Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ astronomy and cosmology explainers • life in the universe/astrobiology • exoplanets, exomoons, exocomets • habitability around stars, galactic habitable zones • space missions and telescopes (JWST, Gaia, Euclid, Voyager) • black holes, dark energy, early universe, stellar evolution
This podcast follows astronomer Dr Emily Brunsden and co-host Dr Chris Stewart as they explore a wide range of astronomy and space-science topics, often using recent research papers, mission updates, and news headlines as jumping-off points for deeper explanations. Across the episodes, the show frequently connects “big picture” questions in cosmology—such as dark energy, the universe’s expansion, and the early moments after the Big Bang—with the practical ways scientists gather evidence, from sky surveys and space telescopes to gravitational-wave detectors and spectroscopy.
A major through-line is the search for life beyond Earth. The conversations work outward from the prerequisites for life—stars and their activity, habitable zones, and planetary environments—to candidate locations in both our Solar System (Mars and icy moons) and around other stars, including discussions of biosignatures and future observatories designed to detect them. Related episodes examine exoplanets and their atmospheres, along with harder-to-detect “exo” targets like exomoons and exocomets.
The podcast also spends substantial time on the life cycles of stars and extreme objects, covering novae and supernovae, white dwarfs, black holes across different mass ranges, and energetic phenomena like gamma-ray bursts and ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Solar-system science appears via asteroid sample returns, planetary formation, comets, Jupiter studies, and lunar exploration missions. Occasional departures into applied physics and public-facing astronomy include topics like aurorae, eclipses, and using cosmic particles to probe structures on Earth.
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Episodes:
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s3e4: What IS Life, Anyway?
2026-Jan-28
74 minutes
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s3e3: Solar System Sanctuaries
2025-Dec-04
71 minutes
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s3e2: Habitats in the Void
2025-Nov-19
60 minutes
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s3e1: First, You Need Light
2025-Oct-31
61 minutes
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s2e6: Experimental Extraterrestrial Exo-Observatory
2025-Mar-08
49 minutes
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s2e5: Exotelescope Expeditions
2025-Jan-17
56 minutes
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s2e4: Exoplanet Extrapolation
2025-Jan-03
50 minutes
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s2e3: Exoplanets ExoWrapped
2024-Dec-19
56 minutes
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s2e2: Exocomet Excitation
2024-Nov-28
57 minutes
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s2e1: Exomoon Expectation
2024-Nov-13
55 minutes
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Introducing Syzygy Season Two!
2024-Nov-08
1 minute
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122: Syzygy Live! — The Power of Seeing It For Yourself
2024-Jul-19
63 minutes
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121: Dark Bubbles of Weakness
2024-Jun-04
49 minutes
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120: Biggest Small Black Hole
2024-Apr-29
48 minutes
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119: Astrocampus Turns Ten!
2024-Apr-18
47 minutes
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118: Sextuplet Symphony
2024-Jan-30
61 minutes
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117: SLIM chance of Moon landing?
2024-Jan-23
67 minutes
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116: Black Hole Sun
2024-Jan-15
61 minutes
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115: Zevatron in the Void
2023-Dec-08
52 minutes
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114: A Burst of Tellurium
2023-Nov-21
50 minutes
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113: White Dwarf Destiny
2023-Nov-06
54 minutes
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112: Unexpected JuMBOs
2023-Oct-09
58 minutes
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111: Special Asteroid Delivery
2023-Oct-02
43 minutes
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110: Euclid's Five Big Questions
2023-Sep-13
61 minutes
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109: Something From Nothing?
2023-Jun-25
54 minutes
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108: Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse! Betelgeuse!
2023-Jun-08
57 minutes
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107: Biggest Bang Ever! (Again?)
2023-May-28
60 minutes
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106: Star Eats Planet
2023-May-08
48 minutes
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105: Back To The Moon (2023 Edition)
2023-May-02
56 minutes
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104: Biggest Black Hole
2023-Apr-25
53 minutes
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103: Red Dwarf Paradox
2023-Mar-18
52 minutes
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102: Breaking The Universe
2023-Mar-14
57 minutes
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101: Spin Down Earth
2023-Mar-06
56 minutes
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100: Just Wonderful To Be Back!
2023-Jan-23
58 minutes
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99: Black Holes & Big News
2022-May-13
10 minutes
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98: New Nova
2022-Apr-29
61 minutes
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97: Biggest Comet Ever!
2022-Apr-22
61 minutes
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96: Space Particles Probe Pyramids
2022-Apr-15
76 minutes
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95: Baby Planets (& Moons!)
2022-Apr-10
71 minutes
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94: A Star Is Born
2022-Apr-02
64 minutes
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93: Baby Galaxies
2022-Mar-26
57 minutes
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92: Baby First Stars
2022-Mar-19
59 minutes
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91: Baby Universe
2022-Mar-11
69 minutes
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90: Touching The Sun
2021-Dec-21
57 minutes
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89: Diverting Dimorphos with DART
2021-Dec-05
59 minutes
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88: Galaxy Munchies
2021-Nov-23
49 minutes
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87: Star Go Boom!
2021-Nov-16
54 minutes
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86: Extragalactic X-Ray Exoplanet
2021-Nov-02
48 minutes
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85: Lucy In The Sky With Trojans
2021-Oct-26
49 minutes
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84: Spot Speeds Up
2021-Oct-19
53 minutes
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83: James Webb Set For Launch (Honestly!)
2021-Oct-12
57 minutes
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82: Billionaires In Space!
2021-Jul-19
70 minutes
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81: To Infinity And Beyond!
2021-Jun-29
59 minutes
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80: Mapping the Unseeable
2021-Jun-22
56 minutes
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79: Voyager Hears A Hum
2021-Jun-01
52 minutes
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78: Muons broke my physics!
2021-May-11
68 minutes
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77: A Night In The Life Of An Astronomer
2021-Mar-18
63 minutes
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76: Everybody's Going To Mars
2021-Mar-05
62 minutes
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75: Story of the Sun
2021-Feb-12
62 minutes
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74: Vale Arecibo
2021-Jan-14
62 minutes
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73: Blanets & Squeezars
2020-Dec-15
59 minutes
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72: Nobel Black Holes
2020-Oct-20
73 minutes
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71: Penguins on Venus?
2020-Sep-22
48 minutes
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70: Syzygy Summer Spectacular
2020-Jul-28
65 minutes
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69: Solar Secrets & Nebulous Neutrinos
2020-Jul-16
56 minutes
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68: Birth Of A Planet
2020-Jul-03
49 minutes
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67: The Mystery of Dark Matter — Live from the York Festival of Ideas!
2020-Jun-24
60 minutes
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66: Inscrutable Neutrons & Perplexing Pulsars
2020-May-22
57 minutes
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65: Burbidge Burbidge Fowler & Hoyle
2020-May-15
55 minutes
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64: Almost A Good Comet
2020-May-07
41 minutes
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63: A Pair Of Delta Scuti Lambda Boos
2020-Apr-22
38 minutes
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62: The Cosmic Sponge
2020-Mar-28
54 minutes
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61: Biggest Bang Eva!
2020-Mar-13
45 minutes
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60: Big Moons!
2020-Mar-06
49 minutes
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59: Living With A Star
2020-Feb-28
46 minutes
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58: Astronomical Pancake Theory
2020-Feb-19
50 minutes
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57: Ancient Stardust and Gaia Sausage
2020-Jan-26
45 minutes
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56: No Bang For Betelgeuse?
2020-Jan-17
49 minutes
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55: The Starlink Controversy
2019-Dec-27
42 minutes
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54: Black Hole Redemption
2019-Dec-20
39 minutes
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53: ’Tis the season(ality)
2019-Dec-13
39 minutes
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52: Live from the Podcast Social Club!
2019-Dec-04
43 minutes
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51: Mercury in Transit!
2019-Nov-16
43 minutes
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50: Imposter Comet!
2019-Nov-11
43 minutes
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49: The Syzygy Planet Hunter's Guide
2019-Nov-06
66 minutes
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48: Wobbly Stars & Exoplanets
2019-Oct-26
45 minutes
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47: The Milky Way Explodes!
2019-Oct-19
35 minutes
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46: Dark Energy And The End Of The Universe
2019-Oct-11
49 minutes
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45: Biggest Neutron Star Ever!
2019-Oct-07
46 minutes
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44: Waterworld?
2019-Sep-27
38 minutes
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43: Moss Piglets in Spaaace!
2019-Sep-20
38 minutes
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World's First Trans-Galactic Podcast!
2019-Sep-09
7 minutes
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42: Life, The Universe, And Everything
2019-Sep-09
48 minutes
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Teaser: a special Ep 42 event
2019-Sep-02
2 minutes
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(Live) The Great Syzygy Space Off!
2019-Aug-13
53 minutes
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41: Cosmic Microwave Background (Scopes on a Balloon!)
2019-Jul-28
53 minutes
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40: One Giant Leap
2019-Jul-21
65 minutes
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39: Ridiculously Large Telescopes
2019-Jun-30
47 minutes
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38: Blue Twinkly Supergiants
2019-Jun-14
34 minutes
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37 (supplemental): Syzygy Film Club!
2019-May-14
4 minutes
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37: Crazy Donut Moon Theory
2019-May-11
41 minutes
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36: Scopes On A Plane!
2019-May-03
35 minutes
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35: THAT Black Hole Image
2019-Apr-23
46 minutes
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34: This System's Got Everything!
2019-Apr-05
34 minutes
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33: Goldilocks Zones around Binary Stars
2019-Mar-21
38 minutes
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32: A Mysterious Box of Asteroid Stuff
2019-Mar-15
38 minutes
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31: LIGO Gets An Upgrade
2019-Feb-22
57 minutes
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30: Stardust, or Cosmic Poo?
2019-Feb-15
39 minutes
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29: The Serendipitous Rings of Saturn
2019-Feb-08
39 minutes
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28: All Exoplanets Are Exciting
2019-Jan-25
46 minutes
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27: Up A Mountain In NZ
2018-Dec-25
23 minutes
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26: How To Build A Solar System
2018-Dec-19
40 minutes
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25: Picture The Sky
2018-Dec-10
48 minutes
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24: Black Holes Feeding On Colliding Galaxies
2018-Nov-23
38 minutes
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23: Syzygy Live! from YorNight 2018
2018-Nov-19
41 minutes
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22: How To Measure The Universe
2018-Nov-09
48 minutes
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21: BepiColombo goes to Mercury
2018-Nov-02
45 minutes
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20: Photo of a Black Hole
2018-Oct-26
38 minutes
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19: Moons, Exomoons & Moonmoons
2018-Oct-19
42 minutes
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18: Mysterious Planet 9
2018-Oct-12
40 minutes
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17: Quantum Conspiracy Theory
2018-Sep-28
12 minutes
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Episode 16: Einstein at the Heart of the Galaxy
2018-Aug-10
37 minutes
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Episode 15: A Salty Lake on Mars
2018-Aug-03
34 minutes
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Episode 14: Total Eclipse of the Moon
2018-Jul-26
37 minutes
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Episode 13: Neutrino Messenger from a Distant Blazar
2018-Jul-20
35 minutes
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Episode 12: The Light Fantastic
2018-Jul-06
36 minutes
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Episode 11: Black Hole Eats Star, Then Burps
2018-Jun-29
44 minutes
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Episode 10: So you want to be an astronomer?
2018-Jun-22
44 minutes
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Episode 09: Life on Mars?
2018-Jun-15
38 minutes
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Episode 08: The Frozen Dunes of Pluto
2018-Jun-08
38 minutes
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Episode 07 (supplemental): Octopuses from Space!
2018-Jun-01
7 minutes
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Episode 07: Plumes of Ice on Europa
2018-May-25
43 minutes
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Episode 06: Galaxy Pile Up Causes Cosmic Chaos!
2018-May-20
32 minutes
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Episode 05: Diamonds from Space!
2018-May-04
31 minutes
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Episode 04: The Music Of The Stars
2018-Apr-27
32 minutes
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Episode 03: Holding Our Breath For TESS!
2018-Apr-19
38 minutes
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Episode 02: Dark Matter Is Out There, Even When It's Not
2018-Apr-13
29 minutes
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Episode 01: Planets, in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
2018-Apr-05
33 minutes
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Episode 00: A Syzygy Sneak Peek
2018-Apr-03
3 minutes
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