Ask a Spaceman!
Detajet e Kanalit
Ask a Spaceman!
You've got questions and astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter has answers - every episode you will come closer to complete knowledge of time and space!
Episode të Fundit
263 episode
AaS! 257: How Does One Go About Smashing Particles?
How do particle colliders work? What kinds of energies are we talking about? Are there any uses for colliders except for physics experiments? I discus...
AaS! 256: What Can Gravitational Waves Teach Us About the Big Bang?
What are some sources of gravitational waves that aren’t black holes? How did inflation create gravitational waves? How can we possibly detect them? I...
AaS! 255: How Do the Biggest Stars Get So Big?
How do we measure the sizes of stars? What are the biggest ones today, and how big could stars have gotten in the past? Is there any way for a star to...
AaS! 254: How Do Variable Stars, You Know, Vary?
What powers Cepheid variable stars? What about Mira variables and pulsating stars? And are there variable stars that don’t actually vary at all? I dis...
AaS! 253: What Does Outer Space Sound Like?
What would the Sun sound like if we could hear it? Does any noise at all happen in the universe? What’s the biggest sound of all? I discuss these ques...
AaS! 252: Why Can’t We Get Free Energy from the Vacuum?
Why does the vacuum of spacetime have energy? How much energy does it have? What prevents us from using it to do anything useful? I discuss these ques...
AaS! 251: Are the Cosmic Voids Really Empty?
How do we actually define voids? Are there regions within them that are truly empty? What would it be like to be inside one? I discuss these questions...
AaS! 250: Where Do the Constants of Nature Come From? Part 2
Part 2 of 2! What are the modern constants of nature? Is the universe fine-tuned for life? Does the multiverse or string theory explain the origins of...
AaS! 249: Where Do the Constants of Nature Come From? Part 1
Part 1 of 2! How do fundamental constants appear in physics? Why are they so important? Why do we care where they come from? I discuss these questions...
AaS! 248: What’s Going on Inside Neutron Stars?
What’s inside a neutron star? What strange states of matter do we encounter? And what mysteries will we find deep in the core? I discuss these questio...
AaS! 247: How Can We Get Giant Black Holes in the Early Universe?
How do we explain the giant black holes appearing in the young universe? Is it possible to directly collapse a black hole, skipping the formation of s...
AaS! 246: What is Stephen Hawking’s Legacy?
How do you measure the impact of a scientist? Does Stephen Hawking compare to Newton or Einstein? What were his contributions to black holes, the big...
AaS! 245: What Made the Moon?
Why is the moon so special? Why do we think a giant impact created it? Why didn’t the same thing happen to other planets? I discuss these questions an...
AaS! 244: What’s the Most Important Wavelength in All Astronomy?
What is 21-cm radiation? What (and who) produces it? What causes it, and what does it tell us about the universe? I discuss these questions and more i...
AaS! 243: So Is the Warp Drive Legit or Not?
What is an Alcubierre warp drive? What would it take to make it work? Could it propel spacecraft even below the speed of light? I discuss these questi...
AaS! 242: Are There Invisible Stars in the Universe?
What is an axion? How could axions make a star, and what does that have to do with dark matter? What would these stars look like? I discuss these ques...
AaS! 241: Could We Travel to Parallel Universes?
Where do parallel universes exist? Could we use wormholes to travel to them? What does time travel have to do with all this? I discuss these questions...
AaS! 240: Does the Great Filter Explain Why We’re Alone?
What is the Fermi Paradox? How rare is non-intelligent vs intelligent life? What are the challenges a species must overcome to colonize the galaxy? Wh...
AaS! 239: What Are the Weirdest Hypothetical Particles?
Are dark photons as sinister as they sound? What did the curvaton do in the early universe? And is everything really made of preons? I discuss these q...
AaS! 238: What Makes the Sun’s Corona So Dang Hot?
How can the solar corona be hotter than the surface? What has the Parker Solar probe learned so far? What do magnetic fields have to do with all this?...
AaS! 237: Could Any Supernova Harm the Earth?
Are we “in range” of any potential supernovae? Has the Earth ever been hit in the past? And what about gamma-ray bursts from across the galaxy, are we...
AaS! 236: How Exactly Do Black Holes Merge?
How do black holes get close enough to merge? What causes them to emit gravitational waves, and where do the waves come from? What does the merger pro...
AaS! 235: Is it Time to Redefine the Planet?
How did Pluto get demoted? What makes a planet a planet anyway? Why do we now have so many different kinds of planets, and should we make things simpl...
AaS! 234: How Could We Turn the Sun into a Telescope?
How do gravitational lenses work? Where would a spacecraft need to be to use the Sun’s gravity as a telescope? What could we learn about exoplanets wi...
AaS! 233: Why Do We Care About Methane on Mars?
What’s behind the Martian Methane Mystery? Is it a sign of life, or just some strange chemical process? Or are we just fooling ourselves? I discuss th...
AaS! 232: Is Space Tourism a Good Idea?
Why are private space companies pushing tourism? Is there a future for tourism in space? Is this an overall good thing for space exploration, or just...
AaS! 231: What Made the Local Bubble?
Where do we live within the galaxy? What shapes the local bubble? How long will we be inside it? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a S...
AaS! 230: Is the Universe Making Any New Galaxies?
How do galaxies form and evolve? Is the universe still making new ones? What will happen to the current galaxies in the universe? I discuss these ques...
AaS! 229: Is the James Webb Breaking Cosmology?
What has the James Webb Space Telescope learned so far? Is it finding galaxies that “break” cosmology? What will we learn next? I discuss these questi...
AaS! 228: Can a Galaxy Be Destroyed?
Can galaxies ever get destroyed? What happens to their stars? Do galaxies ever die? I discuss these questions and more in today’s Ask a Spaceman!
AaS! 227: Where is the Center of the Universe?
What does it mean for the universe to have a center? Could we ever travel to ours? What is a singularity? I discuss these questions and more in today’...
AaS! 226: Does the Universe Get Shorter When You Go Faster?
How does length contraction work in relativity? Do moving objects really get shorter? What about from their perspective? How are we supposed to make s...
AaS! 225: What is the Cosmic Flaw That Shouldn’t Exist?
What is the “cold spot” on the cosmic microwave background? Why shouldn’t it exist? What are some possible explanations for it, and why are they unsat...
AaS! 224: Can Life Survive on Locked Planets?
How do planets get tidally locked? What are these systems typically like? Can life find a home in such a challenging environment? I discuss these ques...
AaS! 223: Why is it So Hard to Return to the Moon?
If we went to the Moon already, why can’t we go back so easily? What technology have we lost? What are we trying to do differently? I discuss these qu...
AaS! 222: What is the Most Distant Thing We Can See?
What’s the most distant thing we can see with the naked eye? What about with a telescope? What about at other wavelengths? Is there anything more to s...
AaS! 221: Will Emergent Gravity Rewrite Physics?
What is “emergence” in physics and why is it a big deal? What would it mean for gravity to be emergent? How would we have to rewrite the laws of physi...
AaS! 220: Will Our Universe End in a Big Rip?
How can a “big rip” tear the universe apart? What does that mean for existence itself? Is it going to happen, and what are we doing to find out? I dis...
AaS! 219: What's the Best Way to Defend Our Planet?
How do we track dangerous asteroids? What can impacts do to us? What do we plan to do if The Big One is headed for us? Is Armageddon a documentary? I...
AaS! 218: How Do We Know What the Milky Way Looks Like?
Why is it so hard to get a picture of the Milky Way? How much of our galaxy have we mapped? What the heck is a “barred spiral” and what does that have...