Universe Today Podcast

Historical data about solar storms carved in trees, and it's a bit worrying. Falcon Heavy's back after 40 months of absence. There's a meteor shower and a total lunar eclipse in the coming days. And JWST gave us yet another version of Pillars of Creation. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 00:33 Even more Pillars of Creation by Webb https://www.universetoday.co...

What's the current state of James Webb? What were the main technical difficulties and what does the future look like? What comes after JWST and LUVOIR? Will it be possible to ever build a quantum telescope? 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 💯 100 Days of Webb: https://youtu.be/lpJ5x4rcH-k 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:36 Current state of JWST science 00:08:42 JWST data release me...

If Moon was created with a big collision, where's the crater? Can we fix the space trash problem? Is doing Astronomy just a waste of money that can be better spent elsewhere? What will come after DART? All this and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Start 02:01 [Tatooine] Is Astronomy just a waste of money? 07:17 [Coruscant] How do scient...

How do we know that certain organisms can survive for millions of years in the conditions of Mars? What do we know about them? And where should we be looking for them on Mars? 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 01:36 What is Deinococcus radiodurans 07:54 How can it live for hundreds of millions of years 15:41 Mars contamination 18:52 Where should we look on Mar...

There’s a monster black hole in our backyard (astronomically speaking). Life could survive underground on Mars for hundreds of millions of years. Starlink was hacked to work as GPS. Bad news for Arecibo. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 00:39 The closed black hole ever discovered https://www.universetoday.com/158176/a-monster-black-hole-has-been-found-right-i...

All the nice space images you see on the web are processed. It's a complex process that takes the raw data from the instruments and turns them into a picture. Judy Schmidt is one of the best in this, so I talked to her about how she does it. Enjoy! 👉 Judy's Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/ 👉 Judy's Twitter: https://twitter.com/spacegeck 👉 Judy's Tutorial: https://youtu.be/8kGPGh...

How do you clean up astronomy images and what part does Photoshop play in it? Can you make spaceships out of ice found in space? When will SpaceX carry people to Mars? What pet will be the best companion for a long space trip? And even more questions in this week's Q&A with Fraser Cain. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 01:41 [Tatooine] How do you "clean u...

Dark Energy will determine how the Universe will die. With the help of Pantheon+, the most detailed survey of Type 1A supernovae, astronomers can understand more details about Dark Energy and the expansion of spacetime. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 01:50 What is Pantheon+ 13:47 Can we predict Type 1A supernovae 17:07 How to use Type 1A supernovae 23:33 Da...

We continue to introduce the team behind Universe Today. In this episode meet Matt Williams. Fraser and Matt discussed long format writing, stories about the future of space exploration, science fiction novels Matt has written, how not to be too cynical and how to write fast and write good. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 03:33 - Writing science fiction no...

The Pillars of Creation revealed by JWST. It seems like Big Rip isn't happening after all. Black holes twisting spacetime into knots. Jets that seem to be going faster than the speed of light. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 00:38 Pillars of Creation by Webb https://www.universetoday.com/158161/heres-webbs-view-of-the-pillars-of-creation/ 03:41 Big Rip? Ma...

It has been exactly 100 days since we got the first images from JWST. Here's an overview of all the most important discoveries that the James Webb Space Telescope did since then. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 01:07 Science objectives for JWST 02:01 Galaxy formation and star evolution 09:15 Exoplanets 13:13 Solar system observations 17:10 Nebulae 19:54 Prob...

We continue to introduce the team behind Universe Today. In this episode meet Andy Tomaswick. Fraser and Andy talked about Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’, interest in Astronomy and how to deal with haters and trolls. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 03:50 - What kind of stories Andy prefers and why 12:47 - How UT the stories are made 16:47 - What started Andy...

DART’s results are in, it hammered Dimorphos, the Moon might just be a big chunk of the Earth, Webb sees bizarre rings around a star, and SLS gets a new launch date… at night. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 00:33 - NASA’s huge mistake on DART results https://www.universetoday.com/158049/success-dart-impact-shortened-asteroids-orbit-time-by-32-minutes/ 02:...

How understanding the Sun can change our view of all the other stars in the Universe. What will current instruments and future mission will bring. And what are the mysteries that are waiting to be solved in this field. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 01:09 - Meet Colin Stuart 04:00 - Modern studies of the Sun 17:03 - How new solar telescopes will change ou...

Are there alternatives to CMB? Will we ever build a space elevator? How can we see radiation coming from a black hole when nothing can escape it? Can you heat something with gravitational waves? Why JWST can look lame to the laymen? All this and more in this week's Q&A with Fraser Cain. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Intro 01:32 [Tatooine] Neutrino Background...

Coronographs will soon be in every major telescope. They can block the light from the star and reveal things around it, like exoplanets. There's so much amazing science behind them. Like, did you know coronographs can be adaptive? We dive into all that with Dr Lucie Leboulleux. Enjoy the interview! 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 01:58 - Meet Dr Lucie Lebo...

Dimorphos grows a tail. More Europa pictures from Juno. The horrifying possibility of ads in night sky. Why Jupiter’s atmosphere is surprisingly hot. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 00:31 - Didimoon’s new tail https://www.universetoday.com/157939/after-getting-slammed-by-dart-asteroid-dimorphos-has-grown-a-tail/ 02:50 - More of Europa’s flyby of Jupiter ht...

In this interview, Professor Peter Vickers and I talk about the scientific method, its true nature and its place in modern society. We talk about the philosophy of science, how scientific consensus works and how it can be made better. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:10 - Meet Peter Vickers 00:03:35 - Philosophy of Science. What is it and how it's...

In this week's questions and answers show, I explain why a crewed mission to Venus or the Moon makes sense, if there's debris in the Lagrange Points, and why the photos from DART look so familiar. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 Start 01:16 [Tatooine] Does it make sense to send a crewed mission to Venus? 05:31 [Coruscant] Why send humans to the Moon? 08:54 [Hoth]...

We continue to introduce the team behind Universe Today. In this episode meet Evan Gough, who is the author of more than 1400 articles on the website. Fraser and Evan talked about the way that stories for UT are born, which traps can a writer fall into, and whether to take a university degree or not. Enjoy! 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 01:10 - How did E...

Humanity moved an asteroid on purpose for the first time in history. Juno flies past Jupiter. A possible mission to boost Hubble, and a mysterious blob is orbiting Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 00:39 - DART successfully smashed into asteroid Dimorphos https://www.universetoday.com/157794/this-is-the-last-thing-dart-sa...

This is a bonus from my friend Paul Sutter. It is an episode from his podcast ''Ask A Spaceman'. He explains possible alternatives to Dark Matter, which is a very popular question in my Q&A episodes. Enjoy! 🎧 Ask A Spaceman on Apple Podcasts 📺 Paul Sutter on YouTube 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTER Read by 55,000 people every Friday. Written by...

In this week's Questions and Answers show, I explain what would happen when an antimatter black hole collides with a regular black hole, I try to estimate when Starship is going to make an orbital launch, and wonder if there could be life around brown dwarf stars. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday In this week's Questions and Answers show, I explain what would happen when...

This week's behind the scenes interview is with Universe Today's senior editor, Nancy Atkinson. Nancy has been writing for Universe Today since the early days and has contributed thousands of articles. She's also a mentor to newer writers on the team. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:04 - Meet Nancy Atkinson 00:06:29 - How space writing changes one...

James Webb has a problem with one of its most important instruments, SLS completes a crucial test before the next launch attempt, Europe wants to rival Crew Dragon and Starliner, and a new quasar is about to be born. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 00:00 - Intro 00:32 - SLS Passes Important Tanking Test https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2022/09/21/artemis-cryogenic-demonst...