How can we protect antimatter-powered rockets from space dust? Will curing cancer solve deep space travel? What happens when planets align? Does dark matter lose angular momentum? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodre…

Juno sees a lava lake on Io, Voyager 1 isn’t spouting nonsense any more, Titan Dragonfly gets the greenlight from NASA, and TESS finds its first rogue planet. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 Giant Lava…

Why don't they just build a bigger version of James Webb for Starship? What's the pressure inside Europa's oceans? How can you measure a day on a planet without a surface? Answering all these questions and more in this week's question show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.good…

A piece of the ISS smashed into a house in Florida. Evidence for the first stars in the Universe. NASA is having to rethink its Mars Sample Return mission. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 Chunk from IS…

New measurements show dark energy may be evolving, Japan is joining Artemis with a pressurized rover, why the Moon has two different faces, and my experience with the total solar eclipse. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club…

What engine type will the first manned interstellar mission use for propulsion? Will AI help solve any mysteries of space? Why do we have exoplanet types named after Neptune but not Uranus? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: htt…

Vera Rubin’s Camera is complete, where are rogue planets coming from, NASA chooses suppliers for its new lunar rover, and an earlier formation for the Moon. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 Vera Rubin's…

Does gravitational lensing affect the CMB? Can the Great Attractor solve the Hubble tension? Why don't we put a Deep Space Network antenna in space? What's the difference between a nova and a supernova? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the b…

The Fermi paradox has many solutions. Many explanations for the fact that we don't see any signs of intelligent life in the Universe. We ranked all the major ones and put them into tiers from S to D. 🔵 Pale Blue Pod: https://palebluepod.space/ 👉 Dr Moiya McTier: https://www.moiyamctier.com/ 👉 Dakotah Tyler: https://www.dakotahtyler.com/ 🦄 Support u…

See the magnetic fields twisting around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, a supernova was seen in almost real time, NASA announces its planetary science goals for Artemis III and Gaia finds two ancient building blocks of the Milky Way. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.go…

Can we harvest energy from the Moon's temperature difference? Why don't we just launch multiple telescopes like Hubble? Why is the Moon grey? Why are sunspots black? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show! 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/g…

Planning trains on the Moon, Chandra is getting shut down, the future of Mars helicopters, and an update on exomoons with Dr. David Kipping. 👉 Interview with Dr. Kipping: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umiMtQU3bMU&t=1317s&ab_channel=FraserCain 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.…

How heavy are the biggest stars in the Universe and how do they compare to the Sun? Why would aliens be grabby? Is there more space for science communicators? What's the minimum size for an object to have an atmosphere? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Sugge…

Another Test of SpaceX Starship Superheavy combo, another analysis of the flight with Scott Manley and Marcus House! 📺 Scott Manley: https://www.youtube.com/@scottmanley 📺 Marcus House: https://www.youtube.com/@MarcusHouse 🚀 IFT-2 Analysis: https://youtu.be/ReXZvXPak4U 🚀 IFT-1 Analysis: https://youtu.be/RGcdjJj-f4g 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://…

What did NASA learn from setting their Cygnus spaceships on fire? Is fire more dangerous in space than on Earth? Finding out with Dr. David Urban, Branch Chief from NASA Glenn Research Center. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book…

What drives NASA's most successful projects like James Webb, Perseverance, Parker Solar Probe, etc? What's going on with international cooperation? How will future missions be planned and executed? Finding out with Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen, former Associate Administrator of NASA Sciecne Mission Directorate. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/…

Starship reaches orbit in a new test, NASA regains contact with Voyager 1 (sort of), are the Milky Way and Andromeda already exchanging stars, and two new incredible images to replace your desktop wallpaper. 📰 EMAIL NEWSLETTER https://universetoday.com/newsletter 👉 Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmnK1xmCRad_8bn0uOcmLiIE…

How cold does it get in the shadows on the Moon? What's going on with dark matter research? Can we chase Oumuamua with a solar sail spacecraft? Will we ever face a war for the Moon? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.good…

White dwarf stars should be cooling down practically till the end of the Universe. But yet, they don't. They stop cooling at some point. Why does this happen? Figuring out the answers with Dr Simon Blouin from the University of Victoria. 📜 Buoyant crystals halt the cooling of white dwarf stars https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07102-y 🦄 Su…

How do we plan a mission that can go to Enceladus and grab a sample of its plumes? How fast does it need to go? Will it bring samples to Earth or analyse them on the spacecraft? Figuring out the answers with Professor Mark Burchell from the University of Kent. 📜 Hypervelocity impact induced light flash experiments on single and dual layer Kapton ta…

Understanding the surface of Betelgeuse, James Webb’s third observing cycle has been announced, Starship’s upcoming third test, and the most massive pair of black holes ever seen. 👉 Interviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmnK1xmCRad_8bn0uOcmLiIE 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the b…

Why won't NASA send a copy of Perseverance to the Moon? Can life exist on a planet around a blue giant star? How do satellites stay safe in orbit and don't collide with each other? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 👉 Ad Astra Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adastraspace 👉 Oxygen Bottleneck paper https://arxiv.org/abs…

Self-replicating space robots seems as an obvious way to explore the Universe. How close are we to such a scenario and what do we need to fill outer space with Von Neumann probes? Figuring out with Professor Alex Ellery. 👉 Realistic Scenario of Interstellar Travel https://youtu.be/SkGRVvA23qI 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetod…

What is cosmic dust? What is it made of and what can it tell us about the Universe? Could cosmic dust be responsible for life starting on Earth? Figuring it all out with Dr Craig Walton from Cambridge University. 👉 Dr Craig Walton: https://craigwaltongeosci.wordpress.com/ 👉 How Did Early Earth Get The Ingredients for Life? https://youtu.be/SkWNmkoC…

We’ve learned what happened to the Odysseus Lander. SLIM survived the lunar night. Experience a fiery trip from orbit to the Utah desert. James Webb completes one of its major science goals. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-c…

How serious is the threat from space weapons? How should we handle the situation with international treaties? Is there a way to ensure the enforcement of them and what are the risks if somebody breaks them? Figuring out the answers with Dr Matthew Powell from the University of Portsmouth. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚…

Where do auroras come from on rogue planets? Can we refuel the Sun to make it last longer? What's going on with space nuke tests? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-boo…

Odysseus lands successfully on the Moon, China is planning to build bricks on the lunar surface, James Webb finds the neutron star at the heart of supernova 1987 A, and Blue Origins finally rolls out New Glenn. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-u…

Why doesn't JWST look at Apollo landing sites? What happened to TRAPPIST-1 atmospheres? What's the biggest thing we can measure our velocity relative to? Will the Universe ever start bouncing back? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book c…

Huge Kuiper Belt discovery! With James Webb astronomers were able to see that Eric and Makemake show signs of geothermal activity. How exactly did that happen? Figuring out with Dr Christopher Glein, Lead Scientist at Southwest Research Institute. 👉 Dr Christopher Glein https://www.christopherglein.com/ 📜 Measurement of D/H and 13C/12C Ratios in Me…

Solar sails aren't just a tool to send tiny spacecraft to Alpha Centauri. They can also be used to optimise exploration of the Solar System. How can we do that? Figuring it out with Alexander Alvara. 📜 BLISS: Interplanetary Exploration with Swarms of Low-Cost Spacecraft https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.11226 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/u…

More oceans across the Solar System. The Event Horizon Telescope zooms into an active galactic nucleus. Another lunar lander sets off to the Moon. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:13 Mimas has an ocean htt…

What are the main problems of modern-day science? Why there's a growing trust gap between the scientists and the public? How can we fix those problems and restore the trust? Figuring out with Dr. Paul M. Sutter. 📖 Rescuing Science: Restoring Trust in an Age of Doubt https://www.pmsutter.com/store/yourplace-zrd55 👉 Paul M. Sutter's website: https://…

How sure can astronomers be when estimating asteroid strikes? Why is Jupiter so radioactive? What happened to the methane on Mars story? Are black holes 2D or 3D? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/grou…

Big layoffs at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. Testing spacesuits for the Moon. Another flyby of Io. And our final look at Ingenuity. 🎙️ INTERVIEWS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbJ42wpShvmnK1xmCRad_8bn0uOcmLiIE 👉 NASA Layoffs: https://youtu.be/yFuHdZNZ6-Y 👉 Io Exploration: https://youtu.be/3YpbDZQHkCk 👉 Measuring Space Distances: https://yout…

BREAKING NEWS. JPL is laying off about 530 people. Why did that happen and what it means for major NASA missions like Artemis and Mars Sample Return? Figuring it out with Casey Dreier, Chief of Space Policy at The Planetary Society. 🎙️ Planetary Radio Podcast: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/space-policy-edition 🦄 Support us on Patreon: h…

We all know the Hubble Deep Field as one of the most important astronomy images of all time. But when will we get a similar attempt from Webb? What will we be able to get from it and what are the limits of JWST? Finding out with Dr Viraj Pandya from NASA. 👉 Nobel Prize Winner Explains JWST vs The Crisis in Cosmology https://youtu.be/hmJOz9qCk0M 🦄 S…

Could we detect life on Earth from Neptune's orbit? Is the Moon shrinking over time? Why don't we send an orbiter the the Kuiper belt? What should we call Planet 9 if we find it? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.go…

If exoplanets exist, so should exomoons. However, to this day we still did not find any. Even more than that, there's a pretty big controversy regarding the potential discovery of exomoons. What's going on and what can we do about it? Finding the answers with Dr David Kipping. 👉 Dr David Kipping's channel https://www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsLab 👉 Pr…

Whenever we search for life, we're searching for 'life as we know it". But are there alternative options? Non-carbon based life? Or life that doesn't use water as a solvent? It turns out, things like that can be as close as on Venus. Figuring it out with Dr William Bains. 📜 Venus' Atmospheric Chemistry and Cloud Characteristics Are Compatible with …

Science fiction taught us that Mars cities are inevitable. That we will sooner or later have those cool looking glass domes with spaceports and stuff. But the world is a cruel place and reality is unforgivable. So, how will a realistic Mars habitat of the future will look like? Discussing it with Kelly and Zach Weinersmith. 🦄 Support us on Patreon:…

Understanding dark matter is one of the most interesting challenges in modern cosmology. Upcoming new telescopes, such as Nancy Grace Roman, can help us solve this mystery. How exactly will it happen? Finding out with Dr Christian Aganze from Stanford University. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book…

SLIM woke up but briefly., Turning a forest into a giant particle detector. Another explanation for that hycean world. And some stunning new pictures from Webb. 🏅 Nobel Prize Winner Explains JWST VS Hubble Tension: https://youtu.be/hmJOz9qCk0M 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.g…

Recently astronomers made an unexpected discovery. They found a planet called WASP-69b with a giant comet-like gas tail that was bigger than ever. What's causing such behaviour and what can we learn about hot Jupiters? Finding out with Dakota Tyler from the University of LA. 📜 WASP-69b's Escaping Envelope Is Confined to a Tail Extending at Least 7 …

Solar energy is simple the best energy source we have access to. But how can we make it even better? With space tech, of course! In this interview I'm talking about a project that suggests putting giant solar reflectors in orbit to extend daytime for solar farms on Earth with my guest, Dr Onur Celik. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/uni…

Why can't Starship reach the Moon without refuelling? How big can black holes get? What space station will replace the ISS? How big do Lagrange points get? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/…

The Hubble Tension is one of the most exciting mysteries in modern day science. Different methods give different results for the expansion of the Universe. So, how can we solve this and can James Webb help us with that? Or will it make things even worse? Finding out with Physics Nobel Prize laureate, Dr Adam Riess. 🏅 Nobel Prize Winner John Mather …

Ingenuity is over. SLIM landed on the Moon, but it’s upside-down. Webb sees planets orbiting white dwarf stars. And we finally know why Starship exploded. 🎈 Sierra Space inflatable habitat interview: https://youtu.be/C3bd4fdY3DY 🚀 Starship IFT-2 discussion with Marcus House and Scott Manley: https://youtu.be/ReXZvXPak4U 🦄 Support us on Patreon: htt…

How can we possibly know how does the Milky Way look like? Is Marth worth further exploration after not finding any life there for years? How can we realistically settle on the Moon? All this and more in the week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/…

When we'll be sending probes to other stars, getting there will be only one part of the challenge. How do we get the data back? So, NASA just funded a research that will be aiming to solve this problem through the NIAC program. 👉 NIAC Award "Swarming Proxima Centauri: Coherent Picospacecraft Swarms Over Interstellar Distances" https://www.nasa.gov/…