The Supermassive Podcast
The UK's #1 space podcast.
Science journalist Izzie Clarke and astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst whizz through the universe to explore the latest research with leading experts, dive to history from the society’s archives and take on your weird and wonderful questions about all things space. Can we gravitationally hitch-hike out of the solar system? Do we live in a multiverse? What is time? Plus Dr Robert Massey is on hand with his top star-gazing tips.
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And keep adding to The Supermassive Mailbox with your pictures and questions for the team. Send them to [email protected] or follow them on Instagram, @SupermassivePod.
The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production for the Royal Astronomical Society. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham.
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- Update frequency
- every 21 days
- Average duration
- 36 minutes
- Episodes
- 98
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
BONUS - Could Space Junk Block JWST's View?
From barbie dolls, to birds baths, what will happen to all the stuff we have made between now and the end of time? Could a large black hole spaghettify a small black hole? Could more satellites block…
00:13:40 |
Thu 21 Dec 2023
Neptune... At Last!
They've done it. It has taken them all year but Izzie Clarke and Dr Becky Smethurst have reached the final planet in our solar system; Neptune.
Dr Leigh Fletcher from the University of Leicester is ba…
Dr Leigh Fletcher from the University of Leicester is ba…
00:49:46 |
Tue 28 Nov 2023
BONUS - Space News Bulletin
Bizarre free-floating planets in space, the retrieval mission from a 4.6 billion year old asteroid, and the first images from our dark universe. Join Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst, and Dr Robert M…
00:28:39 |
Tue 14 Nov 2023
46: Q&A - Spice Girls, Black Holes, and Ice-Cream in Space
It's been a while, so Izzie, Dr Becky and Robert dive into The Supermassive Mailbox for a Q&A Special. How is the mass of a star determined? Does JWST have fuel to come back? And is it possible for V…
00:40:10 |
Fri 27 Oct 2023
45: BONUS - Have you heard of "Ploonets"?
What is the furthest distance away we’ve ever observed? Why hasn't Venus lost its atmosphere from solar winds? Is Mercury a Ploonet? And how stable is the moon's orbit? It's another bonus episode wit…
00:18:45 |
Fri 13 Oct 2023
45: Uranus the Oddball
Izzie and Dr Becky have done episodes on Mars, gas giants, Saturn and Jupiter individually, so it’s about time that Uranus gets its own episode. And just so we're clear, it's UranUs, not UrAnus.
Prof…
Prof…
00:52:42 |
Fri 29 Sep 2023
44: BONUS - Team Enceladus or Team Europa?
What does Saturn look like? Why is Venus hotter than Mercury? Can the solar wind generate electricity on the Moon? Izzie, Dr Becky and Robert dive into The Supermassive Mailbox and answer your questi…
00:13:10 |
Mon 18 Sep 2023
44: Here Comes the Sun...with NASA's Head of Science
This month, Izzie and Dr Becky are off to the Sun…Partly because the UK summer has been rubbish but mostly because there are a lot of things we still don’t know about our local star.
Joining them on …
Joining them on …
00:50:21 |
Mon 28 Aug 2023
43: BONUS - Aimless telescopes & beyond the Milky Way
Could we detect exoplanets outside of the Milky Way? Could the Euclid Telescope disprove what we know about dark energy and matter? Are we just pointing telescopes aimlessly at patches of space? And …
00:11:10 |
Fri 11 Aug 2023
43: Most of the Universe is missing...
The Supermassive Team have spent the last three years attempting to talk about ALL the stuff in space. But that only makes up 5% of our universe. Where the heck is the rest?
This month, Izzie and Dr …
This month, Izzie and Dr …
00:46:09 |
Fri 28 Jul 2023
42: BONUS – White holes, astrology and why is Venus so hot?
What’s a white hole and could one appear above the Earth tomorrow? Do different cultures sort stars into similar patterns? Why is Venus so hot and how do the Supermassive team cope when someone calls…
00:17:34 |
Thu 06 Jul 2023
42: A (brief) History of Astronomy
Dr Becky and Izzie dust-down the Supermassive Tardis to explore the history of astronomy. From fossilised baboon bones and baby lamas to Einstein and black holes, the Supermassive team discovers how …
00:48:41 |
Thu 22 Jun 2023
41: BONUS - Why do Gas Giants exist?
Can JWST see galaxies at different life stages? What is a "former" constellation? And why do we see Jupiter in monochrome? This month, Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey take on y…
00:14:50 |
Tue 13 Jun 2023
41: BIG Observatories
We love stargazing on The Supermassive Podcast, so we thought it was about time we had an episode on the future of ground-based telescopes. From the brilliant named Extremely Large Telescope to the S…
00:45:47 |
Sat 27 May 2023
40: BONUS - Are Lunar Poles Arbitrary?
What's the most efficient way of space travel? How does longitude change your night sky view? Why does M87* look different? This month, Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Massey take on y…
00:15:32 |
Sat 13 May 2023
40: Becky Loves Saturn
It's FINALLY happening. Izzie is letting Dr Becky have an entire episode about her favourite planet, Saturn.
Professor Geraint Jones from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory tells the Supermassive…
Professor Geraint Jones from UCL's Mullard Space Science Laboratory tells the Supermassive…
00:50:19 |
Sat 29 Apr 2023
39: BONUS - Do black holes stop time?
Are gravitational waves destructive? Will the universe ever expand faster than the speed of light? Should we only send robots to space? This month, Izzie Clarke, Dr Becky Smethurst and Dr Robert Mas…
00:13:55 |
Fri 07 Apr 2023
39: Jupiter The Monster
Izzie and Dr Becky explore the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. What do we know about this big ol’ planet? And what are the missions that will find out even more? The team is joined by Sc…
00:47:26 |
Fri 24 Mar 2023
38: BONUS - More Comets, Less Asteroids
Is there a Cosmological Horizon? Can we change a comet's orbit to see more of them? What's the most distant human-made object in space? Izzie, Dr Becky and Robert dive into The Supermassive Mailbox t…
00:12:30 |
Fri 10 Mar 2023
38: Gettin' Gravitational Wave-y
The Supermassive team take on their toughest challenge (and most tenuous title) yet…Gravitational Waves. Izzie and Dr Becky explore what they are and ask how the heck to detect something so small? Wi…
00:44:08 |
Fri 24 Feb 2023
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