Universe Today Podcast

What would it take to bring the Voyagers back to Earth? When will we see a true deep field by Webb? Why is Europa Clipper solar-powered? Why do black holes rotate? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show.

Another asteroid hit exactly where astronomers predicted, a monster asteroid rolled Ganymede over onto its side, strange sounds coming from Starliner, and China announces when it’ll try to grab a piece of Mars.

Interferometers are a great tool for getting incredible resolution without building giant mirrors. Why don't all telescopes use it? What projects should we expect and what could we get from them? What are the challenges? Finding out in this interview!

Could entangled electrons be used for FTL communications? Will Starship enable better satellites? Could we detect radiation on another world? Are there alternative explanations for black holes? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A.

Is Betelgeuse a binary star? Starliner is coming home empty. New Glenn is on schedule to launch NASA’s next mission to Mars. NASA’s solar sail unfurls.

Why does the Sun have an 11-year cycle? Would I rather have a Venus mission or a Jovian moon mission? Do black holes attract other black holes? Can Chinese astronomers use Hubble/Webb? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A.

The DART mission is going to create a meteor shower on Earth, an explanation for the Wow! Signal, big problems with New Glenn, and JUICE completes a flyby of both the Earth and Moon.

Have I ever messed up a recording? Are there plans for new space stations? Is there a limit to the size of an orbital rocket? Will humanity survive the next mass extinction event? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A.

The quest to find an Earth-sized planet around a Sun-like star continues. One of the telescopes that could achieve it is ESA's Plato mission. How will it be able to do it and what should we expect from it? Finding out it this interview.

Vast amounts of water found on Mars, but there’s a catch, Milky Way and Andromeda might not merge after all, a planet found before it gets destroyed, and an easier way to terraform Mars.

The final parsec problem is a mystery that is yet to be answered by cosmology. On paper, supermassive black holes shouldn't merge. But yet they do. Why is it happening? What helps them slow down? Could it be dark matter? Looking for answers in this interview.

What's the most challenging part of Astronomy? What happened to Uranus? Which telescope to get for $200? Could we detect Voyager-like spacecraft flying through the solar system? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A.

Interstellar travel might not be as impossible as most people think especially if we adopt the multi-stage approach we already use in everyday rockets. How can we do it and what results can we expect? Finding out in this interview.

It’s time for the Perseids meteor shower, Gaia has found hundreds of asteroid moons, Starliner is still in question, and where does the Moon’s atmosphere come from?

Future telescopes like Vera Rubin and Nancy Grace Roman will generate a lot of data. This will be a big challenge. To get ready for it astronomers use simulated observation data. Why is it important and how is it done? Finding out in this interview.

What happens to the stuff that falls into black holes? Do supergiants have sunspots? How can you do a gravitational slingshot from the Sun? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A.