Kainaati Gup Shup with Salman Hameed

Is this a signal from an alien civilization? Almost always the answer is "no". But here is an intriguing signal that astronomers are puzzled by. It is coming from the direction of the star closest to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. We also know that it hosts an Earth-sized planet in its habitable zone. So there are a lot of things going its favor. Plus the nature of the signal suggests that i...

China just achieved a phenomenal feat of scooping a sample from the surface of the Moon and bringing it back. There is a justifiable pride about this in China and its geo-political friends. But as expected, some are also arguing that humans have never landed on the Moon. This attitude betrays ignorance and an utter lack of understanding of how science is done and what makes missions like Chang&apo...

Is there life in the clouds of Venus? A few months ago, a startling announcement grabbed our attention. What is its status now? This is a wonderful example of how science works and how scientists follow up such discoveries. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in discussing the current state of research regarding life on Venus. See related episodes: So..Is there really life on Venus? https://y...

Astronomers had never seen anything like this before. But 16 years later, the mystery of the 'Blue Ring Nebula' has been solved. It is a fascinating story of a star eating another one and belching out a lot of material. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in figuring out how astronomers solved the mystery of the 'Blue Ring Nebula'. Please see video of the podcast here . 

When there is hunger and poverty in the world, is there any justification for spending money on astronomy? Is there any real use of understanding - say - light from a galaxy billions of light years away? Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring these questions. Video of the podcast here: https://youtu.be/beF6BocBux8 For more information about Kainaat Astronomy, please visit https://ww...

Black holes are strange. Now we have caught one in the act of destroying a whole star like our Sun. In the process, the star was "Spaghettified"! Join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in celebrating this year's Nobel physics prize for black holes and in exploring the way by which a black hole shredded a star in a galaxy 215 million light years away. Video of the podcast here: https://yo...

Some exoplanet systems are strange. And some are really strange. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring a system where the planet is much bigger in size than its star.  Video of the podcast here: https://youtu.be/6OAzGKHC53o

Venus is getting a lot of attention. The recent detection of phosphine has raised the possibility of the existence of life on Venus. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring the implications of this detection and how science works at the boundaries of known and unknown.  Video of this podcast here: https://youtu.be/FeUtR7-jxdc

Dark Energy is one of the biggest mysteries of astronomy. Why do astronomers believe that most of the universe is made up of this dark energy? How did they discover that? Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring the nature of Dark Energy.

Astronomers have discovered over 4000 planets! Some are weird (at least to us). These are not your every day planets. Meet strange planets - one with a super ring, one with a rain of glass, one a super Earth, and one without a star (really!!). And of course we will also meet the first one around a sun-like star. All of these defy what we think of planets. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed i...

In 1987, a star exploded as a supernova and it was visible to the naked eye. It is now one of the most studied supernovae ever! But astronomers have been unable to find the possible left-over core of the star: the neutron star. Up until now. There is now evidence that there is a 'blob' of gas at that is heated by this neutron star. This makes it the youngest neutron star that humans have...

Our universe started 13.8 billion years ago in what astronomers call a Big Bang. But what was before the Big Bang? Is there a scientific way to think about this question? How do we scientifically approach such questions? What about the concept of Multiverse? Is it testable? Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring these question in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup. For video, please...

There is a mystery. The surface of the Sun is at 6000 degrees. But when you farther away from it, some of the gas is at temperatures reaching a million degrees. What heats up this gas? Astronomers may be getting close to the answer and it may have something to do with the newly discovered nanoflares, nicknamed "campfires". Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring some of the...

We have a great opportunity to see Comet Neowise in the evening skies these days. It is rare to see a comet with the naked eye. But what are comets and where do they come from? Join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud regions of our Solar system.  Here are a few useful links:  For Comet Neowise simulations:  https://spacein3d.com/asteroid/neowise https://th...

Dark Matter is one of the biggest mysteries in science today. It makes up 80% of all matter and yet it is nothing like us, our planet or our Sun. It does not emit or absorb light. If we cannot see it, then how do we know it exists? And ultimately, what do we think dark matter is made up of? To think about these questions, please join astrophysicist, Salman Hameed, in this episode of Kainaati Gup S...

Black Holes Collide. But up until now, we had never seen any signs of their mergers in visible light. Now in a mind-boggling scenario, astronomers have detected a merger of two black holes in the material surrounding a supermassive black hole in a galaxy far far far away (about 4 billion light years away)!! Join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in exploring this amazing discovery!

Are there alien civilizations out there in our Galaxy? This is one of humanity's biggest questions. It is also one of the hardest as we know of only one example so far. Us. However,  a new study published in a journal recently has claimed that our Galaxy possibly holds 36 communicating alien civilizations!! They have used a modified form of the famous Drake Equation to come up with this estim...

We are currently facing a pandemic caused by COVID-19 virus. This is on Earth. But humans can contaminate other places in the Solar system with microbes from Earth. This is called Forward Contamination and is worrisome for places where there might already be life, like Europe, Enceladus, or Mars. The threat comes not only from human exploration, but also from robotic explorers on the surface. So w...

Astronomers have been puzzled by the existence of more lithium than expected? Now we may have the answer and it may be tied to explosions on the surface of white dwarfs. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in figuring out how astronomers solved this puzzle.  Reference:  Carbon-Oxygen Classical Novae are Galactic 7Li Producers as well as Potential Supernova Ia Progenitors Starrfield et al. Car...

Has NASA found a parallel universe? There is a lot of chatter about this on the internet and in some newspapers. Every few weeks we also hear about an asteroid hitting the Earth. We are surrounded by misinformation. So how can we distinguish between good and bad news story? While disappointing in some ways, this news of parallel universe allows us to talk about ways to find accurate information -...

This is a big question! But what does this question mean? Who is "We"? What does "Alone" mean? These are all questions worthy of exploration. Please join astrophysicist, Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Samosay to discuss and explore the meaning of this vital question: Are We Alone in the Universe?

Do we finally have evidence of aliens? US Navy has officially releases three UFO videos. They are intriguing. Do these video show evidence of alien spacecrafts? How do we think about these videos and the evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence? Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Samosay. 

There are few topics in astronomy that generate heated debates and the status of Pluto as a planet is a big one. Is it an odd-ball planet or a normal Kuiper Belt object? Here I list 3 reasons why Pluto should not be considered a planet and then present 3 arguments for why it should remain as a planet. What do you think? Join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Podcast.

Something happened 66 million years ago that killed 75% of all life on Earth. Most of the dinosaurs too. Who was responsible for this devastation? Some suggest that it was an asteroid or a comet that killed them off. Some argue for a slower death via supervolcaoes. Many think it was a combination of the two. But now we know. To think about these questions, please join astrophysicist, Salman Hameed...