Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Astronomy and space exploration • Supernovae • Black holes • Radio bursts • Planetary science • Space missions • Habitability • Exoplanets • Galactic phenomena • SETI • Astrobiology • Mars exploration • Space history and future
"The Star Spot" is a podcast dedicated to exploring the realms of astronomy and space exploration. The show features a variety of episodes that delve into the mysteries of the universe, the latest scientific discoveries, and the potential for life beyond Earth. Each episode typically includes an interview with a noteworthy guest, such as astronomers, physicists, and researchers working at the forefront of space science.
Recurring themes in this podcast include the study of celestial phenomena, such as supernovae, black holes, and gravitational waves. The podcast also addresses the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and the challenges of astrobiology, exploring how life might arise and be detected on other planets or moons. Episodes often highlight significant missions and projects undertaken by space agencies like NASA, including their objectives, findings, and the technological advancements they bring.
The podcast goes beyond purely scientific discourse, incorporating discussions on the philosophical and social implications of space exploration. Topics such as the ethical dimensions of human activities in space and the historical context of key scientific milestones are also covered. Additionally, the episodes frequently update listeners on the latest astronomical events and discoveries, providing insight into how new findings can reshape our understanding of the cosmos.
From the detection of exoplanets and the analysis of fast radio bursts to the study of the atmospheric conditions on other planets, "The Star Spot" brings to light a wide array of topics that showcase the dynamic and ever-evolving nature of space science. The podcast serves as a bridge between complex scientific research and public interest, making the wonders of the universe accessible and engaging for its audience.
Episodes:
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Episode 185: Did a Supernova Cause a Mass Extinction?, with Brian Fields
2020-Sep-28
41 minutes
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Episode 184: The Milky Way's First Fast Radio Burst, with Sandro Mereghetti
2020-Sep-14
41 minutes
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Episode 183: COVID-19 Meets the NASA Space Apps Challenge, with James Slifierz
2020-May-25
38 minutes
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Episode 182: Planet Nine or Black Hole One, with Jakub Scholtz
2020-May-11
40 minutes
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Episode 181: Reports of Betelgeuse’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated, with Emily Levesque
2020-Apr-27
41 minutes
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Episode 180: Wormholes through Space and Time, with John Cramer
2020-Apr-06
51 minutes
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Episode 179: Dreams of Floating Cities, with Geoffrey Landis
2020-Mar-02
28 minutes
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Episode 178 Sibling Rivalry at the Centre of the Galaxy, with Smadar Naoz
2020-Feb-03
42 minutes
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Episode 177: The Case of the Missing Dark Matter, with Guo Chi
2020-Jan-20
33 minutes
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Episode 176: Second Genesis, with Jay Melosh
2020-Jan-06
43 minutes
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Episode 175: The Truth is Out There (at the University of Manitoba)
2019-Dec-23
41 minutes
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Episode 174: Fuzzy Dark Matter, with Lachlan Lancaster
2019-Nov-25
33 minutes
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Episode 173: Discovering an Ancient Oasis, with William Rapin
2019-Nov-11
43 minutes
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Episode 172: The Hubble Not-So Constant
2019-Sep-16
34 minutes
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Episode 171: Ploonets: When Moons Go Rogue, with Jorge Zuluaga
2019-Sep-02
41 minutes
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Episode 170: The Mystery of Fast Radio Bursts, with Vikram Ravi
2019-Aug-19
42 minutes
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Episode 169: Science at the Limits (Part 2)
2019-Aug-05
46 minutes
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Episode 168: Celebrating Apollo + Science at the Limits (Part 1)
2019-Jul-22
38 minutes
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Episode 167: Current in Space + The Best of The Star Spot: Nobel laureate Brian Schmidt
2019-Jul-08
31 minutes
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Episode 166: Nanodiamonds are Forever, with Jane Greaves
2019-Jun-10
28 minutes
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Episode 165: Landing on Europa, with Cynthia Phillips
2019-May-27
52 minutes
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Episode 164: Jupiter's Ancient Odyssey, with Simona Pirani
2019-Apr-29
33 minutes
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Episode 163: The Ring Worlds of Saturn, with Bonnie Buratti
2019-Apr-15
40 minutes
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Episode 162: The End is Nowhere Near Nigh, with Fred Adams
2019-Mar-18
36 minutes
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Episode 161: The Boom Time of the Universe, with Rosemary Wyse
2019-Mar-04
32 minutes
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Episode 160: Boom to Bust Part 1: Before the Beginning, with Katrin Heitmann
2019-Feb-18
32 minutes
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Episode 159: Living on the Edge: Are We On the Boundary of an Expanding Universe?, with Ulf Danielsson
2019-Jan-21
40 minutes
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Episode 158: Telling Space Stories, with Rayna Slobodian
2019-Jan-07
27 minutes
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Episode 157: How We Discovered Blazars Cause Mysterious Cosmic Rays
2018-Dec-24
50 minutes
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Episode 156: The Do-It-Yourself Spacesuit, with Cameron Smith
2018-Nov-30
49 minutes
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Episode 155: Artificial Photosynthesis: Taking the Sun on the Road, with Katharina Brinkert
2018-Nov-12
37 minutes
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Episode 154: The Vatican Observatory: Astronomy and Faith in the Modern World, with Cosette Gilmour
2018-Oct-29
21 minutes
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Episode 153: A Reality Check on Terraforming Mars, with Bruce Jakosky
2018-Oct-15
33 minutes
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Episode 152: Alien Viruses, with Ken Stedman
2018-Oct-01
34 minutes
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Episode 151: New Moons of Jupiter, with Scott Sheppard
2018-Sep-17
32 minutes
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Episode 150: At the Birth of Our First Newborn Planet, with André Müller
2018-Sep-03
35 minutes
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Episode 149: The Question of Life on Mars, with David Hamilton
2018-Aug-20
44 minutes
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Episode 148: Does Canada Have a Vision for Space Exploration?, with Chuck Black
2018-Aug-06
40 minutes
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Episode 147: Postcards From Home
2018-Jul-23
12 minutes
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Episode 146: Supernovae and the Evolution of Life on Earth, with Brian Thomas
2018-May-28
28 minutes
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Episode 145: Can Sibling Rivalry Explain This Supernova?, with Stuart Ryder
2018-May-16
35 minutes
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Episode 144: A Rough Upbringing: The Discovery of Stars in the Galaxy’s Core, with Farhad Yusef-Zadeh
2018-Apr-02
35 minutes
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Episode 143: Planet Hunting Goes Extragalactic, with Xinyu Dai
2018-Mar-19
34 minutes
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Episode 142: Jupiter Transformed, with Scott Bolton
2018-Feb-19
39 minutes
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Episode 141: The Mysterious Origin of Superpowerful Radio Blasts, with Jason Hessels
2018-Feb-05
33 minutes
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Episode 140: How Humans Are Healing the Ozone Hole… and Might Just Solve Other Environmental Problems, with Susan Strahan
2018-Jan-22
33 minutes
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Episode 139: Can Alien Life Hitch a Ride on Space Dust?, with Arjun Berera
2018-Jan-08
29 minutes
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Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas everyone!
2017-Dec-24
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Episode 138: Making Contact, with Jill Tarter
2017-Dec-11
53 minutes
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Episode 137: An Alien Asteroid in Our Solar System, with Alan Stern
2017-Nov-27
26 minutes
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Episode 136: So You Want to Become an Astronaut?, with Cordell Grant
2017-Nov-12
44 minutes
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Episode 135: Studying Cosmic Alchemy with Gravitational Waves, with Michael Landry
2017-Oct-30
43 minutes
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Episode 134: Searching for Aliens All-Sky All-the-Time, with Bill Diamond
2017-Oct-02
49 minutes
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Episode 133: Discovering an Asteroid Family Unchanged Since the Birth of the Solar System, with Marco Delbo
2017-Sep-18
45 minutes
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Episode 132: Does Titan Harbour the Building Blocks of Life?, with Ravi Desai
2017-Sep-03
34 minutes
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Episode 131: Heavy Metal Explosion: The Rockstars of the Supernova World, with Matt Nicholl
2017-Aug-21
30 minutes
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Episode 130: There Are How Many More Comets!?, with James Bauer
2017-Aug-07
32 minutes
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Episode 129: Building on Gravitational Wave Astronomy, with Danny Steeghs
2017-Jul-24
36 minutes
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Episode 128: A Shocking Theory About the Multiverse, with Dan Falk
2017-Jul-10
46 minutes
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Episode 127: When Day Becomes Night, with Dan Falk
2017-Jun-26
45 minutes
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Episode 126: SpaceX: A New Paradigm for Space Exploration, with Chris Prophet
2017-Jun-12
42 minutes
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Episode 124: The Best Candidate for Life, with Jason Dittmann
2017-May-15
29 minutes
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Episode 123: Dark Matter Bridging the Galaxies, with Michael Hudson
2017-May-01
31 minutes
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Episode 122: What if the Sun had a Sibling?, with Quinn Konopacky
2017-Apr-17
30 minutes
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Episode 121: Scary Resolutions to the Fermi Paradox, with David Kipping
2017-Mar-20
24 minutes
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Episode 120: When Galaxies Collide, with Gurtina Besla
2017-Mar-06
29 minutes
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Episode 119: From Knots to Donuts: Exotic Possibilities for the Shape of Our Universe, with Paul Sutter
2017-Feb-20
44 minutes
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Episode 118: The Sun: Our Local Mystery, with Terry Kucera
2017-Feb-06
33 minutes
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Episode 117: The Universe is Going Green, with Matt Malkan
2017-Jan-23
36 minutes
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Episode 116: The Transit of Mercury, with Suzanna Nagy
2017-Jan-09
17 minutes
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Episode 115: Searching for Aliens with the World’s Biggest Telescopes, with Dan Werthimer
2016-Dec-26
43 minutes
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Episode 114: The Milky Way's Dark Matter Twin, with Roberto Abraham
2016-Dec-12
42 minutes
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Episode 113: Astronomical Observatories of Ancient Britain, with Gail Higginbottom
2016-Nov-14
44 minutes
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Episode 112: Geysers on Europa, with William Sparks
2016-Oct-31
38 minutes
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Episode 111: Can Supernovae Cause Extinctions!?, with Shawn Bishop
2016-Oct-17
53 minutes
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Episode 110: Peering Into the Void, with Nico Hamaus
2016-Oct-03
28 minutes
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Episode 109: Rethinking Ancient Mayan Astronomy, with Gerardo Aldana
2016-Sep-19
42 minutes
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Episode 108: The Closest Exoplanet Could Be Habitable, with Guillem Anglada-Escudé
2016-Sep-05
39 minutes
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Episode 107: Surveying the Cosmos, with Ludovic Van Waerbeke
2016-Aug-22
24 minutes
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Episode 106: Is Our Solar System Unique? The Complex Process of Planetary Formation, with Aaron Boley
2016-Aug-08
36 minutes
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The Star Spot Episode 105: Ad Astra?, with Zachary Fejes
2016-Jul-25
36 minutes
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The Star Spot Episode 104: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate: The Dream, with Chuck Black
2016-Jul-11
39 minutes
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The Star Spot Episode 103: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate: The Ethics, with John Rummel
2016-Jun-27
37 minutes
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Episode 102: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate - Part 2: The Biology, with Olathe MacIntyre
2016-May-30
35 minutes
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Episode 101: The Great Terraforming Mars Debate - Part 1: The Science, with Paul Delaney
2016-May-16
39 minutes
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Episode 100: The Monster at the Centre of our Galaxy, with Feryal Özel
2016-May-02
37 minutes
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Episode 99 Pulsars and the Detection of Gravitational Waves, with Ingrid Stairs
2016-Apr-18
36 minutes
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Episode 98: What Our Beliefs About Aliens Say About Us!, With Brian Trent
2016-Apr-04
49 minutes
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Episode 97: Making Life in the Lab and Its Implications for Alien Hunting, with Lynn Rothschild
2016-Mar-21
37 minutes
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Episode 96: Did Universe's First Moments Set the Stage for Life?, with Fred Adams
2016-Mar-07
32 minutes
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Episode 95: Galaxy Clusters: The Largest Structures in the Universe, with Gil Holder
2016-Feb-22
49 minutes
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Episode 94: What Alien Intelligence Means for Humanity, with Don Lincoln
2016-Feb-08
53 minutes
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Episode 93: Will the Electric Sail Get Us to Deep Space? with Les Johnson
2016-Jan-25
33 minutes
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Episode 92: Inventing the Electric Solar Sail, with Pekka Janhunen
2016-Jan-11
24 minutes
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Episode 91: Monster Galaxies of the Early Universe, with Henry Joy McCracken
2015-Dec-14
38 minutes
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Episode 90: Discovering the Furthest Object in the Solar System, with Scott Sheppard
2015-Nov-30
32 minutes
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Episode 89: The Surprising Ubiquity of Ice in the Solar System and the Staggering Implications for Life, with David Paige
2015-Nov-16
35 minutes
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Episode 88: Two's Company: From Binary Stars to Binary Supermassive Black Holes, with Pawel Artymowicz
2015-Nov-02
53 minutes
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Episode 87: 147 Years of Astronomy Outreach, with Randy Attwood
2015-Oct-05
53 minutes
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Episode 86: When the Universe Began, with Wendy Freedman
2015-Sep-21
40 minutes
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