Universe Today Podcast

A piece of the ISS smashed into a house in Florida. Evidence for the first stars in the Universe. NASA is having to rethink its Mars Sample Return mission.

New measurements show dark energy may be evolving, Japan is joining Artemis with a pressurized rover, why the Moon has two different faces, and my experience with the total solar eclipse.

What engine type will the first manned interstellar mission use for propulsion? Will AI help solve any mysteries of space? Why do we have exoplanet types named after Neptune but not Uranus? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show.

Vera Rubin’s Camera is complete, where are rogue planets coming from, NASA chooses suppliers for its new lunar rover, and an earlier formation for the Moon.

Does gravitational lensing affect the CMB? Can the Great Attractor solve the Hubble tension? Why don't we put a Deep Space Network antenna in space? What's the difference between a nova and a supernova? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show.

The Fermi paradox has many solutions. Many explanations for the fact that we don't see any signs of intelligent life in the Universe. We ranked all the major ones and put them into tiers from S to D.

See the magnetic fields twisting around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, a supernova was seen in almost real time, NASA announces its planetary science goals for Artemis III and Gaia finds two ancient building blocks of the Milky Way.

Can we harvest energy from the Moon's temperature difference? Why don't we just launch multiple telescopes like Hubble? Why is the Moon grey? Why are sunspots black? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show!

Planning trains on the Moon, Chandra is getting shut down, the future of Mars helicopters, and an update on exomoons with Dr. David Kipping.

How heavy are the biggest stars in the Universe and how do they compare to the Sun? Why would aliens be grabby? Is there more space for science communicators? What's the minimum size for an object to have an atmosphere? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show.

Another Test of SpaceX Starship Superheavy combo, another analysis of the flight with Scott Manley and Marcus House!

What did NASA learn from setting their Cygnus spaceships on fire? Is fire more dangerous in space than on Earth? Finding out with Dr. David Urban, Branch Chief from NASA Glenn Research Center.

What drives NASA's most successful projects like James Webb, Perseverance, Parker Solar Probe, etc? What's going on with international cooperation? How will future missions be planned and executed? Finding out with Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, former Associate Administrator of NASA Science Mission Directorate.

Starship reaches orbit in a new test, NASA regains contact with Voyager 1 (sort of), are the Milky Way and Andromeda already exchanging stars, and two new incredible images to replace your desktop wallpaper.

How cold does it get in the shadows on the Moon? What's going on with dark matter research? Can we chase Oumuamua with a solar sail spacecraft? Will we ever face a war for the Moon? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A.

White dwarf stars should be cooling down practically till the end of the Universe. But yet, they don't. They stop cooling at some point. Why does this happen? Figuring out the answers with Dr Simon Blouin from the University of Victoria.