Our Earth is currently working its way toward being the exact opposite of a snowball Earth as we see glaciers and ice caps receding across the planet. This is fundamentally changing our landscape and how we as humans interact with that landscape. These changes are most evident in the northern, Arctic landscapes of Alaska, Scandinavia, and Siberia where indigenous people’s have lived in close contact with the land, and rely on permafrost for refrigeration and frozen waterways for transit. As permafrost melts weird stuff is happening. From amazing frozen animals being revealed, to...
Invasion of the Microscopic Black Holes
Image credit: Tech Explorist Every once in a while, a story comes along that just makes me giggle, and also forces me to fix some misinformation living in my brain. Consider the microscopic black hole. In my brain, these diminutive creations of the early universe...
SpaceX vs FAA and EPA and Cards Against Humanity
This article was cowritten by Dr. Pamela and Erik. Photo Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani This week we’re doing something we’ve never done before; we’re dedicating the majority of the show to a single story: SpaceX’s recurring failure to follow the rules, regulations,...
When Asteroids (Don’t) Attack
Artist's concept of the Hera mission gliding past Didymos to Dimorphos. Image credit: ESA For a hot second back in 2004, it looked like there was a couple percent chance the asteroid 99942 Apophis just might crash into the planet Earth on April 13, 2029. And even if...
VIPER May Live to Rove Another Day
A computer generated concept image of the VIPER rover Despite what the contents of this and recent episodes might imply, my passion is for science not for spacecraft. The thing is, sometimes spacecraft are needed to do the science. And lately, I and many others have...
The Cost of Space Flight on the Planet
As a nerdy member of GenX, I can state with pride and shame that I watched Buck Rogers in the early 80s and was constantly fascinated by all the weird ways their writers found for fictional 24th century scientists to misunderstand the relics from the 20th century....
Dino Prints Match Continents
One of the reasons we study the Moon is to help us understand the history of our own planet Earth. The shifting continents and weather patterns of Earth join forces to erase our world’s history. Occasionally, however, our planet reveals its past through the rocks...
Chang’e 5 Returns Some Really Cool Science
Change'e 5 landing site overview. Credit: Chinese National Space Agency's (CNSA) Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center On Dec 1, 2020, China landed the Chang’e 5 mission on the near side of the moon. Three days later, that little lander lifted back off with...
Closer Look: Mars is the Future
Since Mars Spirit and Opportunity first set down on Mars in 2004, there has been a continuous robotic presence on the Red Planet. The Phoenix and Insight Landers have answered specific questions about Mars composition and interior, while a small herd of rovers have...
Stonehenge Stones More Geographically Diverse Than Originally Thought
Image credit: Stefan Kühn Before we go, I have a new mystery for you. Researchers, with permission, took a small sample from the altar stone at Stonehenge and examined its composition and structure in a new level of detail. This information made it possible to...
A Star’s Death in Three Acts
While monitoring the sky with optical systems, we’ve found some really weird stuff. Back in 2018, the All Sky Automated Survey for Super Novae discovered a brightening galaxy. Follow -up observations in the X-Ray found the kinds of high energy light that signals a...