Universe Today Podcast

Dr. Sonny White is a physicist and mechanical engineer. He previously worked at NASA's Eagleworks Lab testing advanced propulsion systems, and developing ideas for faster-than-light travel. He's now working with Limitless Space, founded with the vision of advancing human space exploration beyond the Solar System by the end of the 21st century. https://www.limitlessspace.org/ 🦄 Support us on Patre...

FAA finally gave its approval to SpaceX for Starship launches from Boca Chica, Gaia released its third data drop, China stars continuous space presence, Perseverance finds another weird rock on Mars. 🚀 Discord Discussion Club https://discord.gg/bRxr4JTNqh 👽 Anton's video on Best Tourist Destination in Our Solar System https://youtu.be/IzCFSaQdgn8 00:00 Intro 00:25 FAA gives SpaceX permission to...

Annika Rollock is a Ph. D. student at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is studying next generation space habitats and recently published a paper about how future space stations can remain self-sufficient, especially when support and communication from Earth are far away. https://www.annikarollock.com/ 🦄 Support us on Patreon 📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTER Read by 55,000 people every Friday. Written...

In this week's questions and answers show, I explain how JWST and other telescopes see color, how images from observatories are released to the public, and how much of the sky can JWST see. Also, a bunch of non-Webb questions too. 00:00 Start 01:55 [Tatooine] How does JWST see color? 09:58 [Coruscant] How are astronomical images released to the public? 12:52 [Hoth] How does JWST handle spacedust?...

Dr. Paul Hickson is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Hickson is overseeing a team that built a telescope out of liquid mercury in India. The International Liquid Mirror Telescope is 4 meters across and built on top of a 3,000-meter mountain in India. This will prove the technology and allow for larger and larger liquid mirror telescopes on Earth...

Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra is a geologist and astrobiologist with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. He studies the conditions that allowed life to spread across the Earth and searches for similar environments across the Universe. In a recent paper, Dr. Haqq-Misra suggests methods that we could search for technologically advanced civilizations across the Universe. https://haqqmisra.net/ https:/...

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Dr. Zach Putnam is an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He's part of a team developing navigation techniques that use the signals from pulsars to always know your location, anywhere in the Solar System. https://aerospace.illinois.edu/directory/profile/zputnam 🚀 OUR WEBSITE: ════════════════════════════════════ https://www.universetoday.co...

JWST got damaged by a micrometeoroid but seems to be okay, NASA buys more Crew Dragon flights, Mars rovers see interesting stuff, ESA confirms a comet hunter, UFOs get official NASA investigations, all planets get into order in the night sky and more. Discord Discussion Club https://discord.gg/9vXZFCGKMg?event=983521001998549092 00:00 Intro 00:28 JWST’s mirror got hit and damaged by a micrometeori...

Einstein's Theory of General Relativity has been tried and tested many times, and so far, Einstein was right. But we know his theory must be incomplete, as it still doesn't integrate with quantum mechanics. Where are physicists searching next for the future of cosmology and relativity? Dr. Leah Jenks is a PhD recipient from Brown University, and will become a KICP Fellow at the University of Chica...

In this week's Questions and Answers show, I answer what it would take to build a telescope as big as the Earth's orbit around the Sun, why SgrA* seems to have been rolled over on its side, and how we know the age of stars. 00:00 Start 01:50 [Tatooine] Could we have a telescope the size of Earth's orbit? 08:11 [Coruscant] Why is SgrA* rolled over on its side? 09:53 [Hoth] How do we know the age of...

NASA selects two suppliers for new spacesuits, James Webb reveals the date of first color images, JUICE moves closer to launch and a new kind of solar sail gets to next NIAC round. 00:00 Intro 00:32 First JWST images date revealed James Webb Video: https://youtu.be/tadR5fUatHo 02:01 NASA selects Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace for spacesuit contracts https://www.universetoday.com/156117/nasa-wil...

James Webb is the most expensive and most advanced telescope in human history. Will it be worth its $10B price? What it will discover? How long will JWST last? Will it ever be serviced? All the answers are in this episode of The Big Q. 00:00 Intro 00:39 How JWST came together. 02:58 The telescope that ate astronomy. 04:36 Leading to launch. 06:08 Staying at the L2 Lagrange point. 07:09 Infrared sp...

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How did life go from single-celled to multi-celled? Dr. William Ratcliff is an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Interdisciplinary Ph. D. in Quantitative Biosciences at the School of Biological Science at Georgia Tech. Dr. Ratcliff and his collaborators are working with single cells of yeast, watching them make the jump to become multi-cellular organisms. It turns out, life has done this...

Boeing finally completes a demo mission, scientists grow plants in lunar regolith, NASA will launch a mission to repair and refuel a satellite, space suits are leaking on the ISS again, and more. 00:00 Intro 00:27 Update on the meteor storm on May 31st https://www.universetoday.com/156008/update-on-the-potential-may-31st-tau-herculid-meteor-storm/ 03:31 Starliner OFT-2 went up to the ISS and back...

In this week's Questions and Answers show, I explain what James Webb will see when it looks at SgrA*, why black holes happen to be facing towards us, and if asteroid strikes can hurl dinosaurs into space. 00:00 Start 00:59 [Tatooine] Will Webb look at SgrA*? 05:23 [Coruscant] Why are both black holes facing us? 07:16 [Hoth] Were dinosaurs hurled to space during an asteroid impact? 09:57 [Naboo] Ho...

In this week's News Bites segment, I talk about the successful launch of the Boeing CST-100 Starliner, how astronomers watch a nova unfold in real time, the (not) door way on Mars, and the chance to see the greatest meteor storm in a generation. 00:00 Intro 00:41 Boeing Starliner Successful Test Launch 03:49 China Continues to Extend Its Plans for Space Programs https://www.universetoday.com/15592...

Dr. Ashish Goel is a Research Technologist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the Robotic Surface Mobility group. He has helped develop the plans to build a giant radio telescope inside a crater on the Moon, providing a pristine view to the Universe, using the Moon to block Earth's radio transmissions. https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/who-we-are/people/ashish_goel/ 🚀 OUR WEBSITE: ═════════...

Professor Stephen Sweeney works in the department of physics at the University of Surrey. He specializes in photonics, using lasers and photovoltaics for new types of communication, remote power transmission, and other concepts in space exploration. https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/stephen-sweeney 🚀 OUR WEBSITE: ════════════════════════════════════ https://www.universetoday.com/ 🚀 PODCAST LINKS:...

Dr. Jonathan Jiang is the supervisor of the Aerosol and Cloud Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Jiang has contributed over 220 peer-reviewed papers in a variety of journals. Most recently, he collaborated on a paper that investigates the future of human space exploration beyond the Moon and Mars, even to the outer Solar System. https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/jjiang/ 🚀 OUR WEBSIT...

Michael Amato is an engineer at NASA and has been a member of the team behind NASA's DAVINCI spacecraft which will be launching to Venus in 2029. The spacecraft will be exploring the atmosphere of Venus with more clarity and detail than has ever been seen before, giving us a better sense about how the world became so different from Earth. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/amato-helped-keep...

In this week's episode, I talk about how close to the Sun Parker Solar Probe can get, what is the smallest possible star that's turned into a red giant, why do I think aliens will need to adhere to the laws of physics, and more. Oh, and why am I so cynical? 00:00 Start 01:17 [Tatooine] Will Parker Solar Probe fly low enough to dodge prominences? 03:32 [Coruscant] What is the smallest mass star to...

We finally have the SgrA* supermassive black hole image by the Event Horizon Telescope, China announces their plans to launch a space telescope, and Russia threatens to leave the ISS. 00:00 Intro 00:20 Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole https://www.universetoday.com/155874/this-is-it-meet-the-supermassive-black-hole-at-the-heart-of-the-milky-way/ 03:48 China will launch a space telescope https://...

Edward Balaban is a research scientist at NASA Ames and the principal investigator of the Fluidic Telescope Experiment, or FLUTE. The idea is to create a giant lens in space out of a fluid that could maintain its shape in microgravity. The technology was recently tested during the Axiom-1 mission to the International Space Station. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/nasa-tries-new-ways-fluid-materi...