Universe Today Podcast

Rocket Lab almost catches their Electron booster with a helicopter, China building an asteroid redirection mission, NASA gives out awards and astronomers find a new type of space explosions.

My guest today is Dr. Sam Howell, a planetary scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sam studies the interiors of icy worlds, like Europa and Enceladus and is pioneering methods to explore their subsurface oceans.

In this week's Questions and Answers show, I explain why James Web still can't see the Big Bang, if black holes can "unblack hole" later in life and what is the cutest nebula in the Universe?

Every day about 100 tonnes of space dust strikes the Earth's atmosphere. Most of these space rocks vaporize, but some fall to the Earth at meteorites. Did you know that there are particles from space falling on the roof of your house? My guest today is Scott Peterson. Scott collects micrometeorites from his house and takes pictures of them using a microscope. We'll talk about how to find them, identify them and photograph them for yourself.

My guest today is Dr. Franck Marchis, a senior planetary astronomer and chair of the exoplanet group at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute and Chief Scientific Officer and Founder at Unistellar. Franck helps develop adaptive optics systems for research observatories and helped develop the fully automated eVscope telescope which helps amateurs do astrophotography and contribute to astronomical research.

NASA extended 8 space missions, EHT has groundbreaking announcements on the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, James Webb shows first images, SOFIA telescope is getting shut, Starship evaluation gets another delay, and more space news.

My guest today is Dr. Renu Malhotra, a planetary scientist who specializes in planetary migration and orbital mechanics. Dr. Malhotra and her team have discovered that Pluto's orbit is surprisingly chaotic at small timescales and yet surprisingly stable at larger timescale. We'll talk about her research and the science of orbital mechanics that led to the current orbits of the planets in the Solar System.

In this week's questions and answers show, I talk about supermassive black hole nucleosynthesis, the threat of grabby aliens and why would we ever bother building Von Neumann Probes.

Planetary Science Decadal Survey recommends a mission to Uranus, SLS is set for another delay, Perseverance sees a Phobos solar eclipse, all Hubble's images in a single picture and other most important space and astronomy news of the week.

My guest today is Celeste Keith, a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Celeste and her team are searching for ways to detect the presence of primordial black holes, leftover from the Big Bang. These could be an explanation for dark matter and other phenomena in the Universe.

My guest today is Dr. Slava Turyshev, a physicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He helped to solve the Pioneer Anomaly, and is developing a mission that could use the Sun's gravity as a natural lens to focus the light from distant objects.

My guest today is Dr. Margaret Meixner, the Director of Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science Mission Operations. Previous to this role, Dr. Meixner was a Distinguished Astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and a Project Scientist at James Webb Space Telescope.

In this week's live Questions and Answers show, I provide the exact number of alien worlds that could detect the Earth, are we made of heavier elements made in other galaxies, will lasers remain perfectly parallel in space? And more...

Perseverance found its parachute, JWST cooling down its experiments, Standard Model once again in danger, Space Force releasing data to scientists, yet another approach for expensive space tourism and more top news stories of this week.

Particle physicists have announced an exciting discovery about the W Boson particle that challenges the Standard Model of Physics. To help me understand what was discovered and what it means for physics, I've invited Dr. Paul Sutter back to explain it. Paul is a fantastic science communicator and has a PhD in particle physics. The perfect person to help us make sense of this.

My guest today is Dr. Surjeet Rajendran, a physics professor at Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his teaching, Dr. Rajendran's research is in theoretical physics, with a strong focus on what comes after the standard model. What could dark matter be? How can gravity be merged with quantum mechanics?