Universe Today Podcast

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.

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?

In this week's questions show, I explain how other planets can have geostationary orbits, if sending tardigrades to the Moon is a violation of the Outerspace Treaty, and why everything orbiting the Sun is in perfect balance.

My guest today is Dr. Thayne Currie, an astrophysicist at NASA-Ames Research Center and the Subaru Telescope. Dr. Currie was part of a team that directly imaged a newly-forming planet, providing evidence of another way large planets can form, and could have formed here in the Solar System.

My guest today is Chris Prophet, a freelance writer who has been covering the rise of SpaceX. He has written several books, including SpaceX from the Ground Up. His new book is called SpaceX Evolution and explains some of the company's long-term strategies to create a sustainable human civilization on Mars and beyond.

My guest today is Dr. Robin Hanson, an associate professor of economics at George Mason University and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Dr. Hanson is famous for writing a paper describing the Great Filter, a theory that explains why we don't see aliens across the Universe.

In this week's live Questions and Answers show, I explain how big black holes are, what coordinate system astronomers use to map objects in the sky, and what could have collapsed clouds of hydrogen to form the first stars?

In this week's questions and answers show, I answer the question: could we build a star? How far will humans realistically explore within the Solar System? Is there any way we can escape the heat death of the Universe?

In this week's live Questions and Answers show, I explain how a more powerful rocket could reduce the need of a heat shield, if we could detect objects beyond the edge of the observable Universe through their gravity, and what are the largest objects (or spacecraft) that could hang out at a Lagrange Point?