The LIUniverse with Dr. Charles Liu

What’s it like to watch a solar eclipse with your own eyes? What’s actually happening with a solar eclipse? And when can we catch the next 3 solar eclipses?

In this episode of Chuck GPT, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Alice Liu answer audience questions about solar eclipses with a little help from executive producer Leslie “Moonshine” Mullen and community director Stacey Severn.

Not surprisingly, the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing is the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026. Lots of people trekked out to see the eclipse, including the entire Liu family, but thanks to pervasive cloud cover, you had to be in sunny Spain to see the event clearly.

Our first audience question comes from our Patreon Patron, Santiago – and it’s also our first ever video question! He asks, “If you could travel to any planet or moon in the Solar System to witness the actual best eclipse in the solar system, which one would it be, and why?”

Alice, who wrote about this on their blog, Signore Galilei, says that when it comes to planets, Earth has the best, hands down. No other planet has a round moon that’s the right size to create the perfect eclipse. On top of that, Leslie explains why we also live in the best time ever to see a solar eclipse.

Our next audience question comes from Brianna, who asks, “Are there any scientific mysteries still left about Solar Eclipses?” Leslie tells us about the controversial Allais effect, which purports anomalous behavior of pendulums or gravitometers during solar eclipses. Chuck reminds us how they’ve used total solar eclipses to measure other things in the universe, including confirming the curvature of spacetime in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. And Alice brings up the “shadow bands” that occur before and after a total solar eclipse, the causes of which are still unresolved.

Our next question is from Brandon: “It seems like a lot of effort to travel thousands of miles to go see a total solar eclipse when it’s like two minutes long. Is it really worth it?” Our answer: a resounding YES! Stacey, Leslie, Alice and Chuck share their memories watching solar eclipses, and why there’s nothing quite like experiencing the moment of totality with your own senses.

The next question was asked by a person Chuck met in Iceland during this year’s total solar eclipse. Brooklyn, who is from Australia, asked him about where she could see the upcoming total solar eclipse that will be visible in Australia on July 22, 2028. Chuck goes her one better, and traces out the paths of the next three, in 2027, 2028, and 2030.

Our final question is from Dale, another of the people Chuck and Alice met in Iceland. “How do you bridge the gap between what you intellectually know about what’s happening with eclipses, and the overwhelming emotional awe that is felt when the shadow passes over us?”

We wouldn’t dream of summarizing Chuck’s awesome answer here (it includes his recitation, by heart, of Walt Whitman’s “When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer”) – go watch or listen for yourself now.

If you’d like to check out Alice’s blog mentioned in the episode, you can find it here. 

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

 

Image Credits:

– Total solar eclipse, on Aug. 21, 2017, Madras, Oregon. – Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani

– Callisto, Jupiter’s second largest moon. – Credit: NASA/JPL/DLR

– Jupiter and its four largest moons (seen as bright dots), by NASA's Juno spacecraft, June 29, 2016. – Credit: NASA

– Phobos, a moon of Mars, passing in front of the Sun, by NASA’s Perseverance rover on the Martian surface, April 2, 2022. – Credit: NASA

The shadow of the moon during a solar eclipse. – Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

Maurice Allais. – Credit: Creative Commons

Solar eclipse paths over the US, 2017 and 2024. – Credit: NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

2027 total solar eclipse path, 2 August 2027. – Credit: ESA

2028 total solar eclipse path, July 22, 2028. – Credit: US National Solar Observatory/Open Street Map

2030 total solar eclipse path, Nov. 25, 2030. – Credit: Eclipse Prediction by Fred Espenak (NASA's GSFC)

 

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Chuck GPT - Total Eclipse of the Sun

03:06 Total Solar Eclipse, August 12, 2026 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing

06:05 Which Planet Or Moon Has the Best Solar Eclipse?

12:07 Why This Is the Best Time in History To See a Solar Eclipse

13:06 Watch Phobos Transit the Sun Via NASA’s Perseverance Rover

14:28 Are There Still Any Scientific Mysteries About Solar Eclipses?

15:18 What’s the Difference Between Solar and Annular Eclipses?

17:05 Real Or Not - The Allais Effect, Pendulums, and Solar Eclipses

26:14 Is It Worth Traveling So Far To See a Total Solar Eclipse?

34:20 Where Can We See Total Solar Eclipses in 2027, 2028 and 2030?

41:15 Reflecting on the Moment of Totality in a Solar Eclipse

What can we learn from a beam of light? How much dark matter is there in our solar system? To find out, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Alice Liu welcome astrophysicist, inventor, educator, and CEO of The Astro Society, Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, PhD in the first episode of our 6th season.

The Astro Society, aka The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, is the oldest astronomical professional society in the U.S., founded in 1889 after a total solar eclipse seen on the West Coast. They’re the organization behind the Night Sky Network, funded by NASA.

As always, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: a possible dark matter particle detection by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility underground in South Dakota. Dr. Oluseyi explains the event itself, how particle astrophysics works, and why the jury is still out on whether it was an actual discovery of dark matter or not.

Our first audience question comes from John: “How much dark matter in the solar system is there?” According to Hakeem, it depends on which model you use: WIMP or MACHO. In a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle model, the mass of dark matter in the solar system would be about one millionth the mass of the Earth. When Chuck asks how something that small can have such an impact, Dr. Oluseyi references the enormity of the galaxy, and the fact that the dark matter halo surrounding it is 10 times bigger than that!

Our next question is from Kari, who asks, “What's the difference between bright energy and dark energy?” Hakeem explains that the “dark” in dark energy refers to our lack of knowledge, which is different than the use of dark in “dark matter” because it doesn’t interact with light. He’s more effusive about light and what it can tell us about anything that interacts with it.

Next, Dr. Oluseyi talks about his experiences building space telescopes, like the Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA) designed to observe the Sun in ultraviolet and soft x-rays. He also shares some very expensive mistakes made by grad students who went on to have successful careers.

After our break, Alice has another audience question. Stephanie asks, “If the Sun's just a ball of gas in space, why hasn't it just evaporated into space yet?” According to Hakeem, that is a brilliant question, and the answer is that it has been, from day one. He says the sun is leaking mass via the solar wind, although it’s not exactly the same process as evaporation. But the sun is so massive, that even this constant loss hasn’t made a dent in it’s size.

Moving on, Chuck asks Hakeem how he got into science. His surprising, heartwarming story of “Hope, Hustle, and Help” takes us from Mississippi and the 9th Ward in Houston in the Seventies to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and NASA. (CORRECTION: Hakeem Oluseyi says that in the episode, he "misspoke and said the 9th Ward of Houston. It was the 9th Ward of New Orleans! In Houston, I lived in the South Park neighborhood two years later and attended James D. Ryan Middle School in Houston's 3rd Ward.")

We end with Hakeem recounting the story of how he was asked to lead the investigation into whether NASA Administrator James E. Webb was involved with or culpable in the mistreatment of members of the NASA community. The findings: Webb was not only not culpable, but had actually acted to protect gay people and others in government service, as well as working against racism. 

If you’d like to know more about Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi, you can visit theastrosociety.org website, their YouTube channel, AstroBeatShow, or catch him on his NOVA podcast, “Particles of Thought,” and the “Does It Fly” podcast from Rodenberry Podcasts with Tamara Krinsky.

We hope you enjoy this episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

 

Image Credits:

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. – All Images Credit: Sanford Underground Research Facility.

The Multi-Spectral Solar Telescope Array (MSSTA). – Credit: NASA

MSSTA payload on Sounding rocket 36.049, White Sands Missile Range, May 1991. – Credit: NASA

Visualization of space weather in the solar system in 2015 as the New Horizons spacecraft flew past Pluto. – Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC) and the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil (GMU)

James E. Webb. – Credit: NASA

NASA Administrator James Webb tours the new Plum Brook Reactor Facility in Dec. 1961 with Abe Silverstein, Director of the Lewis Research Center. – Credit: NASA

 

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Season 6 of The LIUniverse

01:25 Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi Describes The Astro Society, Founded in 1889

03:46 Possible Dark Matter Detection - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing

10:46 How Much Dark Matter Is There in the Solar System?

15:32 What's the Difference Between Bright Energy and Dark Energy?

18:12 What Matters Most When Building Solar Telescopes?

28:27 If the Sun Is a Ball of Gas, Why Hasn't It Evaporated?

31:36 Dr. Hakeem Oluseyi’s Journey of Hope, Hustle, and Help

35:52 The Investigation of NASA Administrator James Webb

What happens next when an astronomer, a mathematician, an educator, a physics student and a biomedical engineer stand upon the threshold of the Great Room of the perilous, Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah? You get the conclusion to this summer’s bonus Actual Play episode of The LIUniverse starring Dr. Charles Liu, co-host Alice Liu, Hannah Liu, M.Ed., Isaac Liu, and Eleanor Adams.

For this episode of The LIUniverse, Chuck and co-host Alice Liu welcome back fan favorite guest and expert on ancient civilizations, author and educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed. (a.k.a. our “Classicist of Awesomeness”), and the show’s “Intern Extraordinaire” and TikTok channel manager, physics student Eleanor Adams. We’ve also got another guest, and it’s none other than “the hidden Liu sibling,” Isaac Liu, “Master of Science and Bricks,”who is pursuing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering starting this fall at Rochester Polytechnic Institute.

Normally in these descriptions we tell you what you’ll find in the episode. For the conclusion of this bonus episode, where Alice is gamemastering a live, tabletop role playing game called “Swords & Sorcery,” which is a little like “Dungeons & Dragons” but much simpler, we’re going to skip the sizzle and let you get straight to the steak.

The party of stalwart adventurers braving the perils of “The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah” is made up of:

Charles Liu as Larry the Lion-Livered, a Druid.

Isaac Liu as a Dwarven fighter named Brickothy Brickton

Hannah Liu as a Tortle magic user named Felix Frankfurter

Eleanor Adams as a Palladin of Athena named Annabeth

Now, as GM Alice Liu says by way of preamble, “You walk past the dead jellyfish you’ve defeated and enter the Great Room…”

Enjoy Part Two, the conclusion of The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah.

We hope you like this bonus episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/theliuniverse.

 

Credits for this Episode:

– “Swords & Sorcery” – Designed by James Lennox-Gordon / UnknownDungeon.itch.io / v1.1 2020 - CC BY SA 4.0. “Swords & Sorcery” is a hack of John Harper’s “Lasers & Feelings.” Find out more here: https://unknowndungeon.itch.io/swords-and-sorcery

What happens when an astronomer, a mathematician, an educator, a physics student and a biomedical engineer set off to explore the Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah? You get Part One of this summer’s bonus Actual Play episode of The LIUniverse starring Dr. Charles Liu and company.

You read that right! For this actual play podcast episode of The LIUniverse, Chuck and co-host Alice Liu welcome back fan favorite guest and expert on ancient civilizations, author and educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed., and the show’s intern and TikTok channel manager, physics student Eleanor Adams. But for this special occasion – drumroll, please – we’ve also got another guest, and it’s none other than “the hidden Liu sibling,” Isaac Liu, who is pursuing his PhD in Biomedical Engineering starting this fall at Rochester Polytechnic Institute.

Normally in these descriptions we tell you what you’ll find in the episode. For this bonus episode, where Alice is gamemastering a live, tabletop role playing game called “Swords & Sorcery,” which is a little like “Dungeons & Dragons” but much simpler, we’re going to skip the sizzle and let you get straight to the steak.

We will, however, describe the party that is venturing into “The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah.”

Charles Liu is Larry the Lion-Livered, a Druid.

Isaac Liu is a Dwarven fighter named Brickothy Brickton

Hannah Liu is a Tortle magic user named Felix Frankfurter

Eleanor Adams is a Palladin of Athena named Annabeth

Now, as GM Alice Liu says by way of preamble, “There might be combat. There might be treasure. There might be secrets inside of this hidden fortress…”

Enjoy Part One of The Secret Fortress of Ag-Karrah – and be sure to come back for Part 2 in a couple of weeks. (And yes, of course there’s a Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing this episode, but we don’t want to ruin the surprise.)

We hope you like this bonus episode of The LIUniverse, and, if you do, please support us on Patreon.

Credits for this Episode:

– “Swords & Sorcery” – Designed by James Lennox-Gordon / UnknownDungeon.itch.io / v1.1 2020 - CC BY SA 4.0. “Swords & Sorcery” is a hack of John Harper’s “Lasers & Feelings.” Find out more here.

 

#LIUniverse #CharlesLiu  #SwordsandSorcery #ActualPlayPodcast

It’s time for the Season 5 finale of The LIUniverse, which means another episode of ChuckGPT where we answer our audience’s most vexing questions – this time via video from our Patreon Patrons. And to help us answer those questions, Dr. Charles Liu and co-host Allen Liu welcome back fan favorite guest and expert on ancient civilizations, author and educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed.

As always, though, we start off with the day’s joyfully cool cosmic thing: the completion of DESI’s 5-year survey mapping millions of objects in the universe. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument completed the survey ahead of schedule, so there’s still time to map millions more.

Hannah tells us about mapping the universe in antiquity, starting with the first star catalog created by the Babylonians about 3,000 years ago. You’ll hear about the Venus tablet from the first millennium BC, Chinese star charts from the Tang dynasty, and Atlas, the mythological Titan who was the “first astrologer.”

Returning to the DESI survey, Chuck talks about the change in the dark energy content of the universe that we didn’t really expect. Allen, our resident mathematician, talks about the velocity of universal expansion and a concept called “the jerk.”

Then it’s time for audience questions, and for this episode, we’re doing something new. Both audience questions come from Patreon Patrons, and both are in video format so you can actually see our fans asking Chuck the questions – if you’re watching rather than listening, that is.

Our first question comes from Patron Lee Dubey, who asks, “Since atoms are mostly empty space, could all matter, including measuring devices, almost undetectably consume minimal space, warping the space around it? If so, could that cause gravity, and could the shrinkage cause a redshift related to dark energy?”

We’re not even going to try and summarize the explanation from Allen and Chuck here, except to say that the ensuing conversation includes the physics concept of “unparticles.” Hannah brings up Democritus, who, along with his teacher Leucippus in ancient Greece, first theorized the existence of atoms.

Our next question comes from our Patreon Patron Lee Williams, who asks, “If we live in a simulation, is it correct to assume that there’s an architect? Could there be a simulation without an architect?”

Given that there’s no scientific answer to either of these questions, Chuck turns to Hannah for enlightenment. While she explains that the question of whether we live in a simulation is a modern concept, Hanna discusses how humanity grapples with the questions of existence and higher powers, and why people engage with religion, magic, or quantum entanglement in the first place.

In the free-wheeling, far-ranging conversation that follows, Allen brings up how we create simulations now, by creating processes and letting them run, to offer some perspective on the role of the architect. And yes, H.P. Lovecraft, “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” “Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus,” and even Spider-Man somehow make it into the discussion.

And that’s it for this season of The LIUniverse. We want to thank all of you for your questions, your curiosity, and your help in keeping this experiment going. As Chuck always says, “Thank you for being a part of The LIUniverse.”

We hope you enjoyed this episode, and this season, of The LIUniverse. If you do, please support us on Patreon.

Credits for Images Used in this Episode:

Map of DESI’s 5-year survey. – Credit: Claire Lamman/DESI collaboration.

Roman statue of Atlas (2nd century AD). Credit: Lalupa / Creative Commons

The Venus tablet recording astronomical positions for Venus dating from the first millennium BC. – Credit: FAI / Creative Commons

Chinese Tang dynasty star map made around the year 700. – Credit: Public Domain.

 

CHAPTERS

00:00 - We Welcome Back Archaeology Expert, Author and Educator Hannah Liu, M.Ed.

02:28 - Joyfully Cool Cosmic Thing: DESI Completes Its 5-Year Survey of the Universe

04:33 - Mapping the Universe in Antiquity

12:06 - The Empty Space in Atoms, Gravity, Shrinkage, and Dark Energy

16:42 - What Are Unparticles?

22:53 - Do We Live in a Simulation? Is There an Architect?