Universe Today podcasts with Fraser Cain

My guest today is Phil Torres, author, journalist and the founder of the X-Risks Institute. He tracks the ways the world could end. He's the author of Morality, Foresight and Human Florishing. An Introduction to Existential Risks

This week I'm joined by Dr. Morgan Rehnberg. Morgan is a planetary scientist, scriptwriter for SciShow Space, and of course, one of the co-hosts of the Weekly Space Hangout.

In this week's QA, I answer if Opportunity could ever phone home, are there stars between galaxies, and who, exactly, is Chad? Featuring a special guest answer from Dr. Becky.

Today I wanted to look back at the history of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. To take you through their creation, launch to Mars, the amazing discoveries they made, and of course, how they finally died.

Dr. Kimberly Cartier is an exoplanet researcher, reporter for Eos Magazine and one of my co-hosts with the Weekly Space Hangout. Join us for a conversation about space, astronomy and the search for extrasolar planets.

In this week's questions show, I explain why SLS is still happening, if we can rule out contamination when we finally find life, and wonder why China is sending spacecraft to the Moon.

Today Fraser is joined by exoplanet researcher Dr. Jason Wright from Penn State University. In addition to the more traditional hunt for exoplanets, Jason is helping define the search for extraterrestrials using all the new techniques available to astronomers.

In this week's QA, I wonder if there were other bombardments, how the Earth could have been oxygen rich, and why the asteroid belt isn't a planet. With a special guest answer from Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut.

Today I hang out with astronomer Dean Regas, author with the Cincinnati Observatory and author of 100 Things to See in the Night Sky.

Astronomers working with the NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton have developed a technique to watch quasars and track the expansion of the Universe over the last 9 billion years. What they found is that the mysterious dark energy that’s currently accelerating the expansion of the Universe doesn’t appear to be a fixed amount. It’s changing, and appears to be increasing over time. If true, it’s a groundbreaking discovery in cosmology, and it could just fortel the end of the Universe.

Geologists think they’ve found the oldest Earth rock ever seen. And they found it in one of the last places you’d ever suspect, on the Moon. When the Apollo 14 astronauts returned their lunar samples back to Earth, they were carrying one rock that had formed on Earth 4 to 4.1 billion years ago, which was carved out of our planet during the time of intense bombardment and delivered to the Moon.

In this week's Questions Show, I wonder if there's a way ion engines can give us artificial gravity, if electromagnetic rail guns can launch space craft, and should we be worried about returning alien pathogens back to Earth?

In this week's Questions Show, I wonder if there's a way ion engines can give us artificial gravity, if electromagnetic rail guns can launch space craft, and should we be worried about returning alien pathogens back to Earth?

Today I hang out with astrophysicist Dr. Paul Sutter to talk about space and his new book, Your Place in the Universe.

As astronomers find more and more planets around other stars, the big question we want to know is: are they habitable, could there be life there?