Ask a Spaceman!

What are the biggest mysteries facing modern astronomers? What questions do I wish could be answered in my lifetime? What are most astronomers working on right now? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www...

What discoveries and insights made the biggest impacts in astronomy and physics? What were the biggest surprises? What results took the longest to achieve? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter...

How does a black hole make a shadow? What can we learn from it? What are we seeing when we look at a black hole? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questions about spa...

What are the advantages of robotic exploration of the solar system? What are the limitations? Is there any situation where human exploration is better? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com...

What are Dyson spheres? What would be involved in building one? How much energy would it cost, and could we ever pay it back? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questi...

What's the temperature of deep space? Can it get any colder than that? How do we even define temperature when there's nothing around? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep thos...

How do we know that the universe doesn't rotate? Why would it matter if it did? What does all this have to do with time travel? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those ques...

What are blue straggler stars? How were they first discovered? What do they tell us about star clusters and the evolution of stars? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those...

Is it possible for anything to travel faster than light? What about tachyons? How would faster-than-light travel break causality? And just what the heck is causality, anyway? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: h...

Part 9! What is the role of consciousness in quantum mechanics, if there even is one? Is there any way at all to develop a coherent view of nature based on quantum mechanics? What are the ultimate lessons that we can learn from quantum mechanics? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman....

Part 8! What is real in quantum mechanics, and what are mere mathematical tricks? Can the probability waves be real, and what would that mean? What is Pilot-Wave theory? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https:...

Part 7! What is the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics? How does decoherence play a critical role? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this idea? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www....

Part 6! What were Einstein's objections to quantum mechanics? Why was he so bothered by non-locality? What is the EPR paradox? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those quest...

Part 5! What is the Copenhagen interpretation? How did the debates between Heisenberg and Schrodinger influence later physicists? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the "shut up and calculate" approach to quantum mechanics? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouT...

Part 4! What are the basic lessons of quantum mechanics? What does quantum mechanics teach us about the nature of reality? How does a quantum worldview differ from a classical one? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a b...

Part 3! Who developed quantum theory and why? What experiments motivated the creation of quantum mechanics? How was quantum mechanics a total break from classical physics? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: http...

Part 2! How do physicists understand quantum mechanics? What are the postulates and principles of quantum mechanics? How do the foundations of quantum mechanics compare to other theories? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter R...

Part 1! Where does quantum theory fit in the larger tapestry of physics? What is the domain of quantum mechanics? And most importantly, what are the limits of quantum physics? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book:...

How do you make a super-atom? What can they be used for? What does this mean for quantum mechanics? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questions about space, science,...

What makes the principle of least action so important? Who came up with it? Is it all just a bunch of math or does it actually mean something? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books  ...

What is a pulsar? How can we use them to map gravitational waves? What kind of technology does it take? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questions about space, scien...

What are some of the problems with dark matter? What about modified gravity? Are there any other solutions? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questions about space, s...

How big can a rocky planet get? Can a rocky planet turn into a gas giant? Why are some planets rocky and others gassy? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those questions abo...

How do giant black holes shut off star formation? How do they turn it back on? Which came first, the black hole or the galaxy? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutter.com/books   Keep those quest...

How did gravity get so ridiculously weak? Could it be related to extra dimensions? What does string theory and the concept of the "bulk" have to do with it? I discuss these questions and more in today's Ask a Spaceman! Support the show:  http://www.patreon.com/pmsutter All episodes:  http://www. AskASpaceman.com Watch on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/PaulMSutter Read a book: https://www.pmsutte...