AaS! 283: What's Really Going on with UAPs?
What are UFOs? What are the chances that aliens have visited the Earth? Why should we bother talking about it? I discuss these questions and...
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What would happen if you fell into a black hole? How big is the universe? Just what the heck is a quasar, anyway? You've got questions, and astrophysicist Paul Sutter has the answers! Submit...
Episodes
20 of 289 episodes
AaS! 282: What Happens When You Shine a Light on Nothing?
How does the vacuum interact with light? Is it possible to use light to create something from nothing? And is "birefringence" a real word? I...
AaS! 281: What Makes the Scattered Disk So Wild?
How did the scattered disk of the solar system form? What kins of strange objects roam those badlands? And what does it do to the rest of th...
AaS! 280: Wait So We Can Steal Energy from Black Holes?
What is frame dragging? How do we measure it? And how can we turn this into a method for extracting energy from rotating black holes? I disc...
AaS! 279: What Can We Actually Find on an Exoplanet?
Just how hard are exoplanets observations? What kind of telescope will it take to find life? And how much information can we get out of a si...
AaS! 278: What's A Good Story About Chandrasekhar?
What was the big deal about Chandrasekhar's discovery? Why did he meet so much resistance? How is his work tied to everything from supernova...
AaS! 277: What's It Like to Travel Near the Speed of Light?
What does high-speed motion through the universe do to your perspective? What is the Rindler horizon, and how does it appear? Would you get...
AaS! 276: What Would Happen if the Sun…Stopped?
What really keeps the Sun shining? How long would it stay warm if fusion stopped? How long would it take before we noticed? I discuss these...
AaS! 275: Why Can't the Universe Be Cyclic?
What are the weaknesses of inflation theory? How did the ekpyrotic theory attempt to improve it? How did it open up its own can of worms? I...
AaS! 274: Is Dust the Best Thing in the Universe?
Why is dust so annoying? But where does it come from, and what can it do? And is dust responsible for the creation of life? I discuss these...
AaS! 273: What if the Universe Had No Beginning?
What does is mean for the universe to have a wave function? How does Hawking's "no boundary" proposal mean that the universe comes from itse...
AaS! 272: Are Neutrinos Their Own Evil Twins?
What does "antimatter" actually mean? Can a particle be its own opposite? What would happen to it, and what does this have to do with a miss...
AaS! 271: What Happens When Light Goes Boom?
How can matter ever go faster than light? What happens when it does? Who discovered this, and what is it good for? I discuss these questions...
AaS! 270: Is the Universe…Defective?
What did the universe do to make so many defects? What happens when they get trapped? And could they be hiding right in front of our noses?...
AaS! 269: Why Are Interstellar Objects So Weird?
What makes the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas so weird? Why are we finding so many interstellar visitors recently? How are they made, and where...
AaS! 268: What are Little Red Dots?
What do we find when we push the James Webb Space Telescope to its limits? Are Little Red Dots newborn galaxies or old black holes? What are...
AaS! 267: Is the Universe Older than We Think?
How can anyone agree on the age of the universe? And how can we be so confident if it's all just a bunch of models? What if the universe is...
AaS! 266: Is the Universe Made of Math?
Why is math so effective at describing the universe? What is reality is made of math? What does it mean for us to be conscious beings in a m...
AaS! 265: Does Antimatter Fall Up?
What is the weak equivalency principle? How was antimatter discovered and why is it the perfect thing to put gravity to the test? What did t...
AaS! 264: Just How Weird is the Quantum Eraser?
How does the double-slit experiment work? What does it teach us about reality and measurement if we try to mess with the experiment after it...