Universe Today Podcast

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 13:26
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/2lopY61vhgc
Channels mentioned:
 @filmjoy 

 @WeirdExplorer 

Are primordial gravitational waves still coming to us? How big would a 30 billion Sun mass black hole be? Do photons start experiencing time when slowed down in a medium? And in Q&A+, can any particle pop up into existence any time anywhere?
00:00 Intro

00:27 [@vistotutti6037] Are primordial gravitational waves still going?

04:25 [@AriasThirdOfHisName] Thoughts on charged black holes?

06:45 [@KnownUnknown-i8r] How large is a 30 billion solar mass black hole?

08:04 [@hangmann747tinmann8] Does a photon experience time when it's slowed down in a medium?

09:18 [@oldtimer2662] Is Andromeda traveling towards us or are we traveling towards it?

10:35 [@EpicQuestBio] Has anyone considered using railgun to launch ultra-high-aspect ablation-shieled microgram payloads to escape velocity from their backyard?

13:26 [@yonatan62] Is there a chance that any particle can pop into existence anywhere at any time?

17:29 Final thoughts

BONUS PART STARTS AT 30:33
Watch here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/bbJ3I37yS4o
🟣 Guest: Dr. Austin Phoenix https://nationalsecurity.vt.edu/personnel-directory/phoenix-austin.html
📜 ECLIPSE – Efficient variable Conductivity Lunar Insulator for Passive Surveyor Environmental control https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/eclipse-efficient-variable-conductivity-lunar-insulator-for-passive-surveyor-environmental-control/
👉 All 2026 NIAC Selections https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/niac-studies/niac-2026-selections/
The Moon is brutal. It's super hot during the day and super cold during the night. Most landers and rovers can't survive that swing. So, how do you mitigate it? One of this year's NIAC projects has a potential solution.
00:00 Intro

01:04 Why is the Moon so terrible?

04:56 Mitigation strategies

30:33 Bistable booms https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.13818

37:26 Current obsessions

45:03 Final thoughts

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 12:55
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5JbQSmK6ZyY
Will private companies take over the ISS? Which sci-fi stories need to be written? What's the state of Canadian rocket market? And in Q&A+, a quick rundown of all my telescopes.
00:00 Intro

00:25 [@D.S.8197] Will private companies replace the ISS?

05:51 [@kairon156] Which SciFi stories I would like to see written?

09:16 [@melantorja] Thoughts on Canadian rocket companies

11:32 [@Matthew...1979] How do we see Proxima Centauri?

12:55 [@raelcohen] Which telescopes do I own?

18:17 Gaming hand-helds

BONUS QUESTION STARTS AT 13:36
Watch the video here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7016OzflTww
Does the Fermi paradox make any sense? How can we talk about life out there if all the exoplanets are just single pixels or worse? Is it all just nonsense? And in Q&A, what was my favourite part of the Artemis 2 mission?
00:00 Intro

00:25 [@frankshifreen] What's the point of searching for life with our primitive instruments

13:36 [@ConspiracyTheoryEnthusiast] My favorite part of the Artemis 2 mission?

19:33 Summer media

Patrons, send in your questions: patreon.com/posts/164654175
BONUS PART STARTS AT: 19:02
Watch here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3DKTwnz0oAs
Starship 13 flies and lands softly in the ocean. Astronomers see the companion star for Betelgeuse. A comet spun down, reversed direction and might tear itself apart. Did Webb see primordial Little Red Dots? On Space Bites+, measuring the heat working its way out of Io. All this and more in this week's Space Bites.
Interviews mentioned
LRDs with Dr. John Chisholm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4caOfg5K8Is

LRDs with Dr. Vasily Kokorev https://youtu.be/zoHtCmCbcEU

OBLIVION NIAC with Jeff Nosanov https://youtu.be/U6fZ2GryNhU

Timecodes
00:00 Intro

00:22 They Are Recovering The Starship https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spacexs-starship-deploys-starlink-satellites-during-13th-flight-test

03:45 More Evidence for Bettelbuddy https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2611/

05:39 Bad News, Everyone https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/swift/2026/07/28/commissioning-update-for-spacecraft-to-boost-nasas-swift/

07:22 CAPSTONE-2 for Moon Docking https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/armd/nasa-announces-new-spacecraft-technology-demonstration-mission-at-moon/

09:06 Chang’e-6 Rocks https://www.universetoday.com/articles/change-6-samples-reveal-how-earth-slows-solar-wind-striking-moons-near-side https://www.universetoday.com/articles/samples-of-lunar-rock-are-leading-scientists-to-rethink-the-moons-history

12:05 Self-Destructing Comet https://www.universetoday.com/articles/spin-reversing-comet-may-face-self-destruction

13:31 Vote results 14:13 Little Red Dots https://www.universetoday.com/articles/a-distant-primordial-object-may-be-a-newborn-little-red-dot https://www.universetoday.com/articles/little-red-dots-could-be-ancient-globular-clusters-each-dominated-by-a-super-massive-star

17:40 Almost an Exomoon https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-first-confirmed-exo-satellite-challenges-our-definitions-of-planets-and-moons

19:02 BONUS Story https://www.universetoday.com/articles/juno-measures-the-heat-below-ios-restless-surface

21:36 Final thoughts