How old is the Universe? Why do no missions go to Mars' ice poles? What does X-37B actually do? Why not abandon the SLS? Can Starship solve the problems Starlinks create? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/g…

Planets at Bernard’s Star, Chinese lunar spacesuits, Voyager 2 Has to power down one of its instruments, and a comet seen from space. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:12 Planets found around the Barnard's …

What are the limits for the telescopes of the future? Can you play disk golf on Mars or the Moon? Will all galaxies eventually fade away? When will we launch Voyagers v2.0? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com…

Those aren’t Dyson Spheres they’re hotDOGs, the best gravitational lens in the Universe, new Starlinks are really bright in the radio, and SpaceX recovers its SuperHeavy. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:1…

Are we alone in the Universe? Probably, one of the most important questions one can ask. So, how are we currently trying to answer it and what happens when we finally do? 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 01:2…

What happens if astronauts throw stuff from orbit? Can we travel through a black hole? What is our Sun's place in the Milky Way? How can human spaceflight become profitable? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodrea…

Could we repair missions like JWST and Gaia? Polaris Dawn returns to Earth, did Earth once have rings? and a peanut-shaped asteroid just drifted past Earth. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:16 Repairing mi…

This is an unusual interview for my channel. It's mostly about AI, our current developments and the threats it poses to us. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 01:51 Arrival of LLMs 06:30 Alignment of AI 17:35 E…

What's the maximum speed you can get from a gravity assist? Can we have a double gravitational lens? What do you need to do to a phone to sent it to space? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/…

Polaris Dawn launches and completes the first private spacewalk, the surface of a giant star is resolved with incredible detail, Starliner comes home empty, and amazing new images of Mercury from BepiColumbo. 🌞 Asteroseismology interview: https://youtu.be/pfbo4Ffzf9I 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the …

Stars oscillate. Even the Sun does. And we can learn a lot about them by studying those oscillations. How is it done and what can we learn? Finding out in this interview. 🟣 Guest: Dr. Marc Hon https://mtyhon.github.io/ 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1…

What would it take to bring the Voyagers back to Earth? When will we see a true deep field by Webb? Why is Europa Clipper solar-powered? Why do black holes rotate? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/gro…

Another asteroid hit exactly where astronomers predicted, a monster asteroid rolled Ganymede over onto its side, strange sounds coming from Starliner, and China announces when it’ll try to grab a piece of Mars. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-u…

Interferometers are a great tool for getting incredible resolution without building giant mirrors. Why don't all telescopes use it? What projects should we expect and what could we get from them? What are the challenges? Finding out in this interview! 🟣 Guest: Dr. Gerard van Belle https://lowell.edu/people/gerard-van-belle/ 📜 Big Fringe Telescope: …

Could entangled electrons be used for FTL communications? Will Starship enable better satellites? Could we detect radiation on another world? Are there alternative explanations for black holes? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book c…

Is Betelgeuse a binary star? Starliner is coming home empty. New Glenn is on schedule to launch NASA’s next mission to Mars. NASA’s solar sail unfurls. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 Betelgeuse could …

Why does the Sun have an 11-year cycle? Would I rather have a Venus mission or a Jovian moon mission? Do black holes attract other black holes? Can Chinese astronomers use Hubble/Webb? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: http…

The DART mission is going to create a meteor shower on Earth, an explanation for the Wow! Signal, big problems with New Glenn, and JUICE completes a flyby of both the Earth and Moon. 👉 Plato Interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TofP5yeqNLg 👉 JMG's Wow! Signal Interview: https://youtu.be/4ck9IsczPNU 👉 Everyday Astronaut's Blue Origin Tour: htt…

Have I ever messed up a recording? Are there plans for new space stations? Is there a limit to the size of an orbital rocket? Will humanity survive the next mass extinction event? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://w…

The quest to find an Earth-sized planet around a Sun-like star continues. One of the telescopes that could achieve it is ESA's Plato mission. How will it be able to do it and what should we expect from it? Finding out it this interview. 🟣 Guest: Dr. David Brown https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/physics/research/astro/people/dbrown/ 🔭 Plato Telescope: h…

Vast amounts of water found on Mars, but there’s a catch, Milky Way and Andromeda might not merge after all, a planet found before it gets destroyed, and an easier way to terraform Mars. 👉 Submit Your Questions for Patreon Q&A: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110229335 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the …

The final parsec problem is a mystery that is yet to be answered by cosmology. On paper, supermassive black holes shouldn't merge. But yet they do. Why is it happening? What helps them slow down? Could it be dark matter? Looking for answers in this interview. 🟣 Guest: Dr. Gonzalo Alonso Álvarez 📜 Self-Interacting Dark Matter Solves the Final Parsec…

What's the most challenging part of Astronomy? What happened to Uranus? Which telescope to get for $200? Could we detect Voyager-like spacecraft flying through the solar system? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodread…

Interstellar travel might not be as impossible as most people think. Especially if we adopt the multi-stage approach that we already use in everyday rockets. How can we do it and what results we can expect? Finding out in this interview. 👉 Interstellar Travel Without Breaking Physics with Andrew Higgins: https://youtu.be/SkGRVvA23qI 🟣 Guest: Jeff G…

It’s time for the Perseids meteor shower, Gaia has found hundreds of asteroid moons, Starliner is still in question, and where does the Moon’s atmosphere come from? 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 It's…

Future telescopes like Vera Rubin and Nancy Grace Roman will generate a lot of data. This will be a big challenge. To get ready for it astronomers use simulated observation data. Why is it important and how is it done? Finding out in this interview. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https:/…

What happens to the stuff that falls into black holes? Do supergiants have sunspots? How can you do a gravitational slingshot from the Sun? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-univ…

TRAPPIST-1 is one of the most interesting systems out there. JWST did observe them but we still don't have the results from all of them. Why is that and when can we expect to know something about their atmospheres? Finding out in this interview. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www…

We’ve learned much more from the DART mission, dark oxygen is being generated at the bottom of the ocean, Starliner is almost ready to come home, and we might not need to dig deep to find life on Europa. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe…

John Michael Godier and Universe Today's Fraser Cain discuss the exciting developments in space exploration, focusing on Spacex and the upcoming fifth test launch of Starship. Join us as we discuss the details, analyzing the performance, challenges, and future implications of SpaceX's ambitious project. ⚫️ JMG's Event Horizon: https://www.youtube.c…

What happened at the earliest stages of the Universe and what is it expanding into? Can they just put a telescope inside a Starship? Why do I like the NIAC program so much? Answering all these questions and much more in this week's episode of Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: …

Fluids behave very differently in space. We can make good use of it. For example, a recent NIAC grant was awarded to investigate a Magnetohydrodynamic Drive for Hydrogen and Oxygen Production in Mars Transfer. This is a system that should provide breathing oxygen for a journey to Mars made out of water with no moving parts in it. 🟣 Guest: Dr Alvaro…

Gaia was hit by a micrometeoroid and a solar storm, mapping a lunar lava tube from space, both Mars rovers found fascinating rocks, and a direct image of the closest exo-jupiter. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 In…

What are those lasers shooting out from telescopes? Can we build a space elevator? Could we grow plants in Mars regolith? Why not assemble telescopes in space? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Overtime Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/gro…

It's already been two years of JWST operations. In this episode we accumulated all the major science results, all the amazing images and graphs, all the important discoveries and controversies. Enjoy the ULTIMATE GUIDE to the second year of James Webb. 📺 VIDEO VERSION https://youtu.be/wh4G1Wh79Ck 🥇 All the JWST discoveries from YEAR 1 https://youtu…

Europa Clipper might be delayed. NASA is cancelling its VIPER lunar rover mission. Mapping the dark matter in a dwarf galaxy. And a real-life stillsuit. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:14 Europa Clipper i…

Oumuamua and Borisov were the first interstellar visitors found by humanity. There should be many more of them. How can we find it and what will it mean for Astronomy? Finding out the answers. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book…

This is an episode of our Patreon-exclusive Q&A show that I do with my producer Anton. Join our Patreon. Here's the call for questions for this month's Q&A: https://www.patreon.com/posts/patrons-send-in-108268455 0:00:00 Intro 0:01:12 Summer break 0:04:46 Another Einstein 0:09:52 Detecting nuclear wars on exoplanets 0:11:22 Planets at Proxima Centa…

Can Iron kill stars like poison? Will a Moon telescope be better than JWST? Can a fast-moving star be fatal for the Solar System? Which worlds are the best to extract resources? Answering all these questions and more in this week's episode of Overtime. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: http…

Previously the only way to image black holes was with the Event Horizon Telescope, a combination of many radio telescopes across the globe. It is complicated and time-consuming. But with Vera Rubin going online soon, there might be a simpler way to observe black holes with a single telescope using a really clever method. 🟣 Guest: Dr Matt O'Dowd htt…

This is an interview with me on the Pale Blue Pod podcast. We did talk about publishing in the space and astronomy sector. Enjoy! 🔵 Pale Blue Pod: https://palebluepod.space/ 📺 Video with Moya McTier: https://youtu.be/DFPfG413F58 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/gr…

A strange eye ball world seen by Webb, did ancient astronomers see a kilonova in the sky, extreme moss that could handle Mars, and Ariane 6 flies successfully to space (mostly). 👁️ Anton Petrov's video about the Eyeball planet: https://youtu.be/SQv5yso1CXQ?si=n7FVm-E59YmXLv91 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest book…

Can stars be born without a parent galaxy? Can quasars destroy life in an entire galaxy? Is there another planet in our Solar System after all? Did the Sun have a sibling star at some point? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A show. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: ht…

Seeing an Earth-like planet around a Sun-like star isn't possible with current telescopes. The difference in brightness is just too big. But future space telescopes will have multiple tricks up their sleeve specifically for that. Which ones? Finding out in this interview. 🟣 Guest: Dr Bertrand Mennesson https://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/mennesson/…

Plate tectonics could be incredibly rare, LEGO bricks made from actual space rocks, mapping the Milky Way’s dark matter halo, and Perseverance’s SHERLOC instrument is fully operational again. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-…

China returns samples from the far side of the Moon, SpaceX will be de-orbiting ISS, could you surf the methane waves on Titan, and who knows when Starliner is coming home 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:…

Not every new space mission needs a separate launch and dedicated hardware. With this proposal, there's a huge potential for finding signals from primordial black holes by just using signals from a spacecraft flying to Uranus or Neptune. No additional hardware required. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in t…

How often do objects fall into the Sun? Why do some stars explode as novae, not as Type 1a supernovae? Can the US Army just donate NASA a Hubble 2? Will humans be living underground on Mars? Answering all these questions and more in this week's Q&A. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https:/…

AI is practically everywhere right now. But what practical use does it have in science? How can machine learning and large language models help in Astronomy and Cosmology? What can they look like and what use can we get out of them? 🟣 Guest: Dr Mike Smith https://www.mjjsmith.com/ 👉 AstroPT on GitHub: https://github.com/Smith42/astroPT 👉 AstroPT Di…

How old is Jupiter’s Red Spot, watching a supermassive black hole wake up, the earliest merging quasars, and Starliner still hasn’t come home. 🦄 Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/universetoday 📚 Suggest books in the book club: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1198440-universe-today-book-club 00:00 Intro 00:13 Great Red Spot https://www…