Universe Today Podcast

This week I'll be talking with astronomer Scott Gaudi from Ohio State University about the search for habitable exoplanets and NASA's HabEx mission.

In this week's live QA, I answer more questions about the discovery of phosphine on Venus, does Russia own Venus? And more...

Did Venus life hitch a ride on the Venera missions? Could we use life to terraform Venus? Life on Venus? Booooring.

Sarah Scoles is a Denver-based science writer who has supplied articles to WIRED Science and Popular Science. Her newest book is called "They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers".

http://www.sarahscoles.com/

Well, did you hear the big news? Life on Venus. Life… on... Venus. Now, where have we heard this before? Oh right, life on Mars. If you’ve been watching any of my videos or listening to Astronomy Cast, you’re cautiously optimistic. Skeptical, but hopeful.

That’s the right position to take, because buckle up, the internet’s about to run with this news. It’s going to be difficult to figure out what was really discovered, and what this means for the search for life in the Universe.

It's time for an all new season of Open Space. This is a live QA with Fraser Cain.

Obviously, everyone wanted to discuss the discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus. So we did that as well as talk about the progress of Starship and upcoming missions to Mars.

In this week's questions show, I wonder about the supernova that formed the Solar System, how astronauts deal with air pressure differences, and how we're going to handle the cold temperatures on Mars.

Featuring Astronaut Terry Virts
https://terryvirts.com/

Here's an interview I did with the Awesome Astronomy podcast. You can see their full podcast here: https://awesomeastronomy.com/

Subscribe to their podcast on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/awesome-astronomy/id521780589
Or on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Yr24VAoheI0tOUSpVOI2Q

In this week's questions show, you wondered if the simulation hypothesis is a good answer to the Fermi Paradox. How to get a career in space manufacturing? Will a compass work on Mars? And more...

In this week's questions show, I consider what the benefits might be to humanity if we discover that we aren't alone in the Universe. How long did Mars planetary dynamo take to turn off? Could we find and repair the lunar rovers?

In this week's questions show, I explain how it's possible for stars to orbit so closely they're actually touching. What are the limits to gravitational slingshots, and how astronomers know where to point their telescopes in the Universe.

When the Apollo astronauts first landed on the Moon, they couldn’t go far on foot. That’s why the three final missions were equipped with Lunar Roving Vehicles, or Moon buggies, which allowed the astronauts to cover much more ground and do more science.

Now that NASA is returning to the Moon by 2024 as part of its Artemis Program, it’s considering a fleet of new vehicles that will help astronauts roam far and wide across the surface of the Moon.

In this week's questions show I explain why it's still important to do science, even if it's difficult, can we use multiple methods to measure distance, and why the Trojan asteroids don't collect into a single object?

When the largest stars die, it’s usually pretty obvious. Supernovae are visible from billions of light-years away. But recently astronomers watched a massive star just disappear. No explosion, nothing, it just… vanished?

Of course, it could have been dust. It’s always dust. But one intriguing possibility is that the star just imploded directly into a black hole, without the supernova detonation. And if that’s the case, is this happening more often, we just didn’t notice it?

This episode is a segment that we did in the Weekly Space Hangout talking about how astronomers are using masers (water lasers) to measure the expansion rate of the Universe.

You'd think that another, independent way to measure the expansion rate of the Universe would be helpful, but it's only deepened the mystery of the cosmological crisis.

This week, it'll be the last Open Space with Fraser before the show goes on its summer hiatus until September. If you've got some burning space questions, no will be your chance to ask them.