with Dr Cristopher Morrison. In this one, we're discussing the concept of a propulsion system that should allow things like catching up with an interstellar visitor or delivering a telescope to the outer part of the Solar System.

Gravitational waves can reveal things we would never detect otherwise. But different events require different sizes of detectors. In this interview, I'm talking with Waldemar Martens from ESA about a proposed LISAmax mission that will have 259 million kilometer arms and should be able to detect collisions of supermassive black holes.

How can James Webb disprove The Big Bang Theory? Where are we at the search of life as we DON'T know it? Can we somehow test if Hawking radiation even exists? What do Space Force use the X37 secret space shuttle for?

Microgravity is dangerous for humans. But if we want to conquer space, we need to know how to mitigate the negative effects. Join my discussion with Dr Danail Obreschkow from UWA. We talked about studying the effects of microgravity on human body, particularly eyes, and potential ways to deal with them.

JUICE is having problems extending its radar antenna. Astronomers watch a star eat its planet. A design for a space station with artificial gravity.

Space missions will become longer. It will inevitably become impossible to pack every medication you need and take it from Earth. This means that we'll need a way to produce them in space. Which is the goal of the NIAC award developed by Dr Lynn Rothschild.

Can solar sails change the way we explore the Solar System and beyond? Dr Slava Turyshev definitely thinks so! He assembled an all-star team of researchers in a recent paper about potential science opportunities of using solar sails. In this interview, we talk about the technology behind it, what's its current state, what perspectives it has and much more.

How can we possibly know everything about exoplanets from just a single pixel? Will Mars be a good place for old people? Where does more emptiness come from if the Universe is expanding? Can we ever get to explore Betelgeuse? Answers to all these questions and more in this week's Q&A!

When we fly to Moon and Mars, how hard will it be to deal with dust. It can be a much more difficult problem when most of us think. And why is it so hard to clean it off solar panels on Mars. We discuss all that with Dr Christine Hartzell.