EVSN: Escape Velocity Space News Dr. Pamela Gay, Erik Madaus, Beth Johnson, Ally Pelphrey

In this episode, we’re going to look at how we now work to understand the history of life - including human life - on Earth by studying the geology of our planet, and we’re going to take those lessons learned and apply them to Mars, and exoplanets beyond our solar system. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 13, 2023.)

In this episode, we’re going to be talking more about meteors - including the source of the Geminids meteor shower, asteroid Phaethon - as well as hot planets, hungry black holes, and how we’re working to uncover the identity of dark matter. (This episode was originally released on YouTube May 6, 2023.)

While we could spend an entire episode on Earth, there is just too much going on in the universe to linger anywhere too long. From our world, we journey out to look at the super massive black hole in the core of M87, and then Beth Johnson will join us with an interview of the SETI Institute’s Dr Chenoa Tremblay and how radio astronomers are one step closer to simultaneously looking for life and doing science with the very large array. This interview highlights how advances in signal detection and processing will now allow researchers to both study the science of distant stars and look for potential signals of alien civilizations. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 29, 2023.)

This episode features the kind of news week where we looked at the April 20th eclipse in the South Pacific and decided it just wasn’t a huge priority. Between watching Starship's “will it won’t it” launch attempts and getting news of discoveries in cosmology and new software in planetary science… and the discovery of a totally weird rock formation on Mars… there is a lot going on out there. We’ll have a total eclipse on April 8, 2024. With that event occurring in less than a year, now is the time to start planning your travel if you want to see a transformative celestial experience. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 22, 2023.)

For decades now, our planetary science news cycles have been dominated by Mars. Mars is relatively close, and we have a lot of experience landing there and science goals to pursue. But it has left our other closest neighbor, Venus, off the mission list. That is, until 2021, when NASA and the European Space Agency announced three separate but complimentary missions to that hellscape world. And now, one of those missions - VERITAS - is threatened to be completely mothballed before even really beginning. Later on in the show, Beth Johnson will interview deputy principal investigator, Darby Dyar, about why VERITAS is suddenly on the chopping block, what this means for planetary exploration, and how the public can help change NASA’s mind. (This episode was originally released on YouTube April 15, 2023.)

Humans are the ultimate pattern matchers - at least for now. I have to admit I’m looking forward to the day I can give some new AI a set of images and ask it to tell me what animals it can find among the nebulae. The software isn’t there yet… But we’re also going to take a closer look at how art and AI look at space. And also science: From looking at active volcanism on Venus to eruptions on the Sun to rotating black hole jets and more, we take you on a journey through all that is new in space and astronomy. (This episode originally aired on YouTube April 1, 2023.)