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Supernovas and Mass Extinctions
Episode 390
A survey of nearby stars establishes the rate of supernovas in our general neighborhood. Evidence indicates we had nearby stellar explosions at the times of two mass extinctions. Those supernovas may…
Published on 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Life on Hycean Worlds, Interstellar Debris, and Dark Matter Survey
Episode 389
If there are Hycean worlds and if they have a certain kind of microbial life and if there is enough of it, JWST might be able to see the chemical products of that in the planet's atmosphere. We take …
Published on 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Are We Inside a Black Hole?
Episode 388
There are exciting new observations from recent lunar missions, a possible chunk of the Moon keeping us company, and an intriguing observation supporting the theory that the entire universe is inside…
Published on 8 months ago
Oort Cloud Spiral, the Color of Mars, and a New Dwarf Galaxy
Episode 387
We take a look at the formation and structure of the Oort cloud of comets which is spherical at large distances but has a spiral structure in its inner regions. And, after all this time, there's a su…
Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago
Did You Quipu?
Episode 386
Lunar exploration continues to accelerate, and there's a new longest "structure" in the universe. Quipu is a quasi-alignment of clusters of galaxies stretching over 1 billion light years. Structure i…
Published on 8 months, 3 weeks ago
Hubble Tension Won't Go Away But Some Exoplanets Do
Episode 385
The more measurements we make of the expansion of the universe, the more it seems as though Hubble Tension is not a problem with our data but a problem with our understanding of the expansion of the …
Published on 9 months, 1 week ago
Exocomets, Io, and the Great Dimming of T Tauri
Episode 384
Juno reveals a surprise about the interior of Jupiter's volcanic moon Io, and the OG young variable star T Tauri is getting ready to fade from view thanks to its dusty neighbors to the south. Speakin…
Published on 9 months, 3 weeks ago
Little Red Dots and Big Black Holes
Episode 383
The discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope keep coming. After showing that galaxies formed far earlier than we thought, we now have a better understanding of what was going on in the early u…
Published on 9 months, 4 weeks ago
Kiss and Capture for Pluto and Charon and Dark Energy Remains Dark
Episode 382
Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, orbit each other with gazes lovingly fixed on each other, held in place by a romantic tidal attraction. But Charon's large size has always been difficult to explai…
Published on 10 months ago
Quasi Particles, Pluto's Moons, and Cosmic Rays
Episode 381
We kick off 2025 with oddities from quasi particles, to cosmic rays, to the moons of Pluto. What has mass when it moves in one direction and doesn't when it moves in another direction? How do thunder…
Published on 10 months, 1 week ago