Walkabout the Galaxy

New analysis of Cassini data suggests more complex hydrocarbons are part of Enceladus's global sub-surface ocean. We discuss the prospects for life on this tiny moon. The JWST continues to deliver sc…

At Pluto’s frigid temperatures, even what we breathe is frozen. This can give rise to unusual cryovolcanism, and new research suggests a super cryovolcano tens of kilometers across on the ninth plane…

The second most energetic cosmic ray (really a particle) ever observed smashed into the Earth a couple of years ago, raising more questions about the origins of these incredibly energetic particles. …

The astroquarks are joined by Dr. Erika Nesvold, astrophysicist and author of “Off Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space” to explore some of the surprising problems people…

JWST data confirm early formation of supermassive black holes, less than 500 million years after the big bang. This early formation suggests these monsters start off very large and form with the init…

The Lucy spacecraft had its first asteroid encounter, revealing Dinkinesh to be a binary asteroid.  In cosmology, a new simulation with a terrible acronym leaves the "S8 Tension" intact. Models of th…

Fast Radio Bursts are back, this time providing a crucial measurement of the amount of normal matter in the universe. Top quark Jim Cooney explains how the interaction of light from very distant gamm…

Images of the distant Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth add more weight to the pebble accretion model of planetesimal formation via the streaming instability. If that sounds strange, then you'll really lov…

The next supercontinent could spell bad news for mammals. The equivalence principle passes another test, with antimatter atoms falling just like normal matter atoms, and Josh gets excited about the e…

Strange and Top discuss the return of the sample from the asteroid Bennu and an intriguing measurement from a dark matter detector in Italy in this, our first Short Take episode. Sadly, the measureme…

There's more tension in the standard model of the history of the universe. Giant superclusters of galaxies formed early than we thought they could. These collosal structures trace their origins to qu…

This episode is about hollows in space on very different scales and for very different reasons. Ho'oleilana is the largest observed structure in the universe, a bubble of sorts defined by great sheet…

The astroquarks report from Dragoncon 2023 on the surprisingly diverse distribution of water in the solar system, where it came from, and the prospects for life on other worlds. We are joined by plan…

When we think of all the wonderfully unique things about the Earth as a planet (liquid water on the surface, life, plate tectonics), the existence of lovely granite kitchen countertops doesn’t usuall…

The Sun is showering us with far more gamma rays than anticipated according to new measurements from a Cerenkov radiation detector in Mexico. The way those gamma rays are produced is very cool. Also …

We take a look at two extraordinary astronomical news items in this episode. A deep dive into an astronomical survey has discovered an Earth-sized rogue planet and a Neptune-sized rogue planet. Extra…

The JWST has spotted water vapor in the hot inner region of a protoplanetary disk, the same region where rocky planets like are own are expected to form. This suggests water can be incorporated into …

Nature has provided us with exquisitely accurate clocks in the form of pulsars, those rapidly rotating neutron stars whose beams of radiation act like high-powered lighthouses across the galaxy. We d…