The Astroholic Explains

Chris and I decided to find out when humans realized that meteorites came from beyond Earth: it could be a lot older than it was once thought! Egyptologist Dr Victoria Almansa-Villatoro joins us to discuss meteorite artifacts and intriguing hieroglyphs from Ancient Egypt.

We are talking about ancient aliens. (No, not the racist conspiracy theory!) We look into the concept of extraterrestrials over history and how it originated. Who were the first recorded people who pondered about life outside Earth?

In this episode, we tackle the classic concept of sound in space, what can we measure, and why it is important that some sound waves move through the cosmos.

Our Sun and many other stars will become larger later in life. But is this a condition common to all stars? Guest questioner Francis wonders about the future of stars and their ultimate demise!

Planets in sci-fi are often portrayed as having a single climate, but how truthful is that idea? This audience question gets the full treatment from Alfredo & Chris as they deal with the tatooines, hoths, risas, synnaxes of the real universe!

In this episode, Alfredo and Chris are joined by cosmologist Professor Peter Coles. Together they explore the limits of the visible universe, whether finite or infinite, why there is no center, and what might be beyond the most distant region we can see.

We don't know and will likely never know what happened before the Big Bang, but Chris is curious about it, so we take a journey in the land before time and space!

Conspiracy theories and misconceptions about the Moon extend far beyond the Moon-landing! In this episode, we take a trip 4.5 billion years into the past to witness how Luna came to be.

When we think of asteroid impacts, we often just picture Chicxulub and the mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, 66 million years ago. But asteroid impacts can be less impactful to life, like the Popigai and Chesapeake impactors - not as big as Chicxulub but still big enough to create craters of over 80 kilometers across, way back around 35 million years ago. Cosmic material could even actually help life bloom.

We talk about everything, everywhere all at once as we enter the multiverse! In this episode, we describe some ideas that scientists have proposed to explain things we see in the universe with no explanation, or simply to indulge in the idea of parallel dimensions.

In this episode, we focus on alternative energy approaches for future missions to Mars. NASA Ames' Dr Victoria Hartwick has recently published research about utilizing wind power on Mars, showing that it is not all solar or nuclear when it comes to exploring other worlds in the Solar System.

In this episode, we talk all about JUICE, the European Space Agency mission that launches today April 13 to study the Icy moons of Jupiter (Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) and the Jovian system - and also why I am in Germany to make a mocktail!

Our Christmas Special this year is a little tale of realistic sci-fi, set just a few years from now. An astronaut is being interrogated about the events that took place in a space station around the Moon: The Gateway. Playing the characters are Chris and Alfredo, with a cameo from the ever-wonderful Katy Evans.

Measuring the length of a day on Earth is relatively easy thanks to the Sun and stars. But it isn't as easy on some of the other planets, and astronomers had to get pretty clever to actually achieve those measurements. We spoke to Dr Chris Mankovich who was able to measure the length of a day on Saturn via an ingenious method.

We got to play with a Unistellar telescope and even collect data about an exoplanet, to learn we talked with Unistellar Chief Scientific Officer Dr Franck Marchis

In the zone of avoidance, far from us, something is pulling the Milky Way and so many other galaxies. It is time to meet The Great Attractor, a fascinating gravitational object.

On Earth, quakes are caused by the motion of the tectonic plates. Quakes also happen on the Moon and Mars without them, and Chris is curious to find out how they occur as well as to listen to one of these outer-world quakes. 

In this episode, Chris is curious about a particular technique that allows building virtual radio telescopes the size of our planet, like the Event Horizon Telescope. So we invited an expert to tell us about radio interferometry and the Square Kilometer Array, the project that will push radio astronomy to new heights. 

There is something wrong with our model of the Universe. New data suggests that our assumptions about the cosmos are not all correct. Join us as we unravel the tension in the expansion rate of the Universe.

Pulsars are the focus of this episode and we speak to radio astronomer Rami Mandow over in Australia to discuss how precise measurements of these fascinating objects have been used as a galaxy-spanning gravitational wave observatory.

Chris' gym workout on a machine he erroneously called "the booty blaster" inspired this episode where we discuss if it's possible to create something that will last as long as the universe. And that led us to a question for you, dear listener. 

Our Christmas Special this year is a peculiar tale of the intimate corners we might create as we leave Earth behind to live in space. It was written by Dr Russel Moul, as his first time penning a radio tale, with the excellent voice of The Astroholic Explains' team and the ever wonderful Katy Evans. 

We are at the final factual episode of season 3, so we went back to our very popular quickfire round format from season 2 and have once again crowdsourced many questions about the universe. Tune in to discover what happens if you try to hold a black hole, what's the biggest object in the universe, how many planets are out there, and how to make cocktails in microgravity.

Looking for life outside of our planet is far from easy, but researchers have many different tools they are using. We sat with Dr Mario Toubes-Rodrigo to discuss biosignatures and how we might eventually discover aliens.

In this episode, we talk about everything related to "asteroid mining" from feasibility to legality to ethics. Are we going to get a futuristic gold rush in space?

What does it mean that we are made of stardust? Come on a short journey with astrochemist Ashley Walker on how stars create all the elements that made us possible. 

The harsh reality of life on Mars requires some hefty personal sacrifices. Here is a handy list of what you would have to give up to start fresh on another planet

There are over 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe. Artificial Intelligence is now playing a crucial role in analyzing the cosmos around us. We spoke to astrophysicist Ashley Spindler whose work is breaking new galactic boundaries!

In this episode, we tackle interstellar communication with spacecraft that have left our solar system and how this could affect the search for extraterrestrial life

Every second of the day you’re being bombarded by billions of neutrinos. While you can’t detect them, there is a colossal experiment in Japan that can. Join us and special guest Dr Jost Migenda to find out what they can tell us about the cosmos!

Exactly how dark is the cold void of space? Picture yourself in the interstellar depths: what would you be able to see? In this episode we'll find out this answer and why it is of cosmic importance.

No telescope lens that we can build will allow us to see an alien planet in detail, but there is a way to achieve incredible magnification. We just need to use the Sun as our "gravitational" lens! 

All aboard for a grand tour of the solar system! We go planet to planet to evaluate the chances of humans exploring Earth’s neighbours in person.

Dr Eleanor Armstrong & Akvile Terminaite join us in this new episode as we discuss the ins and outs of sex in space! We also talk tech and design to facilitate off-planet pleasure and why our vision of future exploration should center around people in all their identities and abilities!