Universe Today Podcast

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Episode 386: QA 39: Galactic Escape Velocity and More... Featuring Astronaut Terry Virts Dec 10, 2017

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In this week’s question show, Fraser explains why almost everything in the Solar System is spinning in the same direction, is there a limit to how massive black holes can get, and do galaxies have an escape velocity?

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Episode 385: 332 - Can We Protect Astronauts Dec 07, 2017

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Space is our future, but space is also a deadly place, with poisonous radiation and an increased risk of cancer. We’re protected here on Earth thanks to our planet’s magnetosphere, but is there a way to create an artificial magnetosphere and shield astronauts?

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Episode 384: 333 - How Do Planets Shift Orbits Dec 07, 2017

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We once thought our Solar System was normal, average. How wrong we were, how varied the planetary systems are out there. It turns out, the migration of planets played a huge role in the Solar System we see today.

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Episode 383: QA 38: Measuring a Black Hole’s Spin and more. Featuring Andy Weir Author of the Martian Dec 01, 2017

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In this week’s question show, Fraser explains how astronomers measure the spin rate of black holes, other uses of gravitational slingshots, and why everyone is talking about Patreon.

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Episode 382: QA 37: Why Am I Such a SpaceX Hater (or Fanboy)? And More... Nov 14, 2017

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In this week’s question show, Fraser explains his thoughts on SpaceX, what he does for his regular job, and wonders if you could use a black hole to perform gravitational slingshots, whether planets could hide in Lagrange points, and growing trees on Mars.

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Episode 381: 331 - What Is Eternal Inflation Nov 13, 2017

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In order to get the large scale structure of the Universe we see today, cosmologists have proposed the idea of inflation, that the Universe expanded an enormous amount in the earliest moments. But if inflation really happened, then it has even stranger implications for the nature of the Universe and the search for multiverses.

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Episode 380: 330 - Going Back To The Moon Nov 08, 2017

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On October 5th, 2017, US Vice President Mike Pence announced that NASA is going back to the Moon. He didn’t provide any other details, just some kind of moonward directed space exploration. And it turns out they won’t be the only ones. The Moon is going to be a busy busy place.

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Episode 379: QA 36: Growing Plants in Lunar Regolith? And More Oct 30, 2017

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In this week’s question show, Fraser wonders if we’ll be able to grow crops in lunar soil, if the Moon has been changing over time, and what title does Elon Musk get when he colonizes Mars.

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Episode 378: 329 - What Is An Electric Sail Oct 24, 2017

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We’re all familiar with the idea of solar sails to explore the Solar System, using the light pressure from the Sun. But there’s another propulsion system that could harness the power of the Sun, electric sails, and it’s a pretty exciting idea.

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Episode 377: 328 - Kilonova Oct 20, 2017

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Astronomers have made the groundbreaking detection of two neutron stars colliding in a galaxy 130 million light years away. They detected the gravitational waves AND the blast of radiation released from the collision, observing a kilonova for the first time.

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