Universe Today Podcast

Solar power has its limits. Some space missions will need an alternative source of power like RTGs. How can we make them better? Which fuel is optimal for them and why? How to convert heat into elect…

A new mission can make solar eclipses on demand, what do supernovae and stellar flybys do to Earth’s climate, how asteroid 2024 YR4 will make the mother of all meteor showers, and Starship 36 explode…

Can a giant asteroid knock the Moon from its orbit? How good does a telescope need to be to see the Oort cloud? What are the odds of a rogue planet hiding nearby in our Solar system? And in our exten…

This is an interview with me for the Worldviews Podcast.

📺 VIDEO VERSION
https://youtu.be/yj0Gi7d0zm4?si=NYLERm4yquBpkqbb

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• 00:00 Introdu…

We never came back to Uranus after the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986. It's time to come back. But what will it take to organise a mission to Uranus? What priorities will it have and when can it launch? Fin…

This is an interview with me done by Salman Hameed @ Kainaat Astronomy in English.

Salman Hameed has a PhD in astronomy and is Charles Taylor Chair and Professor of Integrated Science & Humanities a…

Have we finally found the source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays? Our first look at the Sun’s south pole, New Glenn slips again, what kind of damage would rockets do to the ozone layer? And in Space…

At what point we should just admit defeat and give up on our search for dark matter? Should we be sending a lot of cheap space probes instead of a single expensive one? If the Universe is rotating, w…

For a long time the central part of our galaxy was mostly hidden from us because of all the dust. It was even called the Zone of Avoidance. But with better telescopes and modern techniques we can pee…

The White House pulls Jared Isaacman’s nomination, the 2026 NASA budget is released, the Hubble Tension might not be a problem after all, the Milky Way and Andromeda might not merge after all. And on…

How big does a planet has to be to make it impossible to fly a rocket from it? Why are aliens always portrayed expansionistic? Can a supernova make us all go extinct? And in our extended Q&A+ edition…

What's the difference between a nova and a supernova? What's the mechanism behind their explosions? What instruments are used to observe them at the moment? Finding out in this interview.

😍 [Interv…

How much of our atmosphere is lost to space and should we be actively replenishing it? Is there an exact copy of Earth out there hiding in the Universe? Can we use the Sun to send messages? And in ou…

Launching Breakthrough Starshot light sail probes to Alpha Centauri requires a lot of new tech, including the actual light sails. How do you make the optimal material to maximize the size with minimi…

China’s asteroid sample return mission launches, searching for a companion star for Betelgeuse, the 9th flight test wraps up for Starship and Superheavy, and Webb takes its longest exposure yet. And …

Can we make the Van Allen belts safe to fly through? Why not get a super gravity assist from the Sun? Can we predict the next supernova in the Milky Way? And in our extended Q&A+ version, what's goin…

Heat shields are one of the trickiest problems left to solve before we can have truly reusable spacecraft. So far we've seen different solutions, like ablative materials or ceramic tiles. But can a s…

Can we refuel James Webb at L2 when it runs out of propellant? What will the Dragonfly octocopter see on the surface of Titan? Will discovering life on Mars stop us from going there? And in our exten…

Terraforming Mars is usually considered in the realm of science fiction. But actually we have technology to start doing it in our lifetime and achieve some meaningful results it a timescale of tens o…

Jupiter could have been twice as big in the past, the challenges of landing on the Moon, the record for the farthest galaxy has been broken. And in our Patreon edition, how the location of gas plays …