Universe Today Podcast

There's an effect called photophoretic propulsion. You could have seen it in a Crookes radiometer. One of the NIAC awards of 2023 was granted to a team that hopes to use this effect to develop a propulsion system. This can allow flying in altitudes nothing else can fly and possibly even explore other worlds.

How complex must a telescope be to use the solar gravitational lens? How would we approach mining asteroids? How to detect magnetic fields outside the solar system? What is the size limit for a planet? All this and more in this week's Q&A.

We finally got JWST data about TRAPPIST-1. An Earth-sized rogue planet was found. More information about China’s plans for the Moon.

The United Arab Emirates are making good progress in space exploration. Their Hope mission is orbiting Mars since 2021. Their Rashid rover is on its way to the Moon. They are also planning a mission to the Asteroid belt.

In this interview, I'm talking with Theresa Benyo and Lawrence Forsley from NASA. They are authors of a Lattice Confinement Fusion Reactor that got a NIAC award this year. A reactor like this could help us melt through the ice on Europa and Enceladus and have other interesting applications in space missions.

Why don't we send microscopes on space probes to search for life? How do black holes even form? Can Chat GPT or similar systems help Astronomy? How will we use Starship when it starts to fly?

We know about thousands of exoplanets by now. But it's still a mystery, whether there are planets in the Alpha Centauri binary system, which is just next door to us. My guest today, Professor Peter Tuthill, is the Mission Leader for the TOLIMAN Telescope mission, which is designed to find those answers.

iSpace reaches the Moon. Relativity Space’s 3D printed rocket fails to reach orbit, a mission will search for habitable worlds at Alpha Centauri.

There are radio wavelengths that we can't see from Earth. And to observe them from space, we need a truly huge telescope. Mary Knapp and her team proposed a project that can allow us to build such a telescope and they just recently got a NIAC grant for it.

Scientists came up with a method to produce concrete on the Moon and Mars using potato starch. In this interview, I'm talking with Dr Aled Roberts, who is the Principle Investigator of this research.

Can we build star-tram-like launch facilities in space? What will JWST see next? Can red or brown dwarfs be the source of dark matter? Should SpaceX just be the only launch service for the USA so they can save money?

James Webb recently found six examples of galaxies that are too big too early. This discovery can significantly change our understanding of the early Universe. In this interview, I'm talking with Dr Joel Leja, who is a part of the team behind the research.

Venus has active volcanoes, we get a glimpse of NASA’s new lunar exploration suits, and scientists build a completely flat telescope lens.

In this interview, I'm talking with Heidi Newberg. Her team won a NIAC grant that will investigate building a telescope that will be hunting for Earth-like worlds. The project is called DICER, which stands for Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver.

How does Venus hold its atmosphere without a magnetosphere? Is the Sun moving to the Milky Way's centre? What happens when the space elevator cable snaps? Can we solve the Hubble Tension? All this and more in this week's Q&A!

Can there be habitable planets orbiting around red dwarfs? My guest, Mariano Battistuzzi, performed experiments to check it! So, can life survive in the conditions created by red dwarf stars? Let's find out in this interview.