Universe Today Podcasts With Fraser Cain

JWST Looks at the Next Planet in the TRAPPIST system. Could we detect colliding supermassive black holes. Hot Jupiters that flew too close to their stars.

Supercomputer simulations of the Universe are a huge part of modern astronomy. In this interview with Dr Andrew Pontzen we discuss, how exactly are these simulations done, what's the future of this industry, how it will shape the James Webb era and is it possible that we live in a simulation after all.

Which astronomical events can only be seen with gravitational waves? Is there enough water on the Moon for a permanent colony? Can we use stars other than the Sun as gravitational lenses? Does the present even exist or are we always living in the past? All this and more in this week's Q&A session.

We still don't know what is Dark Matter. We can see its effects but we don't know what it's made of. However, with their latest publication, Dr Amruth Alfred suggests that dark matter should be made of axions (which are one of the candidates among other particles). Paper by Dr Amruth Alfred and his team: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-023-01943-9

A white dwarf is starting to turn into a diamond. Another key element for life found in the plumes at Enceladus. The Parker Solar Probe discovers the source of the fast solar wind. All this and more in this week’s episode of Space Bites.

Is nuking the Sun a good way to disarm the Earth? Should they rebuild the Arecibo observatory? How will SpaceX Starship change spaceflight? Could we see a reflection of an exomoon in a planet's ocean? Can a heavy suit help fight lower gravity effects on Moon and Mars? All this and more in this week's Q&A.

Betelgeuse is unexpectedly bright, and update of JWST’s Deep Field program, and more problems with the Boeing Starliner.

Was the Universe ever the size of an orange or a basketball? Can life exist on planets that cannot be escaped? Can the asteroid belt ever produce a new planet? Is the CMB slowly changing over time? What happens at the very edge of the observable Universe? All this and more in this week's Q&A!

Lots of new discoveries from JWST. How a software bug killed HAKUTO-R. Kepler’s last ever exoplanets.

NASA chooses another lander for Artemis V. The first radiation belt ever seen outside the Solar System. And those impossible galaxies might be even more massive than we thought.

It's already been five years since NASA's TESS mission was launched. Now it completed its first full mission observing the sky and hunting for exoplanets. In this interview, I'm talking with Nicole Colon from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center about the results from TESS and what can come next for the mission.

Could stars and planets be living organisms? Is LHC dangerous for the Earth? How do neutrino detectors work? Does the Big Bang suggest that everything around us came from nothing? What will happen if we create a black hole on Earth? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A.

If an extra-terrestrial civilisation saw the Earth, what technosignatures could they pick up? What could they learn about life on our planet and human civilisation in particular? I'm discussing that with Dr Michael Garrett who is the Director of Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.

NASA tests out a snake bot that could explore difficult terrain. An independent way to measure the expansion rate of the Universe. JUICE successfully deploys its radar antenna.

In the second part of my conversation with Dr Christopher Morrison we discuss his second NIAC award. It suggests creating a power source that can also be a science instrument.

How can we get artificial gravity in space without rotating a spacecraft? Will there be bigger Mars helicopters in future? How exactly will they deorbit the ISS? Who will be selecting the crew for the Mars mission? Where are the Voyagers today and how can we find them? Answering all that and more in this week's Q&A episode.

Moon Dust will be a major problem once people will return and settle there. We need to find ways to clean it from space suits, equipment, etc. In this interview I'm talking with Ian Wells, who is a cryogenics researcher suggesting a way to battle Moon dust with liquid nitrogen.

There could be liquid oceans in the moons of Uranus. Saturn takes the lead for the most moons in the Solar System. James Webb gazes into the Eye of Sauron aka Fomalhaut.

This is the first part of my interview with Dr Cristopher Morrison. In this one, we're discussing the concept of a propulsion system that should allow things like catching up with an interstellar visitor or delivering a telescope to the outer part of the Solar System.

Gravitational waves can reveal things we would never detect otherwise. But different events require different sizes of detectors. In this interview, I'm talking with Waldemar Martens from ESA about a proposed LISAmax mission that will have 259 million kilometer arms and should be able to detect collisions of supermassive black holes.