Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Astronomy news and scientist interviews • Space missions and telescopes (JWST, XRISM, lunar/Mars, asteroids) • Black holes, gravitational waves, fast radio bursts • Cosmology: dark energy, CMB tensions • Exoplanets, planet formation, astrobiology/technosignatures
This podcast covers astronomy and space-science news alongside interviews with researchers involved in recent discoveries and missions. Across the episodes, the hosts discuss developments spanning the Solar System, exoplanets, stellar evolution, galaxies, and cosmology, often connecting new observations to the underlying instruments and methods that made them possible.
A recurring focus is the lifecycle of cosmic objects: how planets and moons form in dusty, ice-rich environments; how stars evolve and die in events such as supernovae and nebula formation; and how extreme phenomena like black holes, tidal disruption events, quasars, cosmic rays, and fast radio bursts are detected and interpreted. Several discussions highlight open questions and tensions in modern cosmology, including measurements of the early Universe and ideas related to dark energy, as well as how observations of the cosmic microwave background constrain theory.
Space missions and observatories are another major theme. The show frequently explains the goals and status of robotic exploration (Moon, Mars, asteroids, Jupiter’s moons, the Sun), planetary defense efforts, and the science return from major facilities such as JWST, ALMA, LIGO, and X-ray satellites. Attention is also given to the practical realities of doing astronomy, from instrument building and large cameras to the impacts of satellite megaconstellations on observing.
The podcast also returns to the search for life beyond Earth, treating proposed biosignatures, Venus and ocean-world habitability, and technosignatures with an emphasis on uncertainty and scientific process, and it occasionally highlights contributions from amateur astronomers and public-participation observing projects.
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Episodes:
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Northern Lights, New Camera, Cosmological Action
2024-May-25
53 minutes
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Dust to dust
2024-Apr-19
42 minutes
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XRISM and Matter's Final Screams
2024-Feb-13
49 minutes
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2023 Review and 2024 look-ahead
2024-Jan-02
23 minutes
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The "What the Heck" Particle
2023-Dec-20
21 minutes
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Planet Bashing and Dipsticks of the Universe
2023-Nov-21
46 minutes
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Life, but not as we know it?
2023-Oct-04
20 minutes
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National Astronomy Meeting - part 2
2023-Aug-21
30 minutes
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NAM 2023
2023-Jul-19
60 minutes
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Tidal Transients
2023-Jun-01
44 minutes
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From exploding rockets to burping galaxies
2023-May-04
30 minutes
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Black Holes: Saviours of the Universe?
2023-Apr-06
56 minutes
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Staring at the Dawn of Time - part 2
2023-Mar-12
30 minutes
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Staring at the Dawn of Time - part 1
2023-Feb-16
41 minutes
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Happy Birthday JWST
2022-Dec-23
42 minutes
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The Future of Space Exploration
2022-Dec-01
22 minutes
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On board with DART
2022-Nov-03
27 minutes
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Gravitational Field Trip - part 2
2022-Sep-12
37 minutes
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Gravitational Field Trip - part 1
2022-Aug-04
48 minutes
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Amateur Advances
2022-Jul-02
33 minutes
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Space Environmentalism
2022-Jun-02
52 minutes
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Routine Spaceflight?
2022-May-05
21 minutes
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Shadow of War
2022-Mar-31
28 minutes
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Venus resurfaces
2022-Mar-03
28 minutes
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Radio repeater
2022-Feb-07
41 minutes
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Mysterious travellers bearing gifts
2021-Dec-30
33 minutes
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The Cosmic Webb
2021-Dec-06
48 minutes
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Lucy in the Sky with Trojans
2021-Nov-04
41 minutes
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Supernova Detective Story
2021-Sep-30
22 minutes
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It's the Small Things - Exomoons
2021-Sep-08
32 minutes
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Herding Megacomets
2021-Jul-30
34 minutes
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Cosmic Developments
2021-Jul-01
28 minutes
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Learned Societies and Society Learning
2021-Jun-02
47 minutes
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Revisting Venus
2021-Apr-29
24 minutes
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Catching a Shooting Star
2021-Mar-30
38 minutes
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Astrobiology and Technosignatures
2021-Mar-03
37 minutes
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The Martian Triple
2021-Feb-02
50 minutes
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Review of the decade and Galactic dynamics
2020-Dec-31
26 minutes
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Watery Worlds and Tumbling Telescopes
2020-Nov-28
38 minutes
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Asteroid Tagging and Stellar Spaghettification
2020-Oct-29
30 minutes
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It's (Almost) Never Aliens
2020-Sep-14
23 minutes
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Black holes - too big and too small
2020-Sep-03
42 minutes
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Solar Orbiter: Not Suitable for Vegetarians
2020-Jul-30
33 minutes
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Mass Gaps and Radio Bursts
2020-Jul-02
41 minutes
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SmallSpark
2020-Jun-04
26 minutes
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Hubble at 30
2020-May-01
50 minutes
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Isolation Space
2020-Apr-03
28 minutes
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Out with the old, in with the new
2020-Feb-27
35 minutes
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Dimming stars, Galactic waves and misbehaving gas clouds
2020-Jan-31
25 minutes
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What the future holds
2019-Dec-29
27 minutes
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Stellar Explosions and Interstellar Visitors
2019-Nov-28
35 minutes
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Interstellar Comets, black holes and gravitational waves
2019-Oct-31
41 minutes
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Habitable zones, Lunar landers and Interstellar interlopers
2019-Sep-26
19 minutes
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Lunar Gateways, Belching Black Holes and Warped Galaxies
2019-Sep-03
24 minutes
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Robotic Explorers
2019-Aug-01
38 minutes
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The slowly spinning Sun, Starlink and Spiral Surprises
2019-Jun-28
37 minutes
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Bonus: Herschel 10 years on
2019-May-30
52 minutes
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Biomarkers, near-misses and anniversaries
2019-May-30
25 minutes
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Engine failures to event horizons
2019-Apr-30
20 minutes
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Flying space-shrapnel and a misbehaving Universe
2019-Apr-02
53 minutes
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Hopping spacecraft and Rosalind the Rover
2019-Mar-01
40 minutes
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Cartwheeling snowmen and raining rings
2019-Jan-31
28 minutes
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2018: a year in space
2018-Dec-30
17 minutes
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Kepler's Legacy
2018-Nov-29
31 minutes
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Changing with the times
2018-Nov-01
32 minutes
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Vulcans, dust storms, and Water on Mars
2018-Sep-27
40 minutes
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Parking near the Sun
2018-Aug-30
27 minutes
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Icy Moons and Ice Cubes
2018-Jul-25
44 minutes
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Organics, asteroids and Nobel Prize winners
2018-Jun-28
26 minutes
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Bonus: In conversation with a Nobel Prize Winner
2018-Jun-27
71 minutes
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Missions to Mars and plumes from Europa
2018-May-31
24 minutes
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Exoplanet Missions and EWASS roundup
2018-Apr-25
35 minutes
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Remembering Stephen Hawking
2018-Mar-28
39 minutes
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March Bonus: Stephen Hawking's Theories
2018-Mar-28
18 minutes
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Tumbling Space Cucumbers and 5000 sols on Mars
2018-Feb-28
55 minutes
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Glitterballs, habitable exoplanets and supermassive stars
2018-Jan-31
34 minutes
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Planetary Response Network and 2017 Review
2017-Dec-30
43 minutes
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The Star That Would Not Die
2017-Nov-29
29 minutes
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Gravity and Light
2017-Oct-25
27 minutes
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Cassini’s Grand Finale
2017-Oct-03
29 minutes
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Totally Eclipsed
2017-Aug-31
40 minutes
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Stars, Supernovae and Geysers
2017-Aug-02
39 minutes
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Gravitational Waves and Life from Venus?
2017-Jul-01
27 minutes
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Cassini’s Grand Finale
2017-May-31
40 minutes
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The Astronomer Royal and Potatoes on Mars
2017-Apr-24
31 minutes
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TRAPPIST-1 and other stories
2017-Mar-27
36 minutes
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Backyard Worlds
2017-Feb-28
30 minutes
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Star Attractions
2017-Jan-30
26 minutes
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Assassin Supernova
2016-Dec-19
33 minutes
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the GLEAM Survey
2016-Nov-28
41 minutes
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Rosetta & OSIRIS-Rex
2016-Sep-26
27 minutes
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Proxima b
2016-Aug-26
19 minutes
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Mission Juno
2016-Jul-28
28 minutes
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The Origins of Black Holes
2016-Jun-30
22 minutes
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New worlds
2016-May-26
32 minutes
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Interplanetary explorers
2016-Apr-29
24 minutes
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to Mars – and Beyond!
2016-Mar-31
23 minutes
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the Voice of Einstein
2016-Feb-25
36 minutes
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2015 round-up and Tim Peake
2015-Dec-19
27 minutes
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Einstein’s Revolution
2015-Nov-28
32 minutes
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Water on Mars – Again!
2015-Oct-29
25 minutes
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AstroCamp and Galaxies
2015-Sep-28
31 minutes
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In conversation with Mark McCaughrean
2015-Aug-27
33 minutes
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New Horizons at Pluto
2015-Jul-30
33 minutes
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Radio astronomy close-up
2015-Jun-28
26 minutes
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Solar System round-up
2015-May-28
18 minutes
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End of the Messenger
2015-Apr-30
30 minutes
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Pythagoras’ Trousers: Making the Invisible, Visible
2015-Apr-02
29 minutes
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Eclipses and the nature of Gravity
2015-Mar-26
21 minutes
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Solar Eclipses and Planck results
2015-Feb-26
34 minutes
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Beagle 2, and the “Year of the Dwarf Planet”
2015-Feb-04
16 minutes
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ExoMars
2014-Dec-19
22 minutes
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Adventures of Philae
2014-Nov-27
27 minutes
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MAVEN to Mars
2014-Nov-05
25 minutes
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in conversation with Alastair Reynolds
2014-Aug-18
29 minutes
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National Astronomy Meeting 2014
2014-Jun-30
21 minutes
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Cambridge Science Festival and Gravitational Waves from Inflation
2014-Apr-01
27 minutes
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Asteroids, supernovae and National Astronomy Week
2014-Feb-28
16 minutes
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