Universe Today Podcasts With Fraser Cain

In this week's questions show, I theorize how long life can survive in the Universe, could we detect a wormhole in the Solar System, what's happening with the Chinese Space Agency? And more... 00:00 Start 00:53 How long can life survive? 04:11 Will a black hole leave a remnant after it evaporates? 06:01 Will we detect biosignatures or technosignatures first? 09:35 Will Lucy make it? 11:29 Could red dwarf stars could become less hectic with time? 14:42 Where does energy go if the Universe becomes static? 16:45 Will James Webb see brown dwarfs? 19:32 Could we detect a wormhole? 21:26 Anything interesting with the Chinese space program lately? 23:23 What happens if a gas giant melts? 25:37 What are the challenges to filming on the ISS? 28:07 Should we be afraid of a meteorite crashing into our roofs? 31:34 When we look up, what class of stars are we seeing? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

My guest today is Dr. Nikku Madhusudhan, a PhD astronomer at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Madhusudhan is one of the researchers who investigated the habitability of "hycean worlds"; ocean worlds with a thick hydrogen ocean. These worlds are completely alien to anything we have in the Solar System, and yet, could have a much wider region that remains habitable than terrestrial planets. https://people.ast.cam.ac.uk/~nmadhu/Nikku_Madhusudhan/Home.html

My guest today is Dr. Hiro Ono, the Group Leader of the Robotic Surface Mobility Group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. Dr. Ono is been awarded a NIAC prize to develop a rover that could crawl into the fascinating vents on Enceladus, to search for evidence of life on this icy world. https://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/people/Masahiro_Ono/

In this week's live questions and answer show, I explain how astronomers measure the distance to gravitational wave events, how clean are spacecraft sent to Mars, and would it be possible to have a sample return mission from Titan? https://www.universetoday.com/150507/a-titan-mission-could-refuel-on-site-and-return-a-sample-to-earth/ 00:00 Start 00:25 How do we calculate the distance of gravitational waves? 03:36 Have Mars spacecraft been sterilized? 05:54 Is a sample return mission possible from Titan? 09:11 How fast would time go if there was no gravity? 11:01 Could a tiny vehicle fly autonomously around the ISS? 12:18 Is NASA planning to impact an asteroid? 14:06 Could space missions be build cheaper? 16:26 What science experiments could be done on a Moon base? 18:50 Will there still be time at the end of the Universe? 20:25 Would a rogue planet catch us off guard? 22:15 Could landers build their own rovers? 24:23 How do launch platforms deal with the rocket exhaust. 25:23 Which solution to the Fermi Parad

In this week's Questions and Answers show, I explain how we'll get the matter to build stuff out in space, what about the matter for a Dyson Sphere? How long will the International Space Station survive? And More... 00:00 Start 00:45 Could we create matter from photons? 03:57 Where are we going to get the matter for a Dyson Sphere? 07:56 What do I think about GPT-3? 11:32 How long will ISS survive? 14:32 What do I think of Foundation? 16:56 Am I a big ripper or big cruncher? 20:37 When will James Webb be online? 23:09 Are the Perseids getting worse? 25:51 Is it dangerous to use a telescope to look at the Sun? 28:00 Why is it hard to get close to the Sun? 29:51 How do we get stuff back from Mars? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

In this week's questions show, I explain why we don't see the same thing multiple times as we look out into the Universe, could a planet orbit in the Lagrange Points of two stars, and why haven't there been any missions to Io? 00:00 Start 00:36 Could we see the same galaxy multiple times? 05:16 Could a planet orbit in an L4/L5 point? 08:31 Why no missions to Io? 10:42 How can we drive space exploration? 13:31 Did Inspiration4 have problems with their toilet? 14:33 Self sufficient colony on Titan? 15:54 Will Webb be able to image nearby planets? 18:02 Will the entire Universe be black holes eventually? 19:29 How far could we reach? 21:25 Will Starship enable more planetary science? 23:32 Would metallic hydrogen be a big deal? 25:25 Will interferometers work well in space? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

In this week's questions show, I jump into the controversy between Blue Origin and SpaceX, explain why bigger telescopes are better, and talk about how Mercury has eternally shadowed craters and could serve as a place for a base. Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

The new season has begun! We're back with an all-new series of question shows. In this week's episode, I provide a quick guide to seeing fireballs (bolides), which are the brightest meteors you can see (and sometimes hear). I explain the philosophy behind Dyson Spheres, and explain why dark matter can't be made out of antimatter. 00:00 Start 00:43 How big are really bright meteors? 04:15 Are Dyson Spheres just pure fantasy? 08:19 What would it take to resolve features on Proxima B? 11:32 Could anti-matter be dark matter? 12:23 Is Jupiter a failed star? 13:15 Would the transmit method let us detect planets in Andromeda? 14:55 Disappearing stars? 17:38 No more Ewok Forest? 18:50 Could a collider create a dangerous black hole? 20:57 Should we find Oumuamua? 23:21 Could we detect techno signatures in Andromeda? 24:45 What's happening on Mars? 27:43 Could we detect an extraterrestrial war? 28:54 Will space-based power work? 30:43 Will Mars be a knowledge-based economy? 32:53 Will we ever live on Venus? 33:21 Is th

My guest today is Dr. Hamsa Padmanabhan, a cosmologist at the University of Geneva. Dr. Padmanabhan's work involves the investigation of Cosmic Dawn, the period shortly after the beginning of the Universe when the large-scale structure of the cosmos was defined. https://cosmology.unige.ch/users/hamsa-padmanabhan

My guest today is Dr. Markus Janson, an astronomy professor at Stockholm University. Dr. Janson and his co-authors have recently published a study investigating if ground-based observatory could use starshades to help directly image exoplanets. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10686-021-09792-y

In the season finale of my questions show, I talk about high-altitude bacteria, traveling into the future, does it make sense to go back to University, and more. See you all in September! 00:00 Start 01:10 How high an altitude can bacteria survive? 04:02 Should I go back to university? 06:29 Could we terraform Venus with comets? 08:49 Could we detect life in Andromeda? 11:04 Could aliens perceive time differently? 13:01 Why do spacecraft use such old hardware? 15:20 What do I think about the billionaire space race? 17:16 How many satellites can we see? 19:31 Would I cryosleep into the future? 20:30 Should we only build smaller space telescopes? 24:40 Did we used to have better knowledge of the cosmos? 27:10 How would life be different close to a black hole? 29:22 Is there a business model for Starship? 31:23 Am I disappointed Trident wasn't chosen by NASA? 33:19 Are we the generation to find life beyond Earth? 34:25 How much better will LIGO get? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on

In this week's questions show, I explain why Dyson Spheres (and Swarms) should actually be pretty easy to detect across the Universe. If it's possible to service the Hubble Space Telescope with a Falcon 9, and will computers take jobs away from astronomers. 00:00 Start 01:04 How could we detect Dyson Swarms? 07:24 How could we hide a Dyson Swarm? 10:03 Could a Falcon 9 service Hubble? 13:02 Will computers replace humans in astronomy? 16:30 Will any Venus missions be able to detect life? 18:43 Could you generate repeating gravitational waves? 20:25 What conventional wisdom will be disproven by science? 23:43 How much longer will Earth be habitable? 26:08 What will drive space exploration? 28:15 Will James Webb let us see more Universe? 29:27 What do I think about the similarity between cosmic filaments compared to the CMB? 30:27 What are some future propulsion systems? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

My guest today is Professor Lee Cronin from the University of Glasgow. Dr. Cronin investigates the chemistry of life and has developed methods that could help us detect it on other worlds - even life as we don't know it. http://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

In this week's questions show, I explain what would happen if scientists discovered an existential threat to humanity. Would they let us know, or keep it secret to avoid a panic? Could we detect a Breakthrough Starshot fleet coming our way? And how well does China communicate its space exploration to the public? 00:00 Start 00:37 Would they tell us about the end of the world? 03:05 Is the Solar System normal? 05:38 Could we detect Breakthrough Starshots? 08:46 How well does China communicate to the public? 11:15 Could we use space junk for 3D printing? 14:02 What do I suggest for aspiring astrophysicists? 17:11 Will there ever be another Grand Tour? 19:47 What determines a planet's orbit? 22:08 Will Blue Origin pick up the pace? 25:02 What if aliens were pure energy? 28:14 Should there be more dark matter inside planets? 29:39 Would alien life be multicellular? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

In this week's questions and answer show, I explain how all the dust in space forms, could life be Von Neumann probes, why do people think black holes lead to another universe, and more... 00:00 Start 00:57 What is space dust? 05:14 Does the Kardashev scale make sense? 08:43 Could life on Earth be Von Neumann probes? 11:31 What should I point my telescope at? 14:23 Why do people think black holes go somewhere? 16:36 Why are we seeing so many asteroids? 19:36 If we can track space debris, shouldn't we be able to detect UFOs? 21:42 Would a warp drive be able to travel within the event horizon of a black hole? 22:59 Could we investigate the atmosphere of gas giants? 26:41 What's the first resource we'll mine off Earth? 29:05 How big is a galaxy? 30:42 Any benefit to stationing a telescope in the outer Solar System? 33:07 What will Space Force accomplish? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

In this week's Q&A, I try to imagine what might happen if a microscopic black hole passed through the Earth. How long will James Webb take to become operational, and what will be the Plan B for James Webb if it fails? 00:00 Start 00:46 What if a microscopic black hole passed through the Earth? 05:25 When will James Webb come online? 06:38 What's plan B for James Webb if it fails? 09:16 Do Oort Clouds overlap? 11:29 Could there be a Tatooine out there? 13:50 Does China plan to colonize Mars? 16:22 Does the US take China's space exploration seriously? 19:50 Are there dark matter planets, suns and people? 22:11 What will the US government disclosure tell us? 25:45 Should I get an astronomy degree? 30:19 Shouldn't there be more black holes at the center of the Milky Way? 32:03 Have we measured the speed of gravity? 33:13 Will AI explore the Universe without us? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

I'm pleased to welcome back Dr. Casey Handmer, a software systems architect at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In addition to his work at NASA, Casey has a fascinating blog where he considers the future of human and robotic space exploration: https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/

In this week's episode, I talk about the various ways we measure the age of the Universe. What's next for OSIRIS-REx? And what are the next frontiers for gravitational wave astronomy? 00:00 Start 00:41 How do we calculate the age of the Universe? 04:32 Will the planets migrate again? 06:36 What's next for OSIRIX-REx? 07:47 What's next for gravitational wave astronomy? 11:27 Does the habitable zone shift as the Sun heats up? 12:59 Will future civilizations know about the Big Bang? 18:17 Could a powerful telescope look beyond the CMB? 20:27 Could a computer become a planet-sized mind? 24:08 Is the CMB shifting away from us? 25:28 Bounties to remove space junk? 30:58 Could rockets be launched from Canada? Want to be part of the questions show? Ask a short question on any video on my channel. I gather a bunch up each week and answer them here.

My guest is Dr. Ken Olum, a research professor at Tufts University. His primary research is into cosmic strings, and how they could be detectable through techniques like gravitational waves.

My guest is Dr. Michael H. Hecht, a research scientist and associate director at MIT's Haystack Observatory. Hecht is also the principal investigator for the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment onboard Perseverance: https://www.haystack.mit.edu/researcher/mike-hecht/