Podcasts about hubble

Buckle up for the latest epic story from the BBC's space podcast. The Hubble Space Telescope was revolutionary but a flaw almost ruined the dream. It was hoped it would answer the most fundamental questions ever asked: How did it all begin? Where are we going? Are we alone? Maggie Aderin tells the story of how the telescope that transformed our understanding of the universe, almost ended in disaster. Launches on 5 October. 13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble is a BBC Audio Science Unit production for the BBC World Service. Hosted by space scientist Maggie Aderin. Theme music by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg, and produced by Russell Emanuel, for Bleeding Fingers Music. Archive: Mission audio and oral histories, Nasa History Office

The autumnal equinox means the beginning of aurora season. Research shows that the Sun may have swallowed a planet. SpaceX launch moved to next week. Plus new data from JWST and Hubble has driven reseach and shows how massive star clusters drive galaxy evolution. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/made-of-stars--4746260/support.

Some big news: We've been making a new season. It's about Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope. If you haven't already, follow or subscribe, so you will get the full trailer automatically. That will be published next week.Maggie Aderin will tell the story of how the telescope that transformed our understanding of the universe, almost ended in disaster.13 Minutes: Trouble with Hubble launches on 5 October 2026.In the meantime, please keep sending us your questions: 13minutes@bbc.co.ukWe'll be back to answer those in a few months – more details to follow. You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice13 Minutes is the BBC World Service's space podcast.

¿Cómo pasó un joven deportista y abogado de Missouri, que llegó a ser oficial en la Primera Guerra Mundial y hasta profesor de español, a convertirse en el astrónomo más influyente del siglo XX e inmortalizar su nombre en el telescopio espacial más famoso de la historia? En esta conversación nos adentramos en la vida y el legado de Edwin Hubble, el hombre que revolucionó nuestra visión del cosmos al demostrar que la Vía Láctea no era la totalidad del universo, sino apenas una galaxia entre incontables "universos isla". A través del imponente telescopio Hooker de Monte Wilson y apoyándose en el trabajo de observadores como Milton Humason y el hallazgo de estrellas cefeidas, Hubble no solo diseñó la célebre secuencia del "diapasón" para clasificar las galaxias, sino que desentrañó la relación de proporcionalidad entre la distancia y el desplazamiento al rojo, revelando la asombrosa expansión del universo. ¿Por qué le costó tanto a la comunidad científica de su época aceptar que el espacio se estaba expandiendo? ¿Cómo fue la tensión de prioridades científicas con Georges Lemaître y otros gigantes de la astrofísica? ¿Y por qué, a pesar de sus monumentales hallazgos y de haber liderado un intenso cabildeo para que la astronomía fuera reconocida por la Academia Sueca, jamás logró recibir el Premio Nobel de Física?Realizado y presentado por: Antonio Bernal (Observatorio Fabra, Barcelona) y Jorge I. Zuluaga (Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín-Colombia)Producido por: Jorge I. Zuluaga (Universidad de Antioquia)Lista de episodios organizados por tema: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/y58xkvcn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Lista de reproducción temática: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tinyurl.com/89s2fpm8⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Sasha Cayward was a nationally ranked junior tennis player — good enough to turn pro, until she decided that wasn't the life she wanted and walked away from the sport that had been her whole identity. A decade later, she did it again: she left the startup she'd spent a year building, with no plan for what came next. Sri caught her mid-jump — reinventing in public, betting on herself, and strangely at peace with not knowing.This one's less a career story than a field guide to reinvention. Sasha and Sri get into choosing a career over a job, why joy (not discipline) is the real engine of high performance, and her core claim: you can't build self-belief on a dysregulated nervous system. With degrees in psychology and neuroscience — and a decade spanning founder, investor, and community builder — she ties the confidence to chase big opportunities straight to a felt sense of safety in the body, then gets practical about how founders and operators actually build it.In this episode:- Why to choose a career, not a job — and how the two differ- Why joy, not discipline, drives real performance- The link between self-belief and a regulated nervous system — and the tools that build it (breathwork, EFT tapping)- How to "borrow" belief from the people around you until it's your own- The "six-pack mind, muffin-top thoughts" trap that hits the most disciplined people hardestIf you're between chapters — or too scared to start the next one — this one's for you.Sasha spent the past year building community at Hubble, a place for founders to get the advice they need.  Sasha has unique insights having been a founder but also as an elite athlete. She was a nationally ranked junior on the tennis circuit.She and Sri together document reinvention while it's happening—not the highlight reel.

First starlight from Roman, a shorter fuse on the Solar System, weapons in orbit, and a globular cluster hiding behind the dust Roman opens its eye — and finds it has twice as long to look NASA has activated the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera built around eighteen detectors, with a field of view at least a hundred times larger than Hubble's infrared field — a patch of sky bigger than the full Moon in a single exposure, at Hubble-comparable sharpness. The instrument reached its operating temperature of −143 °C on 11 September; detectors and the calibration system came up across the 11th and 12th; the element wheel turned in microgravity for the first time on the 12th; the focus mechanism was verified on the 13th. Roman then took its first starlight image — deliberately out of focus, and exactly as intended: a baseline diagnostic that proves the optical path is clear and every detector is live. Sharp science images are expected by early 2027. The Coronagraph Instrument has completed initial communications checkout from Caltech/IPAC and is running 30-day decontamination cycles at room temperature. Separately, NASA published the numbers from Roman's first mid-course correction: better than 99% accurate, using about 18 kg of a 200 kg propellant budget, on a spacecraft that launched lighter than its allowance. Jamie Dunn (Goddard): Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science operations, against a design life of ten. Caveat kept on air: that is a fuel figure, not a funding or hardware figure. Why it matters: Roman's High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey measures cosmic expansion with Type Ia supernovae, and its High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey probes cosmic acceleration across more than 5,000 square degrees through weak lensing and galaxy clustering — two independent handles on the dark energy question that Monday's Australian-led supernova compilation sharpened but could not settle. A doubled mission means a longer lever arm in time, which in this measurement is everything. Caltech: the Solar System's dynamical fuse is far shorter than we thought Konstantin Batygin, Jim Fuller and Fred Adams (Caltech), 'Terminal instability of the Solar System triggered by stochastic solar mass loss', arXiv:2609.12494, posted 11 September and accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The standard estimate for how long the giant planets hold their architecture — about 10¹⁸ years — assumes the dying Sun sheds mass smoothly. Observations of white-dwarf recoil indicate mass is instead lost in discrete, independently directed ejections, so planetary orbits take a random walk. In simulations, roughly 40% of systems are disrupted or violently scattered before white dwarf formation and about 90% within ~3 billion years after, cutting the outer Solar System's dynamical lifetime to around a gigayear past white dwarf formation. Framed on air as a prediction to test — planetary systems around old white dwarfs should be rarer and more chaotic — with the granularity of the mass loss named as the number to go and measure. The United States says, for the first time, that it has weapons in orbit Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, speaking on the opening day of the Air & Space Forces Association's Air, Space & Cyber Conference at National Harbor, Maryland on Monday 14 September: the United States now has 'on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary actions'. It is the first public US acknowledgement of offensive capability in orbit. No systems, numbers, locations or timelines were disclosed. A Space Force spokesperson defined space control as employing 'kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities through disruption, degradation and even destruction, if necessary'. Gen. Douglas Schiess, Chief of Space Operations, said the following day that 'it was time' to talk about it, citing Chinese and Russian anti-satellite advances. Covered factually, with both the deterrence and the arms-control readings presented, and with orbital debris as the physical consequence that outlasts any dispute. Australian context: Operation Olympic Defender and Defence Space Command. Rubin finds a globular cluster hiding behind the dust Aashay Pai, William Cerny, Andrew Pace, Alex Drlica-Wagner and colleagues, 'Rubin Observatory Reveals a Dust-Shrouded Halo Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus', arXiv:2609.15872, posted 14 September. Rubin-GC1 was found in Rubin's Early Data Preview 2 — not the survey proper — in the direction of the galactic bulge, behind heavy dust and a crowded foreground. It sits about 31 kiloparsecs away, roughly 100,000 light-years, out in the Milky Way's halo. Half-light radius ~5 pc, absolute magnitude ≈ −2.4, placing it in the faint tail of the globular cluster luminosity function; age ≈ 9.2 billion years; moderately metal-poor. Gaia DR3 proper motions and phase-space modelling point to an origin in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal — an accreted cluster, not one of our own. Spectroscopy is the confirming next step. Reusable framing, now used four times in a month: catalogues are detection limits, not censuses. Quick hit — Starship Flight 14 has a firm date SpaceX has published and the FAA has cleared Flight 14 for Tuesday 22 September, a 75-minute window opening 08:15 EDT / 12:15 UTC (22:15 AEST on the 22nd). This is the first orbital attempt: six orbits at about 275 km, then a Pacific splashdown west of Chile roughly ten hours after launch. The payload is 26 Starlink V3 satellites — the first flight of the next-generation satellites designed for Starship — three of them carrying cameras to photograph the ship's heat shield during re-entry. Super Heavy splashes down in the Gulf about seven minutes after liftoff. No tower catches on this flight, for either stage, confirming the correction we carried on 12 September. Skywatch — both hemispheres Tonight: a five-day-old waxing crescent Moon beside Antares — 2.5° apart and 60° up from Sydney, 5.5° apart and 18° up from Los Angeles, nearly 7° apart and 12° up from New York. The September ecliptic tilt again. Friday 18 September: Venus at greatest brilliancy, about magnitude −4.8 — brightest not when fullest but when the product of a thinning crescent (~26% lit) and a swelling disc (~39 arcsec) peaks. Steadied binoculars will show the crescent. Venus sets ~3h15m after the Sun from Sydney, ~1h20m from Los Angeles, ~1h05m from New York; northern listeners should look low in the west 20–45 minutes after sunset with a clear horizon. Mercury is a southern-only bonus at magnitude −0.4 but only 16° from the Sun: 15° up at sunset from Sydney, 3° from London. Saturn rises within about an hour of sunset everywhere and is up all night, heading for opposition on 4 October with the rings ~7° open. First quarter falls on 18 September at 20:43 UTC, setting up International Observe the Moon Night on Saturday 19 September — timed near first quarter because that is when the terminator throws long shadows. Pre-dawn belongs to the north: Mars 45–47° up at nautical dawn from Los Angeles and New York against 20° from Sydney, with Jupiter below it, and the pair closing to about 2° by mid-November. Zodiacal light returns after the 26th — false dusk in the west from the south, false dawn in the east from the north. The September equinox is a single instant, 00:05 UTC on 23 September: the evening of the 22nd in the Americas, mid-morning on the 23rd in Australia. Eye safety: never sweep the daytime sky with binoculars or a telescope while hunting Venus. Block the Sun behind a building or wall first. Eclipse glasses must carry the ISO 12312-2 certification and be undamaged, and are for looking at the Sun only. Never use optics on the Sun without proper solar filtration fitted at the front. Sources and further reading ·         NASA Roman blog — 'NASA Activates Roman's Primary Instrument, Checks Out Coronagraph' (15 Sept 2026) ·         NASA Roman blog — 'Fuel Savings Double Potential Lifetime for NASA's Roman Mission' (14 Sept 2026) ·         NASA — Roman Core Community Surveys ·         arXiv:2609.12494 — Batygin, Fuller & Adams, 'Terminal instability of the Solar System triggered by stochastic solar mass loss' (accepted, ApJL) ·         arXiv:2609.15872 — Pai et al., 'Rubin Observatory Reveals a Dust-Shrouded Halo Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus' ·         AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference 2026 — remarks by Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, 14 September 2026 ·         SpaceX — Starship Flight 14 mission page ·         Astronomy Daily S05E193 — 'The Universe Changes Its Mind' (the dark energy lead this episode calls back to) ·         Astronomy Daily S05E187 — stellar streams (Nora Shipp co-author callback)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 111 27 new Trans Neptunian Objects discovered in the outer solar system The first ever joint observation of Trans Neptunian objects by NASA's Hubble and Webb space telescopes has discovered 27 new worlds in the dark outer reaches of the solar system. A decagon discovered at Saturn's south pole New observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a giant, evolving, 10-sided decagon atmospheric structure encircling Saturn's south pole. LINK's failed rescue mission scopes its target but can't save it The LINK spacecraft which was meant to rescue NASA's doomed Swift Gamma Ray space Telescope  has now reached to within 15 kilometres of Swift and has even managed to take some images of the stricken observatory. The Science Report The latest data on HIV and sexually transmitted diseases in Australia paints a mixed picture. Climate change forcing a decline in global sea weed forests. Asian elephants shown to resist impulsive behaviour in favour of rational problem solving. The artificial-intelligence chatbot Claude cracks Fermat's last theorem. Alex on Tech the phone duo.Our Guests This Week Dr Fred Jourdan from Curtin University ESA BepiColombo Project Scientist Johannes Benkhoff DLR Planetary Scientist Jorn Helbert   Our regular guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics  

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, Sidey, Dan and Reegs head to Margrave for the first episode of Prime Video's Reacher, “Welcome to Margrave”, starring Alan Ritchson as Lee Child's wandering ex-military policeman, blues enthusiast, pie-denied murder suspect and extremely large problem for corrupt small-town criminals.The dads start with their own Reacher experience. Sidey has not read the books and is watching the series for the first time, Dan once started one but did not finish it, and Reegs is currently listening to Killing Floor, the first Jack Reacher novel, on audiobook. This naturally becomes a brief celebration of audiobook actors, a debate about whether Ritchson has borrowed from the narrator's delivery, and the important possibility that Jack Reacher might be read by Alan Carr or Julian Clary in another, better universe.The episode itself wastes no time establishing the essentials. Someone is murdered in the dark by a professional-looking killer, the body is beaten after the shooting, and then Reacher arrives in town as a pair of boots, shoulders and pure physical inconvenience. He spots a man being aggressive to his partner outside a diner, says almost nothing, and the man wisely decides that perhaps today is not the day to find out what happens if you square up to a human wall.Reacher then enters the diner, orders the famous pie he has been told about, and is arrested before he can properly eat it. The police cannot get handcuffs around his wrists, so they use cable ties, which tells you most of what the show wants you to understand about Alan Ritchson's version of the character. Detective Finlay, a Harvard-educated outsider in a tweed suit, interrogates him, only for Reacher to dismantle the murder theory, explain that there were multiple people involved, and profile Finlay's life with the calm confidence of Sherlock Holmes after a very aggressive protein phase.The dads follow the plot through Hubble, the terrified banker who confesses to a murder he clearly did not commit, the mysterious phone number hidden in a shoe, Chief Morrison's suspiciously convenient evidence, and the decision to send Reacher and Hubble to prison for the weekend while the police chase bus-company footage. In prison, Hubble immediately becomes fresh meat and Reacher immediately becomes the one person you would want standing between you and everyone else. He gives Hubble practical advice, refuses a cavity search on legal grounds, and then demonstrates his conflict-resolution style: a tiny bit of verbal warning followed by broken noses, eye gouging and very efficient shower-room violence.The appeal, as the dads see it, is not subtle but it is very effective. Reacher is huge, clever, calm, decorated, right about nearly everything and capable of doing horrible things to people who have earned them. Reegs describes him as a hulking serial killer crossed with Sherlock Holmes, while Dan lands on “Sherlock Schwarzenegger.” The show leans into that fantasy rather than apologising for it, especially once Finlay discovers Reacher's military-police background, secret medals and experience leading the 110th Special Investigations Unit.The first episode ends by making the case personal. After Reacher and Hubble are released, Reacher is allowed into the morgue, where he studies the body and realises before anyone says it out loud that the murdered man is his brother. It is a strong cliffhanger, and Dan admits it worked well enough that he and his wife carried on through the whole season together, partly because the show keeps dropping just enough cliffhanger bait to make the next episode very easy to press.There is also the unavoidable comparison with Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher, though the dads try not to completely give away the film-review conversation. Alan Ritchson feels much closer to the book's conception: enormous, intimidating and physically central to every scene. Reegs likes the way the character's size informs his philosophy, especially the idea that Reacher hates seeing bigger people push smaller people around and exists to push back harder. That gives the violence a simple moral shape, even when the show is gleefully pulpy about it.Verdicts land warmly. Dan thinks the series is predictable and guilty-pleasure television, but also very watchable and stronger than the film version they are about to discuss elsewhere. Sidey is a little weary of the mysterious stranger arriving in a small town as a one-man army, but thinks this is a good version of that setup, likes Ritchson, and may download more for a no-Wi-Fi trip. Reegs is firmly on board, praising Ritchson, the character and the way the later seasons apparently widen the idea of who Reacher is beyond medals, machine guns and being very difficult to handcuff.So the Bad Dads verdict on Welcome to Margrave is a strong recommend: pulpy, chunky, well-shot Amazon action comfort food about a giant clever man arriving in a corrupt town, not getting his pie, and making that everyone else's problem.You can now text us anonymously to leave feedback, suggest future content or simply hurl abuse at us. We'll read out any texts we receive on the show. Click here to try it out!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads

Следващото Ratio събитие: Дигитално детство: проклятие или благословия - https://ratio.bg/events/digitalyouth/ В новия епизод на Ratio Weekly Петко и Никола Кереков се отправят отново към космоса, където през последните седмици се случват достатъчно неща, за да изглежда бъдещето все по-близо. Започват с Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – новата голяма космическа обсерватория на NASA, която ще наблюдава огромни участъци от небето в инфрачервения спектър. Roman ще има зрителното поле на камера, над 100 пъти по-голямо от това на Hubble, и ще търси отговори за тъмната материя, тъмната енергия и екзопланетите. Телескопът ще работи в точката на Лагранж L2 заедно с James Webb, а данните му ще бъдат достъпни за научната общност. Какво ще можем да видим с него и защо голямото зрително поле е толкова важно? След това поглеждат към SpaceX и Starship – от подготовката за Flight 14 и новото поколение Starlink V3 спътници до амбициозните планове на компанията за космическата ѝ инфраструктура. SpaceX планира нов огромен комплекс в Луизиана, който трябва да се превърне във втори голям център за Starship, с множество стартови площадки, собствено производство на гориво и значително по-висока честота на изстрелванията. Как изглежда космодрумът на бъдещето и възможно ли е Starship действително да лети десетки пъти дневно? Междувременно Китай отлага мисията Chang'e 7, която трябва да изследва южния полюс на Луната и да търси вода – ключова стъпка в плановете на страната за бъдеща лунна изследователска станция. А в Европа се случва нещо историческо: Spectrum на Isar Aerospace достига орбита, превръщайки компанията в първия европейски частен оператор, достигнал орбита със собствена ракета от континентална Европа. И още: последният Falcon 9 Starlink старт от Флорида поставя нов рекорд за използване на една и съща първа степен, а характерният „медузен“ ефект на ракетата отново озарява небето. От нов телескоп, който ще променя картата на Вселената, през ракети за многократна употреба до лунни мисии и нова европейска космическа индустрия – космосът очевидно не смята да ни дава почивка. Споменато в епизода: Успешен старт на телелескопа Нанси Грейс Роман (тук) (тук) Влачат Ship40 обратно към САЩ (тук) Полет 14 (тук) (тук). Последно изстрелване на Старлинк с Falcon9 от Флорида (тук) Нова супергигантска база на SpaceX в Луизиана (тук). Китайците отложиха следващата си мисия към Луната (тук) (тук) Isar Aerospace с първи успешен орбитален полет (тук) (тук) (тук) За подкаста: В епизодите на Ratio Weekly, нашата импровизирана научна новинарска емисия, молекулярният биолог Никола Кереков в компанията на харизматичния водещ Петко Желязов ви представят най-новите открития и най-любопитните постижения в сферата на науката, технологиите и медицината от изминалата седмица. В тази мини-серия на Ratio Podcast говорим за неща като това как да общуваме ефективно с котките, защо китовете се самоубиват и какво живее на Венера. Това е една от шестте серии на Ratio Podcast – един подкаст за любопитни хора. С негова помощ ще си сверите часовника за всичко най-ново в света на науката и културата и ще чуете неформални разговори, свързани или вдъхновени от наука.

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! En este episodio de Universo de Misterios, analizamos la reciente investigación que cuestiona la inmutabilidad de la energía oscura. A partir de un catálogo de casi 3.000 supernovas de tipo 1A, exploramos cómo los nuevos datos sugieren que esta fuerza podría estar evolucionando, desafiando los cimientos del modelo cosmológico estándar Lambda-CDM. Reflexionamos sobre la crisis actual de la cosmología, conocida como la tensión de Hubble, y la posibilidad de que necesitemos una nueva física para comprender el destino del universo. Gracias por acompañarnos en Universo de Misterios. La ignorancia nunca es deseable. Nos escuchamos en el próximo viaje al universo que viene. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

NASA launched the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 30. It's field of view will be about 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. Its initial primary five-year mission will focus on finding and understanding exoplanets (planets around other stars), doing astrophysics (studying other stars and how they behave), and mapping our galaxy to hopefully get a better handle on both Dark Matter and Dark Energy We talk with space reporter Brendan Byrne, and astronomer Dr. Derek Buzasi from University of Chicago to learn what makes Roman different, and what scientists have planned for it once it starts sending data back to Earth.

In this week's episode, we'll continue with the topic of flat Earth.  In episode 1, we talked about creation and life, episode 2, the Hubble and James Webb telescopes and the outlandish claims from NASA.  In this episode, we'll discuss the Sun, the moon and the planets and how distances were determined.  We think it's all deception.  Listen in and see what you think.If you have any comments, questions or stories you would like to share, or if you'd like to be on the show, email us at cryptidfanatic@gmail.com.Send us Fan MailSupport the show

China plans to beat the US to Mars with a mission that will return samples. The Roman Space Telescope had a better than perfect launch that will extend its life. Hubble is observing a decagon on Saturn. Virgin Galactic's new spaceplane will soon have a name. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/made-of-stars--4746260/support.

Everything beyond Neptune is a leftover. The icy bodies of the Kuiper Belt never got assembled into a planet, and out there — dark, cold and empty enough that things mostly leave each other alone — they are the closest thing we have to the original building blocks of the solar system, still sitting roughly where they were made. The trouble is that everything we know about them, we learned from the big ones. Ground-based telescopes stop at around twenty-five kilometres. In two papers published on 8 September in The Astronomical Journal, teams using Hubble and Webb simultaneously — one telescope in visible light, one in the infrared, on the same field at the same moment — report twenty-seven previously unknown trans-Neptunian objects, the faintest ever directly detected. The smallest is about five kilometres across. NASA's own description of the faintest of them: the equivalent of standing on Earth and picking out a small swarm of fireflies on the Moon. The surprise is the colours. Objects that small are assumed to be collision fragments, and a fragment should be showing us the fresh ice under the irradiated red rind — so the small population should look bluer and messier than the large one. It doesn't. Led by Anastasia Morgan at Northern Arizona University, the colour study finds the small objects carry the same colour relationship as their large counterparts, in both the dynamically cold population that formed in place and the dynamically hot population that was flung outward during the giant planets' migration. David Trilling: these hot objects 'retain a signature of where they were born, even though they've been orbitally scrambled since then.' The companion size-distribution study, led by Marielle Eduardo at the University of Victoria, finds the same size distribution in both populations despite their different birthplaces. Together the two results point away from small TNOs being rubble and towards planetesimals that formed quickly, at large sizes — the picture Arrokoth gave us up close in 2019. Then: Anak Krakatau. The Sunda Strait volcano went into a major explosive phase on 5 September that ran more than twenty-four hours, throwing ash to 15,000 metres — 50,000 feet — to the west. Eight airports closed across Java and Sumatra, 2,961 flights grounded, around 170,000 travellers stranded. NASA's Earth Observatory published Landsat 8 and Suomi NPP imagery on 9 September. The whole warning chain runs through orbit: geostationary Himawari-9 imaging the full disc every ten minutes, feeding the Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre run by Australia's Bureau of Meteorology — because ash doesn't show up on aircraft weather radar, and the only warning a crew gets comes up from the ground. ESA closed out the 26-year Cluster mission by flying its last two satellites, Samba and Tango, into the atmosphere over the South Pacific near Tonga on 31 August and 1 September — deliberately, and precisely enough that a chartered business jet carrying thirty instruments could be underneath them. The ROSIE campaign, led by Jiří Šilha of Astros Solutions, got about fifty seconds on each spacecraft, measuring not the light show but the chemistry: titanium, sodium, potassium and aluminium, and specifically aluminium oxide, whose effect on ozone at those altitudes is a genuinely open question as constellations scale. ESA's Draco mission in 2027 will record the same process from the inside. And a study from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics and released on 4 September, finds that Messier 74 — the Phantom Galaxy — is more than twice the size the catalogues give it. Deep imaging with a one-metre telescope, about ten times deeper than Sloan, traces a disc of young stars out to roughly 100,000 light years against a catalogued 45,000. Mean age in that outer region: 640 million years. The likely cause is a close pass by the neighbouring galaxy UGC 1176 about a billion years ago. Skywatch covers both hemispheres on a New Moon week — the galactic core overhead from Sydney in its last strong month, the Teapot low in the south for North America, Venus building to greatest brilliancy on the 18th, Saturn climbing towards its 4 October opposition, and the full ISO 12312-2 safety passage for anyone tempted to hunt Venus in daylight. Links & sources NASA — NASA's Hubble, Webb Find Far-out Solar System Objects 'Remember' Past — https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-webb-find-far-out-solar-system-objects-remember-past/ Morgan et al. — colours of small trans-Neptunian objects, The Astronomical Journal (8 Sept 2026) — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae907f Eduardo et al. — size distribution of small trans-Neptunian objects, The Astronomical Journal (8 Sept 2026) — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ae9084 NASA Earth Observatory — Anak Krakatau Rumbles Again (Image of the Day, 9 Sept 2026) — https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/anak-krakatau-rumbles-again/ ANTARA News — Volcanic ash grounds 2,961 flights in Indonesia — https://bali.antaranews.com/berita/413072/volcanic-ash-grounds-2961-flights-in-indonesia ESA — Cluster's encore for reentry science a success (2 Sept 2026) — https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Cluster_s_encore_for_reentry_science_a_success ESA — Moving satellites to meet a plane for rare reentry data — https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Moving_satellites_to_meet_a_plane_for_rare_reentry_data Space.com — 2 satellites just burned up in Earth's atmosphere, and scientists were watching from a private jet — https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/2-satellites-just-burned-up-in-earths-atmosphere-and-scientists-were-watching-from-a-private-jet-heres-why Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias — An IAC study reveals that galaxies can grow in an 'explosive' way (4 Sept 2026) — https://www.iac.es/en/outreach/news/iac-study-reveals-galaxies-can-grow-explosive-way Astronomy & Astrophysics — 2026 press releases — https://www.aanda.org/2026-press-releases NASA — What's Up: September 2026 skywatching tips — https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/skywatching/whats-up-september-2026-skywatching-tips-from-nasa/ TheSkyLive — Moon phase calendar, September 2026 — https://theskylive.com/moon-calendar?year=2026&month=09Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been observing the universe from above Earth's atmosphere for decades. This episode explores how Hubble works, the instruments it uses to study space, and the discoveries that have changed our view of the cosmos. Along the way, you'll hear about distant galaxies, colorful nebulae, expanding space, and some of the remarkable images Hubble has captured. It's steady and consistent, with no whispering and no sudden changes, just enough to give your mind something to follow as you wind down. Happy sleeping! Read with permission from Hubble Space Telescope, Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. — Ad-free episodes: ⁠icantsleep.supportingcast.fm⁠Have a topic in mind? ⁠Request a topic⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eduardo Lorenzo Martín Guerrero de Escalante es profesor de investigación del instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias del CSIC de investigaciones científicas y de la Universidad de la Laguna y fue uno de los testigos privilegiados que vio como se lanzaba al espacio el gran telescopio Nancy Grace Roman. Un telescopio cuyas características 1000 veces mejores que el Hubble, permitirán buscar energía oscura y buscar exoplanetas con posibilidad de vida. Además por vez primera, los datos científicos que recopile estarán disponibles inmediatamente y de forma gratuita para el público general y la comunidad científica global

CAPTION 1926 HUNTINGDON BEACH,  CALIFORNIACONTENTS OF THE JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 9-4-2026.California Waves, Wildfires, and Financial DefaultsJeff Bliss reports on various events across California. Hurricane Marie has generated spectacular and dangerous waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach, drawing crowds but causing major beach erosion. Meanwhile, Monterey Countybattles the uncontained Timber and Placet wildfires in steep, inaccessible terrain. Infrastructure issues persist in Los Angeles, where temporary fixes address frequent water main breaks. A meat storage fire has left an odor and vermin, angering residents as waste is relocated. Lastly, Hollywood faces financial trouble, highlighted by Deutsche Bank's troubled loans and studios leaving California for cheaper, less-regulated states. (1)Voting Rules and Birthright Citizenship BattlesRichard Epstein discusses constitutional legal battles surrounding mail-in voting and birthright citizenship. On mail-in voting, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow postal restrictions preserving custody. Epstein believes the court will support this neutral federal regulation. On birthright citizenship, a Maryland judge blocked an executive order narrowing citizenship eligibility, calling it unconstitutional. Epstein critiques her historical reasoning but acknowledges the Chief Justice shares her view. He explores complexities including diplomatic immunity, territorial status, and whether the government can restrict pregnant foreign nationals from entry to prevent birthright citizenship tourism. (2)Canada and United States Trade NegotiationsConrad Black analyzes trade tensions between Canada and the United States, hoping cooler heads will prevail to avoid a trade war. Canada relies heavily on American trade, as US politicians face pressure from tight border state elections in Michigan and Ohio. Black outlines three major unresolved issues: Canadian content disputes in auto and truck manufacturing, Canadian trade deals with China, and American objections to French language packaging. Black urges a spirit of mutual compromise rather than table-pounding, emphasizing that both friendly nations ultimately stand to benefit from a swift resolution. (3)Lancaster County Economic Trends: Labor Day, Inflation, and Local RealitiesJim McTague and host John Batchelor discuss the economic landscape of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, ahead of Labor Day. Despite strong national jobs data—the US economy beat expectations by adding 162,000 jobs in August, prompting Wall Street to anticipate a Federal Reserve interest rate hike of a quarter point—rising Costco gasoline prices reveal the immediate pressure of inflation on local residents, surging to $4.03 per gallon from $3.93 a week prior and triggering long lines reminiscent of the 1970s fuel shortage. Meanwhile, local tourism remains strong and steady despite a highly rainy year that has occasionally caused uneven day-to-day retail activity, and the 100-year-old Charles family farm stand in East Petersburg boasts a thriving season, drawing polite crowds for exceptionally sweet corn and tomatoes despite excessive precipitation. Finally, McTague debunks false claims about the nearby industrial park's data center being noisy, noting it is actually quieter than typical lawnmowers or birds, with zero negative impact on adjacent property values or lifestyle. (4)Deterrence Essential Amid Treaty Oversight CrisesPeter Huessy discusses the modern challenges of nuclear deterrence and arms control treaties involving the United States, Russia, and China. A three-party treaty limiting overall warhead numbers is highly unlikely due to competing strategic interests. Banning specific destabilizing technologies, like multiple-warhead ICBMs or space-based weapons, is much more feasible. Huessy highlights Russia's persistent objectives of using nuclear blackmail to weaken NATO and dismantle American missile defense systems. China's absolute lack of transparency and Russia's evasion of inspections since 2020 require the United States to prioritize robust, active nuclear modernization to maintain deterrence. (5)Historical Myths Shape America's Divided IdentityDavid S. Reynolds, author of Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America, Part Two: Reynolds analyzes the historical and cultural myths shaping America's division. Pre-war, romanticized Southern fiction revived a Cavalier identity defending slavery, while Northern abolitionists drew on Puritan ideals. Though many used a two-ships metaphor—contrasting Jamestown's hierarchy with Plymouth's democracy—Abraham Lincolnrejected division, fighting for one nation founded on equality. After the war, Edward Pollard's book romanticized the plantation South as the Lost Cause, a myth later popularized by Hollywood. Reynolds also notes positive legacies, like Rhode Island Quaker abolitionist Moses Brown and early suffragists. (6)Oversight Loopholes in Saudi Nuclear DealHenry Sokolski outlines concerns regarding the unclassified but heavily redacted Saudi Arabian nuclear agreement. Government documents printed on September first reveal provisions for uranium enrichment up to twenty percent on Saudi territory. Crucially, the agreement limits atomic inspections to declared sites, presenting a loophole for covert parallel operations. Sokolski also addresses Iran's war crime accusations against the United States following a fatal off-target missile strike near the Strait of Hormuz. He attributes such tragic military targeting errors to outdated intelligence and the misuse of artificial intelligence to accelerate high-stakes decision-making in active war zones. (7)Spaceflight Ventures and Saturn's Ten-Sided RingsBob Zimmerman covers several developments in aerospace, astronomy, and planetary science. SpaceX secured an exchange deal with Brownsville for a shipping port, while Blue Origin won a Mars communication satellite relay contract. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Dragon capsule leaked, and Sierra Space remains un-flown after a decade. In astronomy, NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan named its landing site, and scientists using Hubble discovered a unique ten-sided cloud ring around Saturn's south pole. Finally, Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian rocket factories and Russia's failing satellite constellation highlight ongoing military conflicts in orbit. (8)

CAPTION 1962Spaceflight Ventures and Saturn's Ten-Sided RingsBob Zimmerman covers several developments in aerospace, astronomy, and planetary science. SpaceX secured an exchange deal with Brownsville for a shipping port, while Blue Origin won a Mars communication satellite relay contract. Meanwhile, SpaceX's Dragon capsule leaked, and Sierra Space remains un-flown after a decade. In astronomy, NASA's Dragonfly mission to Titan named its landing site, and scientists using Hubble discovered a unique ten-sided cloud ring around Saturn's south pole. Finally, Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian rocket factories and Russia's failing satellite constellation highlight ongoing military conflicts in orbit. (7)

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. — Psalm 19:1 Psalm 19 asserts that the heavens declare the glory of God. I recently learned some things about the Hubble Space Telescope and what it reveals about the known universe. Astronomers describe it in a way like this:Imagine holding up your finger with a grain of sand on it and looking at the patch of sky that the grain of sand blocks out. That's the field of space the Hubble telescope can zoom into. There are tens of thousands of galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length. If that tiny patch of sky is like every other, then we can estimate that the visible universe includes about 2 trillion galaxies. Each one of those galaxies contains about 100 billion stars. And this means the universe contains a number of stars that goes beyond any number we can even imagine. Astronomers say that there are easily more stars in the visible universe than there are grains of sand on the earth.When I think of the unimaginable size of the universe, I can't help thinking how true Psalm 19 is: “The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”Creation resounds with praise for the Creator! Dear Lord, although the heavens use no words, we join our voices with all creation to proclaim your praise. Thank you for making and redeeming us in love. Amen.

On Friday's show: A Galveston County jury has sentenced James Elmore, 61, to 20 years in prison for his role in a decades-old "Texas Killing Fields" case that went unsolved for over 40 years. We get the details on his trial and sentencing.Also this hour: NASA just launched a new telescope. We learn what makes the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope different than others before it, like the Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, and what the agency hopes to discover with new snapshots of the universe.Then, we break down The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the week.And members of the ensemble WindSync tell us about their joint performance with Musiqa tonight at Miller Outdoor Theatre.Watch

Send us Fan MailWe look at the study of the cosmos moving from Aristotle to Ptolemy, from Al Tusi to Kepler and Galileo, from Herschal to Hubble and finish with modern Astronomy.

À la fin du XIXe siècle, l'observatoire de Harvard, aux États-Unis, accumule des milliers de photographies du ciel. Problème : il faut ensuite examiner ces plaques de verre, identifier les étoiles et mesurer leur luminosité. Un travail extrêmement répétitif.Pour l'effectuer, l'observatoire recrute principalement des femmes. On les appelle les « Harvard Computers », autrement dit les « calculatrices de Harvard ».À l'époque, ce travail est considéré comme subalterne. Ces femmes sont nettement moins payées que les astronomes masculins et n'ont généralement pas accès aux télescopes. Pourtant, parmi elles se trouve une femme qui va fournir l'un des outils les plus importants de l'astronomie moderne : Henrietta Swan Leavitt.Leavitt étudie notamment des étoiles particulières appelées Céphéides. Leur luminosité n'est pas constante : elles deviennent régulièrement plus brillantes, puis plus faibles. Elles « pulsent » en quelque sorte selon un rythme précis.En examinant des Céphéides situées dans le Petit Nuage de Magellan, une galaxie satellite de la Voie lactée, Leavitt remarque quelque chose d'extraordinaire.Plus une Céphéide met du temps à effectuer un cycle complet, plus elle est réellement lumineuse.Autrement dit, il existe une relation mathématique entre la période de pulsation de l'étoile et sa luminosité intrinsèque.Pourquoi est-ce si important ?Parce que cela permet de mesurer des distances dans l'Univers.Imaginez que vous connaissiez la puissance réelle d'une ampoule. Si elle vous paraît très faible, vous pouvez en déduire qu'elle est éloignée. C'est exactement le principe utilisé avec les Céphéides.En mesurant leur période de pulsation, les astronomes peuvent déterminer leur luminosité réelle. Puis, en comparant celle-ci à la luminosité observée depuis la Terre, ils peuvent calculer leur distance.Les Céphéides deviennent ainsi de véritables « chandelles standards » cosmiques.Et cette découverte va avoir des conséquences immenses.Dans les années 1920, Edwin Hubble utilise notamment les Céphéides pour établir que certaines « nébuleuses » sont en réalité des galaxies situées très loin en dehors de la Voie lactée.Puis, en combinant les distances des galaxies avec les mesures de leur décalage vers le rouge, Hubble met en évidence en 1929 une relation fondamentale : plus une galaxie est éloignée, plus elle s'éloigne rapidement de nous.C'est l'une des grandes preuves de l'expansion de l'Univers.Ainsi, une tâche répétitive, mal payée et considérée comme secondaire a fourni l'un des instruments essentiels permettant de mesurer l'Univers.Et derrière cette révolution se trouvait une femme longtemps restée dans l'ombre : Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Space Nuts: Spanish Eclipse, Nancy Grace Roman Launch, Cloud Nine, and Venus's Mysterious CloudsAndrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson cover four big astronomy stories in this episode, from Fred's trip to view a sunset eclipse in Spain to the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. They also unpack a starless dwarf galaxy called Cloud Nine and a new way of thinking about the strange dark material in Venus's clouds.Guests and speakersAndrew Dunkley - Host, frames the news, asks listener questions, and guides the discussion.Professor Fred Watson - Astronomer at large, explains the eclipse, the Roman telescope, Cloud Nine, and Venus's clouds.Key topicsIn this episode, Fred recounts the Spanish eclipse expeditionThe eclipse was only 9 degrees above the western horizon at totality, making the viewing conditions unusually challenging.He and Marnie led a 16-person tour through France, Spain, and Switzerland before settling near Santander in northern Spain.They staked out a viewing site 2 kilometers from the hotel, set up a gazebo, and had to tie it down to a car to keep it from blowing away.The weather looked threatening, but a hole opened in the cloud just before totality, giving them a clear view of the corona.Fred described the yellowish corona, pink hydrogen clouds, and the crowd of around 2,000 people.We discuss the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launchAndrew watched the launch live after being nudged by his own brain at the right moment.Fred noted the launch was flawless, with 27 Merlin motors firing.The telescope is headed for the L2 Lagrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers away.Roman is a 2.4-meter Hubble-class telescope but with 100 times the field of view.Its wide-angle infrared design should enable major surveys of dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets via its coronagraph.Fred explains why Cloud Nine mattersCloud Nine is described as a starless dwarf galaxy about 14 million light years away.It lies near Messier 94 and was studied using the Gran Telescopio Canarias and its Hypercam instrument.The deep exposure was 2.36 hours, yet the team found no convincing stellar population.Fred says theory suggests the gas may be too hot to cool and collapse into stars because of the ultraviolet background radiation after reionization.He says Cloud Nine may be the first strong example of a galaxy predicted by standard cosmology but never before clearly identified.Venus's clouds are still puzzling astronomersFred explains that Venus appears yellowish because we see the top of its cloud layer, especially in visible light.In ultraviolet, Venus shows dramatic global cloud patterns caused by an as-yet unidentified absorber.The new study uses radiative transfer modeling to constrain what the unknown absorber could be.The team compares Venus's cloud droplets to cigarette smoke, tiny particles that look light-colored when dispersed but could become dark sludge in bulk.The result suggests the absorber must be very efficient, very concentrated, or both, but it is not being claimed as evidence of life.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope combines the image quality of Hubble with a field of view that's dramatically larger. That will allow scientists to map vast portions of the sky, search for distant planets, and study some of the biggest unanswered questions in astronomy. Federal News Network's Eric White gets more details from Matthew Bolcar, senior optical systems engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Anna and Avery cover BepiColombo's arrival at Mercury beginning today, as the ESA/JAXA mission jettisons the transfer module that has carried it for nearly eight years and nine planetary flybys. Plus: NASA awards Blue Origin a $700 million contract to build a dedicated Mars communications orbiter, Hubble confirms a brand-new ten-sided cloud pattern at Saturn's south pole — first spotted by amateur astronomers, one of them in outback New South Wales — and China's Galactic Energy flies its reusable Pallas-1 rocket for the first time.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

It's Tuesday, September 1st, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Kevin Swanson and Timothy Reed Russia shot down 239 Ukrainian drones The Russian-Ukrainian War is not relenting. Russia fired almost 1,500 drones into Ukraine over the last four days. Meanwhile, Russia reportedly shot down 239 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory over the last day. Both countries are targeting food distribution and energy infrastructure over a long and drawn out conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also preparing to send another large conscription to the battlefront, reports The Economist. Russia considers nuclear weapons against Ukraine A leader of the Russian legislature and the country's nationalist party, Alexis Zhuvraflev, announced on Sunday that the use of nuclear weapons in the war is now under consideration. In his words, “If necessary, we are obliged to use [tactical nuclear weapons]. ... If we need to strike, we will strike.” Russian President Putin appears increasingly frustrated with the progress of the war. A source informed The Economist that Putin is afraid “they will hang me” if war objectives are not accomplished. For greater context, the Kyiv Post quoted U.S. CIA Director John Ratcliffe as saying the life expectancy of a Russian soldier on the front line was “less than 35 minutes.” He added that Moscow had captured only 1% of Ukraine's total territory during the previous 18 months. How Chinese manufacturing and trade surplus is a military advantage China's manufacturing productive capacity is on the increase — all told, about double that of the United States.   In 2025, China made 960.8 million metric tons of crude steel versus only 82 million tons in the United States. China produces three times the number of automobiles compared to the U.S. And China's machine-tool production is six-fold that of the United States. China's trade surplus is hitting $1 trillion this year while America's trade deficit is going the other direction — now an annual rate of $900 billion.  Indeed, China's enormous manufacturing base becomes one of its greatest military strategic advantages. Politician in Alberta, Canada upset about tariff war with America Alberta, Canada Premier Danielle Smith shared her thoughts on the ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States. Listen. SMITH: “Tariffs and counter-tariffs are harmful to both countries involved. They disrupt businesses, threaten jobs, drive up inflation, decrease productivity, and strain relationships between allies. “What is happening between Canada and the United States right now is tragic, unjustified, and wholly unnecessary to what has been one of the largest and most successful trading relationships in world history.” Smith went on to push back against suggested oil tariffs against the United States. SMITH: “I cannot think of a more disastrous policy decision than cutting off or taxing Alberta's oil to the United States. Doing so would absolutely devastate the Canadian economy. It would not only extinguish the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Albertans, it would economically hobble our friends and neighbors in other provinces to the east.” Flash flood in Nepal killed 955; 4,471 people are missing The death toll from flash flooding in Nepal has reached 955, with another 4,471 people missing as of today, reports the French News Agency. (We have a link to the eye-opening video from CBS Evening News in our transcript today at www.TheWorldview.com) This flash flood has shaped up to be the worst disaster in Nepal since the earthquake of 2015 which killed around 9,000 people. It may also be the worst flash flood disaster in recorded history — topping the Peruvian glacial lake outburst of 1941.  American economy is lagging America's golden age hasn't quite arrived yet.   The U.S. economy is lagging — registering the lowest economic output since 2020, and then again back in 2009. The latest reading on the Gross Domestic Product from the second quarter puts annual output at 1.47%.  Removing the contributions from Artificial Intelligence, the annual output is an anemic 0.9%. Economists have pointed out that the bang for the buck from federal deficits is not working like it used to work. In the 1990s, the Keynesian approach yielded 3.1% growth with 2.1% deficits. During the 2000s, this decreased to 1.9% growth with 2.3% deficits. During the 2010s, this decreased to only 2.4% growth with 4.8% deficits. And, over the last five years, only 2.4% growth with 8% deficits. Over the last three decades, the United States has moved from periods of strong economic growth with little or no federal deficit to historically large peacetime deficits accompanying substantially slower economic growth. Deuteronomy 15:5b-6 repels this debt in these words: “Carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today.  For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.” New Jersey bans prayer and protests at abortion mills New Jersey Democratic Governor Rebecca Sherrill has signed a bill into law which would ban prayer and protests outside of abortion mills. The law specifically prevents an individual from attempting to “injure, threaten, intimidate, or physically block patients or providers…to interfere with reproductive healthcare services.” Shawn Carney, CEO of 40 Days for Life, argued, “Prayer is not a crime. Holding a sign is not intimidation. Offering a woman help is not coercion. This law is designed to scare people of faith off the sidewalks outside abortion facilities by creating the constant threat of prosecution and costly lawsuits.”  Proverbs 31:8-9 exhorts all of us to “Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” Sent a polite, 3-sentence note to New Jersey Democratic Governor Rebecca Sherrill objecting to her decision to ban prayer and peaceful protests outside abortion mills.  Send it to: PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625. 11,000 Americans infected by lettuce parasite That cyclosporiasis outbreak, attributed to Taylor Farms de Mexico, has now infected over 11,000 Americans across 20 states, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.   Fox Business reports a 30% decrease in lettuce sales across the country. The culprit is a single-celled parasite that produces stomach cramps, nausea, and fatigue. Texas looks to end no-fault divorce The state of Texas is looking to end no-fault divorce.  In its legislative priorities for 2026-2028, the Texas GOP State Convention lists protecting kids as a major priority, specifically mentioning the promotion of marriage, parental rights, the end of homosexual adoptions, and the end of no-fault divorce. The document further explained, “When a marriage breaks down, family law proceedings should respect 50/50 equal parenting presumptions in the best interest of children.”  Other priorities for the Texas GOP include border security, banning taxpayer-funded lobbying, and equal protection for the unborn.  New NASA telescope 100 times more powerful than Hubble telescope And finally, on Sunday, August 30th at 7:26am Eastern Time, NASA launched a rocket to place the next generation telescope into our Solar System from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Nancy Grace Roman telescope, named after NASA's first chief of astronomy Nancy Grace Roman, is 100 times more powerful than both the James Webb telescope and the Hubble space telescope. It will take about 100 days to reach its destination — about one million miles from Earth. That's equal to the distance of orbiting the Earth's circumference of 24,900 miles 40 times over. To quote Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown from the 1985 Back to the Future movie, portrayed by Christopher Lloyd: BROWN: “Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!” (sound effect of the modified DeLorean DMC-12 time machine taking off) Close And that's The Worldview on this Tuesday, September 1st, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Before Hubble ever launched, Nancy Grace Roman was already fighting to make a space telescope a reality. As NASA's first Chief of Astronomy and its first female executive, Roman helped turn the ambitious idea of a telescope above Earth's atmosphere into what would become the Hubble Space Telescope. This September, we look back at the remarkable woman behind the "Mother of Hubble" nickname, and ahead to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to begin its own journey into deep space. A new telescope is about to carry her name into the future, and it may change the way we explore the universe all over again.   #Astronomy #Space #STEM #Science #STEMEducation #NASA Follow us at facebook.com/BackyardAstronomerAZ Check out the NAZ Astro mission of STEM education at facebook.com/NAZAstro Support STEM education patreon.com/NAZAstro Our awesome sponsors: facebook.com/manzanitains www.Manzanita-Insurance.com www.ManzanitaAccounting.com www.ManzanitaInsuranceAndAccounting.com www.BackyardAstroAZ.com

A.M. Edition for Aug. 31. The U.S. strikes Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices higher on concerns of a flareup in fighting. Plus, as the leaders of Russia and China converge against the West on supporting Iran, WSJ's Thomas Grove explains how their fortunes are diverging, with Beijing holding Russia's economy hostage. And a look at how President Trump's China tariffs have propelled Vietnam's economy, as manufacturers shift production. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Space Show Presents Leonard David, Sunday, 8-30-26 4583This was a space show discussion hosted by David Livingston with veteran space journalist Leonard David as the main guest, along with several space community members including Marshall Martin, Manuel Cuba, Bill Gowen, John Hunt, Dr. Charles Lurio, Phil Swan, Dr. A.J. Kothari, and Dr. Doug Plata. The conversation centered on the recent launch of NASA's Roman telescope, with Leonard describing it as a significant moment in astronomy that will complement existing observatories like Hubble and James Webb. The discussion also covered Leonard's skepticism about NASA's Artemis program, particularly regarding the transition from Artemis III's lunar orbit mission to a human landing on the moon, with Leonard expressing concerns about technical readiness and the need for proper testing before committing human missions. The conversation touched on China's lunar program delays, SpaceX's Starship development challenges, and broader space policy issues, with participants discussing the gap between scientific discoveries and their incorporation into educational materials for students.David hosted this program with Leonard David as the main guest, discussing recent space developments including the Roman telescope launch. Barbara reported watching the launch early in the morning and praised SpaceX's success, comparing it to the James Webb telescope deployment. The discussion touched on how new astronomical data from instruments like the Roman telescope and James Webb might be more quickly accessible to the public and citizen science groups compared to previous missions, potentially addressing the delay in updating science textbooks with current findings.Leonard expressed skepticism about the current status of NASA's Artemis program, citing concerns about the technical readiness to transition from Earth orbit operations to human lunar landings. She noted that while Artemis II was inspiring, there are missing technical links similar to those proven during Apollo missions, and she emphasized the need to avoid early human fatalities in the program. Leonard also discussed the growing space competition with China and the importance of communicating space exploration to the public in accessible ways beyond technical jargon.The group discussed China's postponement of the Chang'e 7 mission to 2027, with Barbara explaining that timing issues around lunar illumination at the South Pole were the main factor, as the mission required specific lighting conditions for the landing area. Charles clarified that the 18.3-year lunar cycle affects illumination at the South Pole more significantly than at equatorial regions, requiring precise timing rather than simply waiting for the next identical opportunity. The discussion also touched on technical challenges with the relay satellite and landing site conditions, with comparisons made to similar challenges faced by NASA's Artemis program.Leonard also expressed skepticism about current space programs, particularly regarding SpaceX's promises and Elon Musk's leadership style, comparing it to past experiences with the space shuttle program. He shared her concerns about the challenges facing private space companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, noting that the current space program is significantly different from the Apollo program. Our guest reflected on the past involvement in promoting student payloads for the space shuttle program, where she and colleagues testified before Congress about getting students involved in NASA missions.The group discussed challenges related to lunar exploration, including the complex illumination conditions at the South Pole due to the 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle and the need for continuous computer simulations to map polar sunlight. Leonard highlighted concerns about moonquakes and the importance of gathering more data through additional seismometers before committing to a moon base. The conversation shifted to broader political and financial topics, with David expressing skepticism about government fiscal responsibility and noting that both major political parties contribute to growing national debt, which he believes will have significant impacts on future generations.The group discussed the Artemis program, particularly focusing on the need for unmanned lunar landings before human missions as part of the Artemis IV planning. Leonard expressed skepticism about claims of a cislunar economy, noting that while there are studies and interest from multiple countries including India and China, the sustainability and economic viability of lunar exploration remain uncertain. The discussion also touched on historical space missions, including challenges during Apollo 10 and 11, before being interrupted by David who mentioned a recent Deloitte report on space and the moon.David shared information about a new Deloitte report on the lunar economy, which estimates a potential economic value of $343 billion to $566 billion through 2050. He plans to review the report's assumptions and potentially invite the authors to discuss it on his space show. The group discussed the importance of reviewing economic projections and assumptions in space exploration, with Barbara emphasizing the need for sustained human presence on the moon before considering Mars missions.The group discussed the development status of Starship, particularly focusing on the differences between flights 13 and 14. Charles explained that flight 14 would attempt to catch both the booster and Starship, with the upper stage catch feature being removed recently. The discussion highlighted ongoing challenges with propellant transfer testing and concerns about space debris, with Leonard expressing worry about potential explosions during refueling operations in orbit.Our guest expressed support for the idea of a Space Academy similar to Annapolis or West Point, noting her work on rewriting a Space Career book and conducting interviews with space startups. He highlighted challenges in the space startup industry, including frequent changes in leadership and funding issues, while acknowledging the presence of successful companies in Colorado like Advanced Space and Blue Canyon. The discussion touched on SpaceX's dominance in the industry and its role in launching numerous payloads, including CubeSats, though its future plans with Falcon 9 remain uncertain.Leonard and David discussed public skepticism about UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena), noting that recent Pentagon releases and media coverage have increased public interest. Leonard expressed concerns about missing data in Pentagon files and highlighted credible reports from military pilots, while also considering alternative explanations including military testing programs. The conversation touched on historical perspectives on UFOs, including experiences from the 1950s, and mentioned ongoing congressional efforts to protect whistleblowers who come forward with UAP information.The group discussed various topics related to space exploration and UAPs. Barbara shared insights about Mike Gold's work on NASA's UAP study and Bigelow Aerospace's involvement. The conversation then shifted to potential new propulsion technologies, with Leonard mentioning a company called Exodus that is developing innovative space travel solutions. David referred to a podcast interview with Eric Weinstein, who discussed how conventional scientific constraints may limit our understanding of space travel, propulsion, and extraterrestrial life. The conversation ended with a discussion about a new book by Steve Benner that critiques how science handled the Viking data on Mars.The group discussed Eric Weinstein, with Bill describing him as intelligent but having a persecution complex as an outsider to physics, while John Jossy mentioned Weinstein's technical paper on unified field theory. Leonard shared her experience filming with Buzz Aldrin for a new documentary and mentioned an upcoming story about a potentially significant finding on Venus. The conversation concluded with Leonard describing her childhood experience witnessing a black triangle-shaped object, which she believes was a classified U.S. aircraft based on information from Bill Scott, though John Hunt expressed skepticism about the alien origin theory.Special thanks to our sponsors:American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Helix Space in Luxembourg, Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, Astrox Corporation, Dr. Haym Benaroya of Rutgers University, The Space Settlement Progress Blog by John Jossy, The Atlantis Project, and Artless EntertainmentWe use Zoom phone numbers for program participation.For real time program participation, email Dr. Space at: drspace@thespaceshow.com for instructions and access.The Space Show is a non-profit 501C3 through its parent, One Giant Leap Foundation, Inc. To donate via Pay Pal, use:To donate with Zelle, use the email address: david@onegiantleapfoundation.org.If you prefer donating with a check, please make the check payable to One Giant Leap Foundation and mail to:One Giant Leap Foundation, 11035 Lavender Hill Drive Ste. 160-306 Las Vegas, NV 89135Upcoming Programs:Broadcast 4584: Zoom: Jules Ross with co-host John Jossy | Tuesday 01 Sep 2026 700PM PTGuests: Jules RossZoom: Jules Ross is the CEO & lead designer of Joules Space Technology which focuses on artificial gravity and space station. John Jossy is our Co-host for this program.Broadcast 4586: Hotel Mars with Dr. Craig DeForest | Wednesday 02 Sep 2026 930AM PTGuests: John Batchelor, Dr. David Livingston, Dr. Craig DeForestHotel Mars with Dr. Craig DeFores re space weather forecasts and the PUNCH ProgramFriday, Sept. 4, 2026: No Show. Labor Day Holiday Weekend | Friday 04 Sep 2026 930AM PTGuests: Dr. David LivingstonNo program due to Labor Day Holiday WeekendSunday, Sept. 6, 2026: No program due to Labor Day Holiday Weekend | Sunday 06 Sep 2026 1200PM PTGuests: Dr. David LivingstonNo program due to Labor Day Holiday Weekend Get full access to The Space Show-One Giant Leap Foundation at doctorspace.substack.com/subscribe

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope sees 100 times more sky than the Hubble Space Telescope and has the ability to directly image planets around other stars like those in our own solar system. Learn about this game-changing space telescope as well as new take on old Hubble observations that allows dark matter to be mapped on a finer scale than ever before.

NASA has launched its new powerful space telescope on a mission to chart tens of thousands of planets outside of our solar system. The Nancy Grace Roman telescope can see panoramic views of space 100 times larger than the Hubble.President Donald Trump says the United States has made the "biggest oil deal in world history" with Venezuela. NTD has the details.In Nepal, rescuers race against rising waters as they try to free hundreds of workers trapped in tunnels.Google Maps is now showing “Lake America” where “Lake Ontario” used to be. It comes after Trump's recent executive order to change the name.

Today's episode — S05E180, Saturday August 29, 2026, The Weekend Wrap: Main story: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches tomorrow, Sunday August 30, with a primary window opening 7:26am EDT (11:26 UTC / 9:26pm AEST Sunday night in Sydney) on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from LC-39A, Kennedy Space Center; backup window Monday August 31 at 7:22am EDT. Total ascent to spacecraft deployment is about 31 minutes 31 seconds, with Falcon Heavy's side boosters landing back at Cape Canaveral roughly 7 minutes 40 seconds after liftoff. Named for NASA's first chief astronomer Nancy Grace Roman (the "mother of Hubble"), the telescope shares Hubble's 2.4-metre primary mirror but pairs it with a Wide Field Instrument boasting a field of view roughly 100 times larger at similar resolution. Its major science campaigns: the High Latitude Wide Area Survey, mapping ~2 billion galaxies to probe dark matter and dark energy; a companion supernova time-domain survey; and the Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey, a gravitational-microlensing exoplanet hunt expected to find on the order of 100,000 new worlds, including free-floating rogue planets. A Coronagraph Instrument will demonstrate direct exoplanet imaging technology. After deployment, Roman heads for the Sun-Earth L2 point (~1.5 million km out), a month-long cruise followed by months of commissioning. The mission closes out three threads covered this week: its clearance for launch nine months early (S05E176), its Cold War spy-satellite origin story (S05E178), and its narrow escape from budget cancellation (S05E179). The week in review: ●        Chang'e-7's delay, revisited: Monday's episode (S05E175) reported China's Chang'e-7 lunar south pole mission scrubbing on August 24 due to Tropical Storm Narra, with the next window estimated at about a month out. Since then, reporting has split — some outlets still cite a mid-September window, while others report a slip to February or March 2027, citing the mission's roughly 100-days-per-year favorable lighting geometry at Shackleton Crater. China's Manned Space Agency has not issued a firm new date as of this recording; we're flagging the uncertainty rather than picking a side. ●        Betelgeuse's bubbling surface: ALMA's most detailed image yet of the red supergiant's actual surface shows a corrugated, hot-spotted texture, with one hot spot persisting for over seven years — possibly stirred by a newly confirmed companion star (S05E177). ●        Diamond rain, decoded: A Lawrence Livermore experiment recreated Neptune- and Uranus-like interior pressures, settling a 20-year dispute over diamond's melting point and pointing toward roughly triple the energy gain in certain fusion reactor configurations (S05E178). ●        The space-mirror fight: US startup Reflect Orbital has FCC approval for its first demonstration mirror satellite; a new peer-reviewed study (Kocifaj, Bakos & Kundracik) finds the planned full-scale mirrors would appear roughly 40 times brighter than the full Moon to anyone in their beam — "worse than big cities like London," per Princeton's Gáspár Bakos (S05E179). ●        Starship's Ship 40 is actually heading home: hours after Friday's episode aired, Ship 40 was loaded onto the heavy-lift vessel Forte and departed Christmas Island on the ~20,000km voyage back to Starbase, Texas, expected to take several weeks. Flight 14 remains targeted no-earlier-than September 15, with Booster 21's static-fire testing now complete. Links & sources: ●        Space.com — What time will SpaceX launch NASA's Roman Space Telescope on Aug. 30? (Full mission timeline) ●        NASA Science — Roman Launch Countdown ●        Engadget — How to watch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's launch ●        Scientific American — China delays ambitious Chang'e 7 moon mission until 2027 ●        SpaceNews — China delays Chang'e-7 lunar south pole landing mission launch ●        CGTN — Explainer: Why Chang'e-7 can't simply launch a few days later ●        Space.com — The bubbling surface of doomed supergiant star Betelgeuse has been revealed like never before ●        ScienceDaily — Scientists crushed diamond beyond Neptune-like pressures — and solved a 20-year mystery ●        Gizmodo — Scientists recreate the melting "diamond rain" of Neptune and Uranus. It may help fusion power ●        Space.com — Massive space mirrors could be 40 times brighter than the full moon, astronomers warn ●        ABC News (Australia) — SpaceX rocket begins journey back to Texas from Christmas Island ●        NASASpaceFlight.com — Ship 40 arrives at Christmas Island, plans return to Starbase Follow us: @AstroDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

CONTENTS JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW, 8-26-2026.832Greenwich Observatory (Robert Chambers, p.200, 1832) - Copy.pngJohn Batchelor and Michael Bernstam analyze the revenue-sharing deal between Iran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz, which does not resolve the critical global refinery shortage. Decades of zero Western refinery expansion, alongside Ukrainian drone strikes disabling Russian capacity, has left a global deficit of 5.6 to 6 million barrels per day of refined products. This is especially severe for diesel, which requires heavy crude unlike the light sweet crude produced by the US shale revolution. With U.S. refineries running at maximum capacity, the threat of mechanical failures risks a full-blown supply crisis. (1)Richard Reinsch discusses the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and their principles, which advocate for economic collectivism, nationalizing private industries, and dismantling the U.S. constitutional republic in favor of a unicameral legislature. Reinsch contrasts this with a historical 1922 Kremlin conversation where Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused American communist Jay Lovestone of "heresy" for arguing "American exceptionalism"—the idea that American working-class prosperity made them resistant to Marxism. Today, Reinsch views the DSA as an overeducated, white, urban phenomenon failing to win working-class or minority voters. (2)Rogier Windhorst and David Livingston: Professor Windhorst warns that the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit will begin to decay uncontrollably by September 2033 due to solar maximum atmospheric expansion. To prevent a hazardous, uncontrolled re-entry, Windhorst advocates for a robotic servicing mission to boost Hubble's orbit. As the only remaining telescope with precise blue-ultraviolet capabilities, Hubble's data remains critical and heavily in demand. Windhorst urges NASA to fund a $100 million rescue mission and eventually construct the Habitable Worlds Observatory to search for Earth-like exoplanets starting in 2040. (3)David Hebert discusses the fiscal debates surrounding Social Security's impending 2032 shortfall. Hebert refutes the idea that raising tax rates increases treasury revenue, noting that tax revenue historically remains constant at 17–18% of GDP because high rates prompt tax avoidance. Instead of "starving the beast" of resources, Hebert advocates for "starving the beast of responsibility" by decentralizing programs through federalism to cut administrative costs. He urges structural reforms to Social Security, highlighting that the ratio of workers supporting each retiree has plummeted from 40-to-1 down to 2-to-1. (4)Captain James Fanell (US Navy, retired), co-host Gordon Chang: Fanell warns that China is nearing completion of a military installation on Triton Island in the Paracels, expanding its "ring of control" in the South China Sea. He cautions that China may soon fortify Scarborough Shoal, threatening to block the northern South China Sea and degrade U.S. naval operations. In response to this rising coercion, the Philippines is boosting its 2027 defense budget by 6.3%, allocating $800 million for modernization with a heavy focus on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones. Fanell urges more assertive naval cooperation to deter further Chinese expansion. (5)Dean Cheng, co-host Gordon Chang: Cheng analyzes China's space program and its pursuit of reusable booster technology to match SpaceX's cost-saving launch cadences. Although China has successfully recaptured first-stage boosters, it has not yet demonstrated refurbishing or reusing them. Cheng notes that China seeks space dominance to deploy six mega-constellations and establish moon colonies. He suggests that a delay in China's lunar south pole probe—officially blamed on solar exposure—is likely due to the ongoing accident investigation of the Long March 7 rocket failure. Cheng predicts a Chinese astronaut will walk on the moon by December 31, 2030. (6)Charles Burton, co-host Gordon Chang: Burton discusses the escalating trade war between Canada and the Trumpadministration, which triggered $20 billion in Canadian retaliatory tariffs and a 7.5 billion CAD business support package. The dispute has sparked public anti-Trump sentiment and personal mudslinging between Donald Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Stalled negotiations, compounded by unacceptable U.S. demands regarding French labeling laws, have shattered bilateral trust. Burton warns that Canada is prepared to pivot away from MAGA toward free trade with Europe and China, despite severe risks of Chinese economic coercion. (7)Jack Burnham outlines China's persistent military coercion campaign targeting Taiwan, noting that Beijing separates economic trade truces from its aggressive goal to subjugate the island. China's provocations, including Coast Guardpatrols east of Taiwan and flights over the median line, are designed to establish a "new normal." In December 2025, China responded to an $11 billion U.S. arms package by launching "Justice Mission 2025," an expansive military exercise simulating blockades and practicing "all-dimensional deterrence" to discourage U.S. intervention and test regional capabilities. (8)Doug Messier details SpaceX's plans to build "Starbase Louisiana," a massive $100 billion, 125,000-acre spaceport designed as the world's largest launch facility. Scheduled for construction in 2027 and launches by 2029, the facility will feature ten launch pads supporting thousands of annual, airline-style Starship flights. While bringing thousands of jobs, the coastal development raises environmental concerns regarding wetland habitats, which SpaceX has pledged to help restore. Messier also highlights Space Force's startup funding arm, SpaceWERX, which is fostering new aerospace innovators like Antares Nuclear and Muon Space. (9)Jeremy Zakis reports on the unprecedented rainfall sweeping across Australia, driven by a super El Niño cycle interacting with the Indian Ocean Dipole. South Australia and Adelaide experienced the heaviest downpours, breaking monthly rainfall records in a single day, while Sydney's infrastructure coped with several inches of rain. Victoria and Melbourne were largely spared due to the Great Dividing Range acting as a barrier. Zakis warns that weekly spring rains are highly unusual and threaten to fuel rapid forest undergrowth, which could dry out and create a dangerous bushfire hazard during future droughts. (10)

Rogier Windhorst and David Livingston: Professor Windhorst warns that the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit will begin to decay uncontrollably by September 2033 due to solar maximum atmospheric expansion. To prevent a hazardous, uncontrolled re-entry, Windhorst advocates for a robotic servicing mission to boost Hubble's orbit. As the only remaining telescope with precise blue-ultraviolet capabilities, Hubble's data remains critical and heavily in demand. Windhorst urges NASA to fund a $100 million rescue mission and eventually construct the Habitable Worlds Observatory to search for Earth-like exoplanets starting in 2040. (3)

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 102 *SpaceX's Starship arrives at Christmas Island After some 24 days at sea, a SpaceX recovery team has successfully towed its test flight 13 Starship into the remote Australian Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island.  The unplanned operation was hastily put together after the spacecraft unexpectedly held together following its splashdown off the Western Australian coast. *How old really is the universe? Astronomers have come up with a new way to work out the age of the universe finding it to be 13.6 billion years old – some 200 million years younger than previously thought. *Einstein's general relativity theory still stands More than 100 years after Albert Einstein published his iconic general theory of relativity, it remains science's best understanding of gravity and the universe on the cosmic scale. *The Science Report A new study shows that carrying a little extra weight could be beneficial as you get older. People lacking human connections more likely to turn to AI chatbots for companionship. The Southern Ocean and parts of the Pacific may be the best places to fertilise to remove CO2. How dogs have learnt to understand human facial expressions. Alex on Tech: The Galaxy passport sized Z Fold 8 tops the sales figures.

One day, don't you want to shine like the stars forever? Listen in to hear Joni share about how you can make that happen. -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible. Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

In four days from now NASA plans to launch The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.  A remarkable scientific achievement that will compliment both the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescope and see more of the cosmos. Join Emmy award broadcast journalist David Denault with pre-launch pre-view.

Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! - Por favor, inicia sesión en iVoox antes de escuchar o hacer comentarios. Los comentarios anónimos no son publicados. En esta entrega de Universo de Misterios, realizamos un recorrido exhaustivo por la cronología de las teorías cosmológicas, desde las primeras concepciones mesopotámicas hasta los hallazgos más recientes del telescopio James Webb. Analizamos cómo la humanidad ha pasado de modelos geocéntricos a comprender la expansión del universo, la nucleosíntesis estelar y los desafíos actuales que plantea la tensión de Hubble. Un repaso riguroso por los hitos científicos que han definido nuestra comprensión del cosmos a lo largo de más de dos milenios. Aunque a algunas personas, a veces, puede proporcionar una falsa sensación de alivio, la ignorancia nunca es deseable. Pero eso, tú ya lo sabes... Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

The scan that keeps checkout lines moving has a cosmic origin.

Today's episode — S05E176, Tuesday August 25, 2026:Feature story: NASA's Roman Space Telescope is fully encapsulated inside its Falcon Heavy fairing and cleared to launch no earlier than 7:26 a.m. ET this Sunday, August 30 — about nine months ahead of its original schedule, a rarity for a NASA flagship mission. Roman is headed to Sun-Earth L2 for a five-year mission mapping dark energy and dark matter and hunting exoplanets with a starlight-cancelling coronagraph. Its wide-field camera surveys roughly a hundred times faster than Hubble at comparable image sharpness. Named for NASA's first chief astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman — the "mother of Hubble" — the mission is a formal ESA partnership; some of its data will come down through a new ESA antenna at New Norcia, Western Australia.The rest of the news:ISS Spacewalk 98: NASA's Anil Menon and ESA's Sophie Adenot are outside the station today finishing a Space-to-Ground antenna replacement and, time permitting, installing a new docking retroreflector — their third spacewalk together in under a month.Milky Way merger scar: A Hubble-based study (the ARMA project, led by Davide Massari) has found evidence of a ~500-million-solar-mass dwarf galaxy, dubbed Low-energy-Kraken-Heracles, absorbed by the Milky Way roughly 12 billion years ago — the earliest documented merger in our galaxy's history.Perseids 2028 watch: Jupiter's gravity may nudge Perseid debris closer to Earth's path in 2028, potentially producing an outburst of 200-300 meteors/hour under favorable dark-sky conditions — though modelers caution the forecast is an "educated guess."Tonight's Sky: A 96%-partial lunar eclipse falls the night of August 27-28 — spectacular from the Americas and parts of Europe/Africa, but invisible from Australia and the rest of Asia-Pacific, where it happens in broad daylight. Venus and Saturn remain good evening targets locally in the meantime.Links & sources:NASA Science — Roman Launch CountdownNASA Roman Blog — Roman Telescope Enclosed in Falcon Heavy FairingSpace.com — The Roman Space Telescope is ready to launch Aug. 30JPL — NASA Telescope Named for "Mother of Hubble" Nancy Grace RomanESA — Roman factsheetNASA — NASA to Cover Three US SpacewalksSpace.com — The earliest galaxy "swallowed" by the cannibal Milky Way left a scar at its heartSpace.com — Could Jupiter supercharge the Perseids in 2028?Space.com — Partial lunar eclipse Aug. 27-28: stages and visibilityFollow us: @AstronomyDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

SpaceTime Series 29 Episode 101 *NASA scraps its Swift rescue mission NASA has been forced to abandon its planned rescue mission to save the Swift Gamma Ray Space Telescope. *The Milky Way's first big galactic collision Astronomers have discovered what was probably the first major galactic collision involving our home galaxy the Milky Way cannibalising a dwarf galaxy less than two billion years after the big bang. *Understanding the stuff atoms are made of New observations by the world's largest atom smasher have revealed some of the basic fundamental physics of the universe, challenging long-standing theories of how gluons behave inside atomic nuclei. *The Science Report Australia records its first confirmed case of H5 N1 bird flu in a mammal on the nation's main land. How bushfires are polluting water supplies with arsenic. Successful Phase 3 trials of a new Australian developed personalized mRNA cancer vaccine. The growing impact of plastic pollution on Lord Howe Island's Sable Shearwaters rookery. Over 90% of Blue Mountains rainforests wrongly catalogued as eucalypt forests. The Skeptics guide to the ghost of the Crying Tree pub.Our guests: Alex Zaharov-Reutt from techadvice.life Tim Mendham from Australian Skeptics And Senior science writer and Sky and Telescope magazine contributor Jonathan Nally  

Anna and Avery close out a three-week saga: SpaceX has recovered Starship's Ship 40 from the Indian Ocean after a soft splashdown, a difficult tow, and a moment where recovery odds looked as low as 18%. Plus: a dead star in the Helix Nebula previews our own Sun's five-billion-years-from-now fate, new evidence the Milky Way was built in part by an ancient galactic collision, and China's fast recovery from a rocket failure with back-to-back launches.Full show notes:Today's episode — S05E170, Tuesday August 18, 2026:Main story: Starship's Ship 40 makes it home. SpaceX has completed recovery of Ship 40, the Starship Flight 13 upper stage that survived an unprecedented soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean on July 24. After drifting over 400km and a difficult multi-week tow through rough seas (prediction markets had given it ~18% odds as of mid-August), recovery vessels including the Normand Ranger brought the ship in to Western Australia this week. SpaceX had already secured the imagery it needed from the heat shield and engines regardless of outcome; Ship 41 and Flight 14 (targeting ~August 20) are already in the pipeline.A dead star shows us our Sun's future. A Yale-led team studying the Helix Nebula's white dwarf found 22 bow-shock structures in its outer halo — the first direct observation of a dead star's ejected material dispersing back into the galaxy. It's a preview of what our own Sun will undergo in roughly 5 billion years. Published August 12 in Nature.The collision that built the Milky Way. Hubble and Gaia data revealed a previously unknown ancient dwarf galaxy, "LKH," which merged with the Milky Way 11.8 billion years ago — predating the well-known Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus merger by 1.8 billion years. Published August 17 in Nature Astronomy.China bounces back from a rocket failure. After an August 10 Long March 7A failure destroyed a communications satellite, China launched twice within 23 hours on August 16 — a Long March 12 from Wenchang and a Long March 2C from Taiyuan — demonstrating operational resilience across two rocket types and launch sites.Tonight's sky: the waxing crescent Moon pairs with a brilliant Venus (magnitude -4.1) low in the western sky, about 45 minutes after sunset.Links & sources:NASASpaceFlight.com — While SpaceX recovers Ship 40, Ship 41 prepares for testing ahead of Flight 14MarineRadar — SpaceX recovers Starship from Indian Ocean after three-week towCNN — Satellite imagery captures race to recover 170-foot SpaceX Starship in the Indian OceanSpace.com — Scientists find dead star that predicts our Sun's futureSpace.com — How an ancient collision with another galaxy transformed the Milky WaySpace.com — China bounces back from Long March rocket explosion with back-to-back launchesSpace.com — Night sky August 2026: what you can see tonightFollow us: @AstronomyDailyPodBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.

Episode Description:Mike Massimino's path to space was not a straight line. It was a long series of obstacles, failures, second attempts, and decisions not to quit.In this From the Archive conversation, James talks with Mike about his memoir Spaceman, his two shuttle missions to service the Hubble Space Telescope, his career at NASA, his work at Columbia, and the deeper lessons behind becoming an astronaut.Mike explains that spaceflight may look impossibly complex from the outside, but NASA makes it possible through preparation, checklists, training, repetition, and teamwork. In space, even the hardest work has structure. Back on Earth, ordinary life can sometimes feel harder because there is no checklist for getting through the day.James and Mike talk about the view of Earth from orbit and why Mike's first reaction after a spacewalk was: “The Earth is a planet.” From space, Earth no longer looks like a safe, permanent background. It looks like a fragile home traveling through a dangerous universe.The conversation then moves back to Mike's childhood. He watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and saw the New York Mets win the World Series in 1969, but he did not believe becoming an astronaut was realistic. Astronauts seemed like superheroes. It felt like something other people did.Still, the dream stayed with him.Mike describes failing his PhD qualifying exam at MIT, being told he might not be suited for the program, and deciding to try again anyway. He talks about applying to NASA four times, being rejected, failing the medical exam because of his eyesight, and then doing the seemingly impossible: training his eyes to pass the standard without surgery.For James, this becomes the central lesson. Most people would have accepted medical disqualification as proof that the dream was over. Mike saw it as another obstacle.The episode also explores what “the right stuff” really means. Mike pushes back against the old image of the astronaut as a lone, fearless test pilot. The real right stuff, he says, is whether someone can be trusted with your life. Can they work on a team? Will they help when you need help? Will they ask for help when they need it?Near the end, James identifies another pattern in Mike's life: he may not have been the best at any single thing, but he became unusually good at a combination of things. Astronaut. Engineer. Spacewalker. Teacher. Communicator. Author. Public face for science. That combination made him uniquely valuable.The result is a conversation about space, but also about persistence, meaning, teamwork, and the improbable path from childhood dream to real achievement.Editorial Note:This is a From the Archive episode. References to NASA programs, the Space Launch System, Orion, Commercial Crew, SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, the shuttle program, and Mike's recent book activity reflect the original recording period.What You'll Learn:Why astronauts rely so heavily on checklists, procedures, training, and team support.How the view of Earth from space changed Mike Massimino's relationship to the planet.Why Mike believes life likely exists somewhere else in the universe.What the Hubble Deep Field revealed about galaxies hiding in a seemingly empty patch of sky.Why childhood dreams can matter even when they seem impossible.How Mike decided which dreams were worth paying the price to pursue.Why failing at MIT did not end his path to NASA.How he handled repeated NASA rejections.Why failing the astronaut eye exam became one of the defining obstacles of his life.How Mike trained his eyes to pass NASA's vision requirements.Why the most successful people are not people who never fail.What “the right stuff” means beyond bravery, intelligence, or physical ability.Why teamwork, trust, and character matter so much in spaceflight.How imposter syndrome can change when you understand your role on a team.Why the odds only become zero when you give up.How private space companies could expand access to space.Timestamped Chapters:[04:53] NASA Checklists vs. Normal LifeMike explains why complex work in space can feel simpler than ordinary life when training, procedures, and support are in place.[07:13] Training for Spacewalks UnderwaterJames asks about NASA's massive training pool, full-scale mockups, and how closely underwater training matches a real spacewalk.[08:33] The Overwhelming View of EarthMike says the work itself is trained into you, but the view of the planet from space is impossible to fully prepare for.[09:16] “The Earth Is a Planet”Mike describes seeing Earth as a fragile home surrounded by the rest of the universe.[11:32] Is There Life Somewhere Else?Mike explains why Hubble's view of billions of galaxies makes it hard for him to believe Earth is the only place with life.[12:27] Why Hubble MattersJames and Mike talk about Hubble's images, the telescope's cultural impact, and why servicing it mattered.[14:03] The Hubble Deep FieldMike explains how Hubble found galaxies in a patch of sky that had seemed empty.[15:33] The Kid Who Wanted to Be an AstronautJames rewinds to Mike's childhood: Neil Armstrong, the 1969 Mets, bad eyesight, fear of heights, and an impossible dream.[18:10] Losing Touch With the DreamMike reflects on how people can talk themselves out of what they really love because the path looks too hard.[18:28] Failing at MITJames compares his own graduate-school failure to Mike's decision to keep going after failing his PhD qualifying exam.[20:43] Which Dreams Are Worth the Cost?Mike explains how he knew acting was interesting but space was something he was willing to suffer for.[23:20] Meaning, Public Service, and the Book's Real ThemesMike says Spaceman became about dreams, persistence, the wonder of space, and the value of doing work that serves something larger.[26:29] Interest Plus MeaningJames identifies the pattern in Mike's decisions: he pursued the work that combined personal interest with deeper purpose.[28:00] Finding the Path When There Is No MapMike explains why he chose to keep pursuing his PhD even though there were other possible routes to NASA.[30:06] Thirty Seconds of RegretMike remembers the advice to give yourself a short period of regret after failure, then move on.[31:19] The People Who Never Let Failure Stop ThemMike says the most successful people he has met are not people who never fail, but people who refuse to be stopped by failure.[35:20] Failing the NASA Eye ExamJames asks about the obstacle that seemed impossible to fix: Mike's eyesight.[36:35] Applying to NASA Four TimesMike describes two early rejections, one interview, a failed medical exam, and the long road toward another chance.[39:10] “How Could I Have Given Up?”Mike explains why he could live with NASA saying no, but not with himself giving up.[40:28] Training His Eyes to See BetterMike finds a doctor, works through vision training, and eventually improves enough to pass the acuity requirement.[41:27] Getting to Space Was Not the EndJames notes that even after becoming an astronaut, Mike faced more setbacks, including the Columbia tragedy and the uncertainty around later Hubble missions.[43:07] Knowing When a Chapter Is OverMike explains why he eventually felt satisfied with his astronaut career and ready for the next phase.[43:48] Imposter Syndrome and TeamworkMike describes feeling like an imposter at MIT and NASA, and how belonging to a team helped him understand what he could contribute.[46:16] Redefining “The Right Stuff”James and Mike discuss why the real astronaut test is not swagger, but trust, character, and whether someone has your back.[49:11] Would You Trust This Person With Your Life?Mike explains the qualities NASA looks for beyond credentials: teamwork, reliability, humility, and character.[54:02] The Fourth Theme: Combinations of SkillJames points out that Mike's power came from combining many abilities: astronaut, engineer, spacewalker, teacher, communicator, and author.[57:26] The Right Person Because He Wouldn't Give UpMike says he may not have been the best spacewalker, but he was the person who would not quit when the Hubble repair became difficult.[01:00:14] The Odds Are Never Zero Until You QuitMike explains that near-impossible is not impossible—and the only way the chance disappears completely is if you give up.[01:01:05] The Future of SpaceflightMike talks about NASA, the International Space Station, Commercial Crew, SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and private citizens in space.Additional Resources:Mike Massimino Official WebsiteMike Massimino BiographySpaceman by Mike MassiminoMike Massimino at Columbia EngineeringNASA: Mike Massimino Servicing the Hubble Space TelescopeNASA: STS-109 MissionNASA: STS-125 MissionNASA Science: Hubble Astronaut MissionsNASA Science: Hubble Servicing Mission 4NASA: Astronaut Mike Massimino Departs NASA for University PositionSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Text me your thoughts about this epidode ...If you've already watched my Jyotish episode on predicting for the 12 August solar eclipse, (https://www.fionamarques.com/theadityaspodcast/vivasvan-solar-eclipse-2026), welcome to its astronomy companion! In this conversation with astronomy educator Steven Jones, I explore the eclipse through the lens of science, light and wonder - from the Sun's corona to Voyager at the edge of the solar system.The 12 August 2026 Solar Eclipse  • What astronomers can only observe during totality  • How the corona reveals solar weather and magnetic fields  • Practical safety tips - eclipse glasses, pinhole projection and why partial eclipses need protection  Einstein, Eddington & Gravitational Lensing  • The modern recreation of the 1919 experiment  • The LUNEX 2026 team photographing starlight bending around the Sun  • Why eclipses still matter for testing general relativity  Light, Jyotish & the Electromagnetic Spectrum  • How astronomers define light as photons  • How Jyotish treats light as information  • Wave–particle duality  • How instruments detect radio, infrared, visible, UV, X‑ray and gamma photons  • Whether unknown regions of the spectrum might still exist  Human Perception & Cosmic Meaning  • What our tiny visual bandwidth implies about our understanding of the universe  • How attention shapes interpretation, even if not the photons themselves  JWST & Cosmic Origins  • Why JWST uses infrared  • What JWST is revealing about early galaxies and star formation  • Tensions in Hubble constant measurements  • Dark matter, dark energy, and gravitational‑wave astronomy  This episode is a blend of astronomy, Jyotish, and the science of light — perfect for anyone who loves eclipses, cosmic origins or simply the feeling of looking up at the sky with wonder.Read about this episode at www.fionamarques.com/thevedicastrologypodcast/jyotish-light-emfs-and-the-2026-solar-eclipseWatch this episode at https://youtu.be/YPQXYxQ5AKEJoin me at https://www.patreon.com/fionamarquesSupport the show

For the first time, scientists have confirmed an atmosphere on a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of another star. Sarah Al-Ahmed is joined by Collin Cherubim, NASA Hubble Fellow at the University of Chicago, to discuss his team's detection of helium escaping from the super-Earth LHS 1140b, and what it reveals about how rocky worlds build, transform, and lose their atmospheres over time. His team's paper, published in the journal Science, marks a milestone decades in the making. Then Bruce Betts, chief scientist of The Planetary Society, joins for What's Up, where we dig into the very first exoplanet atmosphere ever detected and its surprising connection to this week's guest. Discover more at: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/2026-lhs-1140bSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NGC 6397 seems like a pretty ordinary globular star cluster. It’s not especially big or bright, and nothing about its stars is going to strike anyone as odd. Yet it’s been an important astronomical laboratory. Among other things, it’s helped astronomers determine the age of the galaxy, and the minimum “weight” of a star. NGC 6397 is in the constellation Ara, the altar. It’s below the tail of Scorpius, the scorpion. That puts it so far south that it’s visible only from the southernmost United States. Hubble Space Telescope has monitored the cluster for decades. It contains several hundred thousand stars, packed into a ball only a few dozen light-years across. The Milky Way contains about 150 of these clusters, which are the galaxy’s oldest inhabitants. Over the decades, Hubble has monitored many of the cluster’s stars. The observations helped astronomers lock down the minimum mass for an object to shine as a true star – about eight percent the mass of the Sun. Another set of observations helped measure the cluster’s distance – just 7800 light-years – one of the closest of all globulars. That number is important for determining the cluster’s age – 13.4 billion years. That means that NGC 6397 – and its home galaxy, the Milky Way – took shape when the universe was just 400 million years old. Script by Damond Benningfield

January 2026 marked an exciting milestone for Mrs. Meredith Cullen, Cooper Buchman, Khandro Butler, Emma Marmande, Allen Moore, and Sam Williams as they wrapped up their work with the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP). The team traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, where they presented their findings at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS)—joining astronomers and researchers from around the world to share cutting-edge discoveries. Their project focused on creating a catalog of short-term variable active galactic nuclei (AGN)—supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are actively consuming surrounding matter. This work contributes to a larger scientific goal: improving cosmic distance measurements and helping to resolve the Hubble tension, the ongoing discrepancy in how fast the universe appears to be expanding.

One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology seems to keep getting bigger. Astronomers have known since the 1930s that the universe is expanding, but in the 1990s, the discovery that this expansion is accelerating rather than slowing down came as a huge shock to the field. Something had to be driving that acceleration, and dark energy was proposed as the cause. What began as a seismic shock in cosmology eventually led to a Nobel prize. But this story has a sequel, and it comes with another major plot twist. The two main methods for estimating the universe’s present-day expansion rate are producing significantly different answers. As a result, how fast the universe is really expanding has become a matter of considerable debate — with no small amount of angst — and the discrepancy has become known as the Hubble tension. Perhaps most surprising of all is that one of the loudest voices raising concern is Adam Riess, the astrophysicist whose Nobel Prize-winning work helped ignite the acceleration debate in the first place. Riess joined co-host Steven Strogatz on The Joy of Why to explain how we got to this point, what the Hubble tension might be telling us, and what may happen next.

Hubble uncovers four hidden dead stars near the Sun Dead stars in our cosmic backyard: Astronomers spot four white dwarfs hiding under our noses Contact the Show: coolstuffdailypodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices