Universe Today Podcast

Will AI help us to create a warp drive? Could aliens even survive a trip to Earth? What would happen if you fire a powerful beam at a black hole? And in Q&A+, which part of the Universe does the CMB show us?
BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 15:06
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/a7CKyGeiMEY

JWST is still up there and working 24/7. There are papers coming out every day based on the results from Webb. What's the current status of JWST? What are the latest discoveries? What should we expect next from it? Finding out in this interview.
BONUS PART STARTS AT 28:29
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vcgUQy1SXdc
🟣 Guest: Dr. Andreas Faisst https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/~afaisst/
📜 Young Galaxies Grow Up Fast https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/young-galaxies-grow-up-fast
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

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