Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I wonder what would happen if SpaceX failed as a company, why New Horizons can't search for Planet 9, and I ask for your suggestions for new names to call dark matter and dark energy.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Professor Avi Loeb is one of the hardest working astrophysicists in the field, writing a blistering number of academic papers on fascinating topics like the Fermi Paradox, the habitability of other worlds, black holes, and the history of the early universe. He's also one of the people working on the Breakthrough Starshot project to send tiny probes to other star systems.

Support Universe Today Podcast

On this week's live QA, I got a chance to talk with David Brin, a science fiction author, futurist, and an advisor for NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts awards. David and I talked about the Transparent Society, why we should go to asteroids before the Moon or Mars, and some cool ideas coming out of NIAC.

Support Universe Today Podcast

This week Professor Brad Peterson joins me to talk about the capability of the LUVOIR telescope, which is one of the next generation space telescopes NASA is considering as part of its new Decadal Survey.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's QA, I explain why dark matter is really a thing, and not just some made up thing by evil astronomers. How event horizons flatten out when they spin, what kind of scientist I'd want to be, and if you could build a ladder to space.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Just me again, back from Australia answering live questions about the Universe.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Astronomers have finally solved one of the outstanding mysteries in cosmology. Forget about all the dark matter and dark energy, where’s all the missing regular mass in the Universe? This has been called the “missing baryon problem”.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's question's show, I answer what would happen if the Milky Way lost its supermassive black hole, why can't you spiral stuff into the Sun, why do we assume life breathes oxygen?

Support Universe Today Podcast

Until we learned to properly navigate our way across the oceans, early explorers were fearful to lose sight of land in case they’d be lost at sea. They learned to use the water currents, winds, movements of birds and of course, the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the stars to find their way across the seas to distant lands. As we learned to launch spacecraft into orbit and out into the Solar System, mission planners needed to develop entirely new methods of navigation.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's episode, I explain why you can't just calculate the position of Planet 9, why we don't use parachutes to retrieve boosters, and if we can wait 100 million years to see the Great Attractor.

Support Universe Today Podcast

For the first time ever, astronomers have captured a direct image of a newly forming planet orbiting around a newly forming star. It’s a stunning photograph, not only for the science and what was observed, but what it means the future of exoplanetary astronomy.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Live QA with just Fraser this week.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Rocket launches are expensive. Even with huge price drops from SpaceX and other New Space companies, there’s no cheap way to get stuff down here in Earth’s gravity well up to low Earth orbit. In order to really survive and thrive in space, we’ve got to learn to live off the land, to acquire the resources in space that will allow us to survive… in space. We’ve got to learn to turn those raw materials into forms we need: fuel, breathable air, water, construction materials, and eventually even finished goods like rocket parts and electronics.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I answer if it's a good idea to build a space internet, if microbes reach Mars, will they evolve into something new, where could we go after Mars, and more.

Support Universe Today Podcast

This week I'm joined by my Astronomy Cast co-host Dr. Pamela Gay to talk about all things astronomy, and casting.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's QA, I present real pictures of the whole Earth, not some fake CGI, and wonder if Jupiter could be used as a gravitational lens for a space telescope.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's live QA, I was solo again, answering live questions from the audience about Trump's ongoing plans to build a Space Force.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I explain how we now where gravitational waves are coming from, will there be planets around a white dwarf, what does it feel like where the space station is getting boosted, and if I'm an arrogant fool.

Support Universe Today Podcast

The Hubble Space Telescope has been in space for 28 years, producing some of the most beautiful and scientifically important images of the cosmos that humanity has ever taken. But let’s face it, Hubble is getting old, and it probably won’t be with us for too much longer.

Support Universe Today Podcast

This week, it's a live QA with radio astronomer Dr. Nicole Gugliucci to talk about radio telescopes, and how close the movie Contact is to reality.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Space is the worst. It’s got hostile radiation, a total lack of atmosphere, near absolute zero temperatures, problematic gravity wells, and worse. In order to keep your spacecraft alive in that environment, you need electricity to keep it warm. Not to mention all the power to run scientific instruments and the transmitters to send that data home. Getting enough power in space is a big problem.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I talk about entry level telescopes, why we can see galaxies billions of light years away but not objects on the Moon, and why events that won't happen billions of years into the future still make us kind of sad.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Paul was busy last week, but now he's ready to join me for an hour answering your mind bending questions about space and astronomy. Bring all your complex questions about dark matter, black holes and the Big Bang and he'll sort it all out.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Humans are believed to be the most technologically advanced civilization that’s ever set foot on Earth, or really anywhere in the Solar System. But are we the first?

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, astronaut Mike Massimino answers a question about astronaut training, I wonder how we could survive if the Sun dies, and explain why the shuttle's fuel tank was orange.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In my opinion, Eric Berger (aka @sciguyspace) is one of the top journalists working on stories about spaceflight, especially SpaceX, Blue Origins and NASA. Eric will join me live to answer your questions about the state of private and public space exploration.

Support Universe Today Podcast

The observable Universe is finite, which means there are limits to what we can see, now and deep into the future. Dr. Paul Sutter joins Fraser to talk about the various cosmological horizons that surround us.

Support Universe Today Podcast

It was just me this week, answering questions from the YouTube audience.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, the viewers try to suggest names for balloon rockets. Could live from Venus escaped to Earth? Is the Fermi Paradox really a paradox when we've only explored a little bit of the galaxy? And More

Support Universe Today Podcast

People always ask me why we’re stuck with chemical rockets. Seriously, exploding a bunch of hydrogen or kerosene is the best we can do?

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's live QA, Fraser is joined by Dr. Alan Stern, the Principal Investigator of New Horizons and Dr. David Grinspoon to talk about their new book.

Support Universe Today Podcast

When we look out into space, are we really just seeing stars, planets and galaxies which are long dead, ghosts from eons ago? Can black holes consume dark matter? Can we repair Kepler and other dead satellites, and more.

Support Universe Today Podcast

President Trump recently called for the creation of a space force to deal with the future warfighting in space. It turns out, this already exists, space is already well militarized.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's live QA, Fraser is joined by sci-fi author and futurist John Michael Godier.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, Fraser wonders if lava tubes are stable, the best places to extract resources from the Solar System, and why the US has to pay for everyone's science.

Support Universe Today Podcast

The European Space Agency just dropped an enormous amount of data onto the scientific community. The location and position of 1.7 billion stars in the Milky Way.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's live QA, Fraser talks to CodyDon Reeder, the host and self-taught chemist and mad scientist from the popular YouTube channel Cody's Lab.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's episode, Fraser talks about how you can support the creators you love, why NASA doesn't make duplicates of its spacecraft, and what binoculars he's using.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's live QA, Fraser welcomes futurist Isaac Arthur to talk about a range of topics, from SpaceX to Breakthrough Starshot, and what we think about the state of sci-fi on TV.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, Fraser gets excited about the NIAC awards, considers how NASA will deal with a fully operational BFR, and a special guest answer from Professor David Kipping from Columbia University's Cool Worlds lab.

Support Universe Today Podcast

Once a week I'll be opening up the livestream on my YouTube channel and taking questions from the audience, as well as inviting special guests to join me. I didn't think about turning into this into a podcast, so I apologize. Next time I'll be more careful about making sure I read out the questions carefully for audio listeners.

Support Universe Today Podcast

We’re now entering the final days for NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. It’s running out of fuel and already crippled by the loss of its reaction wheels. In just a few months NASA will shut it down for good. That is sad, but don’t worry, NASA’s next planet hunting spacecraft, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Telescope is on the launchpad and ready to fly to space to take over where Kepler left off. Finding Earth-sized worlds in the Milky Way.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, Fraser explains how space debris hunting satellites could also be used as weapons, why his green screen is always set to Endor, and ways to find nearby places for stargazing.

Support Universe Today Podcast

The Moon and Mars will probably be the first places in the Solar System that humanity will try to live after leaving the safety and security of Earth. But those worlds are still incredibly harsh environments, with no protection from radiation, little to no atmosphere, and extreme temperatures. Living on those worlds is going to be hard, it’s going to be dangerous. Fortunately, there are a few pockets on those worlds that’ll make it a tiny little bit easier to get a foothold in the Solar System: lava tubes.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's QA, I wonder if we could use the speed of light to see ourselves in the past, how the Mars rovers clean their solar panels, and if aliens would infect us with their bacteria and viruses.

Support Universe Today Podcast

We’re now learning that icy worlds seem to be the best places in Solar System where life could be hiding. Worlds like Europa and Enceladus, which have vast oceans of liquid water beneath a shell of water ice. Clearly we need to explore these worlds, to go deep down beneath the ice to explore the ocean depths. But how do you drill through kilometers of ice to reach it?

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I wonder if the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to find satellites around other stars, what my favorite sci-fi FTL method is, and why can't we see Mars as a bright object in the sky?

Support Universe Today Podcast

With modern computer graphics, it’s sometimes hard to know which is an actual photograph of space, and what’s an illustration or a 3D rendering. Some really fascinating discoveries don’t have a pretty picture to go along with them, so illustrations are created to help us understand.

Support Universe Today Podcast

In this week's questions show, I explain why I never get to the point, if we'll ever reach interstellar space, and how we'd get down below the ice sheet on Europa.

Support Universe Today Podcast

If we want to live and work in space for long periods of time, we’ll need to conquer the lack of gravity and its effects on the human body. We’ll want to come up with some kind of artificial gravity. Futurists imagine huge rotating space stations, but realistically there are strategies that could provide artificial gravity for the times that we need it, and allow us to survive in space forever.

Support Universe Today Podcast