Spacepod

Dr. Meg Schwamb tells us about the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS). She explains why she doesn't just want to find these distant objects, she wants to figure out what they are made of. We a…

Dr. Matthew Tiscareno tells us about Saturn's rings. He describes how scientists measured their mass, and how the rings got their colors. He also explains why scientists are currently debating the ag…

Professor Desireé Cotto Figueroa tells us about her research into the strength of meteorites. This research helps scientists understand the hazards from asteroids, and also will help engineers design…

Dr. Scott Sheppard tells us about the two most distant objects ever observed in the solar system. He describes the clever techniques he and his collaborators used to spot these objects, and explains …

Lillian Cunningham talks about her podcast Moonrise. Moonrise explores why the United States decided to send humans to the moon. She talks about the surprising power of science fiction in shaping pol…

Dr. Jason Soderblom tells us about Titan, one of the largest moons in the solar system. He explains some of its geologic features, including dunes, probable cryovolcanos, and featureless plains that …

Dr. Michele Bannister talks about interstellar objects, including the recent discovery of 2I Borisov. Astronomers are observing this object with every available telescope to answer key questions, suc…

Dr. Jessie Dotson talks about her asteroid risk assessment research. She describes how she and her team create comprehensive models of asteroid impacts. Their research shows that the consequences of …

Dr. Ross Beyer talks about Pluto's companion, Charon. He describes how he derived a theory explaining how Charon's "wonky" plains formed. He compares being a planetary geologist with a crime scene in…

Prof. Christine Hartzell tells us about the bizarre ways dust and rock behave on asteroids. She explains, "asteroids are complicated because our intuition fails." Tools like shovels become useless, f…

Dr. Bill Bottke stops by the show to talk about ancient craters on the Moon and Earth. He tells us about how you can figure out crater ages by looking at the nearby rocks, and how that led him and hi…

Dr. Jeff Rich returns to the show to talk about the night sky. He explains how astronomers used constellations to communicate. He also tells us that anyone can invent their own constellation. In a ti…

Dr. Carolyn Ernst tells us about DRACO, a camera on the DART mission. DRACO will take critical images in the final seconds of the mission. Dr. Ernst talks about how heritage is important in spaceflig…

Dr. Mark Boslough describes what happens when an asteroid enters Earth's atmosphere. He tell the story of how he learned of the historic 2013 Chelyabinsk impact. He also shares what it was like to se…

Professor Cristina Thomas talks about NASA's first planetary defense mission: DART. DART is a spacecraft that will impact a tiny asteroid moon. She explains why ground-based telescope observations ar…

Dr. Matthew Knight tells us about a discovery that excited astronomers all around the world. 'Oumuamua is the first minor planet from outside our solar system that we have found. Dr. Knight describes…

Dr. Terik Daly talks about his experiments, where things hit other things at tens of thousands of miles per hour. These experiments create pressures greater than that at the center of the Earth, and …

Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post talks about science reporting. Reporters often tackle topics that are outside their expertise. Sarah explains the methods she uses to get at the truth. She also sh…

Dr. Nancy Chabot returns to the show to talk about iron meteorites. Iron meteorites, she explains, are cores of small planets that you can hold in your hand. She describes her laboratory experiments …

Dr. Michael Marsset and his collaborators use the world's biggest telescopes to image asteroids. They combine those images with other data to get shapes of asteroids. These results are comparable wit…