Universe Today Podcast

The Dark Energy Survey results are in, an asteroid strike on the Moon would be a boon to science, Mercury might not be totally dead, and NASA continued to test its nuclear rockets. And in Space Bites+ solving the mystery of cosmic expansion close to home.
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube https://youtu.be/NK-zu5eMvJU
BONUS PART START AT 17:21
👉 Escape Velocity Space News (EVSN) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDtUsDJGqiI&list=PLo1j35Qh8M1xuXThFgWMJNdHYNBb9gf4U
00:00 Intro

00:15 4% Change of YR4 Hitting the Moon https://www.universetoday.com/articles/asteroid-2024-yr4-has-a-4-chance-of-hitting-the-moon-heres-why-thats-a-scientific-goldmine

02:15 NASA's nuclear rockets are back https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-fires-up-nuclear-future-for-deep-space-travel

04:57 Big results from the Dark Energy Survey https://www.universetoday.com/articles/dark-energy-survey-data-reveals-the-tighest-estimates-yet-on-cosmic-expansion

10:06 It's ALIVE (maybe) https://www.universetoday.com/articles/mercury-may-not-be-dead-after-all

11:01 TESS spies 3I/ATLAS https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/3iatlas/2026/01/27/nasas-tess-reobserves-comet-3i-atlas/

12:06 Vote results https://www.youtube.com/@frasercain/posts

12:34 Super-Eddington limit black holes https://www.universetoday.com/articles/this-rapidly-growing-black-hole-is-challenging-super-eddington-accretion

14:37 Circinus Galaxy https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasas-webb-telescope-peers-into-the-heart-of-the-circinus-galaxy

16:24 Huge gravitational lens https://www.universetoday.com/articles/an-almost-famous-galaxy-cluster-is-the-jwsts-picture-of-the-month

17:12 More space news

What will happen when Earth's magnetic poles flip? Is Andromeda launching hypervelocity stars at us? Can Vera Rubin find a new target for New Horizons? And in Q&A+, could ants evolve to develop space travel?
BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 13:52
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/QMf2wHMyDWc
Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/ojaiPqDdsXU?feature=share

Magnetars are a special sauce of neutron stars. They are extremely violent with crazy magnetic fields. But how are they created? Do kilonova neutron star collisions produce them? What do we really know about that? Finding out in this interview.
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q3JGdARjzTA
BONUS PART STARTS AT 28:29
🟣 Guest: Dr. Genevieve Schroeder
https://astro.cornell.edu/genevieve-schroeder https://sites.northwestern.edu/genevieveschroeder/ https://bsky.app/profile/genevieveschroeder.bsky.social
📜 No Sign of a Magnetar Remnant Following the Kilonova-Producing Long GRB 211211A ∼1.7 Years Later https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.09744
00:00 Intro

01:58 GRB 211211A

09:37 How can you get a magnetar

12:30 Searching for magnetars

16:28 Findings from GRB 211211A

24:01 What happens next

28:29 Off-axis Gamma-Ray Bursts

39:03 Current obsessions

43:18 Final thoughts

How would a rover for an icy moon look like? Which moon should we replace the Moon with? Why put a telescope on the Moon? And what's the probability of Artemis II launching this February? All this and more in this week's Q&A.
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/fLMnLaR1wlo
Here's a link to the full, unedited livestream: https://youtube.com/live/ojaiPqDdsXU?feature=share

Artemis II rolls out to the launch pad, Europe’s comet interceptor mission could fly a little earlier, NASA is racing to build a nuclear reactor for the Moon, and in Space Bites+, bacteriaphages evolved in space learn to kill bacteria in new ways.
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube https://youtu.be/o9kb5caf7vw
00:00 Intro

00:19 Comet Interceptor Accelerated https://spacenews.com/esas-comet-interceptor-mission-moves-up-launch/

02:11 Artemis II Rollout https://www.universetoday.com/articles/nasa-enters-final-preparations-for-artemis-ii-mission

04:14 Chang'e-6 Samples https://www.universetoday.com/articles/analysis-of-change-6-samples-addresses-mysteries-about-the-far-side-of-the-moon

05:50 Moon Reactor Race https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-2030-race-for-a-moon-reactor

08:08 Vote results https://www.youtube.com/@frasercain/posts

08:31 Potential Ocean Habitability of Enceladus https://www.universetoday.com/articles/enceladus-plumes-may-hold-a-clear-clue-to-ocean-habitability

10:33 Helix Nebula https://www.universetoday.com/articles/gazing-into-the-eye-of-sauron-with-the-jwst

11:48 Lupus-3 https://www.universetoday.com/articles/hunting-for-t-tauri-stars-in-a-dark-cloud

12:43 Galaxy Evolution https://www.yorku.ca/news/2025/12/18/canadian-astronomers-use-webb-to-uncover-milky-ways-turbulent-youth-through-galactic-twins/

14:50 More space news

17:00 My new smart telescope