Kainaati Gup Shup with Salman Hameed Salman Hameed

Solar eclipses are special! They break the routine of the day to remind us of the skies. In fact, there is a solar eclipse on April 8th, that will be visible in North America. But solar eclipses have played a crucial role in history of science. In particular, in the discovery of helium and in providence supporting evidence for Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup. 

We know today that our universe is huge and that it contains more than a hundred billion galaxies! But this view of the universe is only a hundred years old. What is fascinating is that a particular type of star, called Cepheids, is primarily responsible for the change of our view. In this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup, astrophysicist Salman Hameed discuss why Cepheids played such a central role in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup. 

When large stars die, they end up as a blackhole. We know this as one of the ways to form a blackhole. But there has been a puzzle. How do you form supermassive blackholes that exist at the center of almost all galaxies? Now, theoretical models and observations from James Webb Space Telescope strongly hit at a different way to to form blackholes - this time without the involvement of stars! Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in discussing this mechanism in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup. 

Are we on the verge of discovering new physics or is this a modest debate within cosmology that is hyped up by headlines? The issue at the center is the expansion rate of the universe. Two different methods give two different answers. There should just be one answer. This is called "Hubble Tension". Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup to discuss this and how to think about it? 

The ozone layer is crucial for life. Its formation allowed life to evolve from oceans to live on land, resulting in complex lifeforms such as mammals. But we know that the ozone layer is also fragile. Some of the ozone layer was damaged by chemicals used by humans. But in a fascinating study, now we know that a star that exploded almost 2 billion light years away, also briefly damaged the ozone in our atmosphere. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup to talk about this supernova and the resulting gamma ray burst that impacted the ozone layer.

We know that the Moon formed when a Mars-sized protoplanet, Theia, slammed into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. But what happened to Theia? A new study published in the journal Nature suggests that the remnants of Theia are inside the Earth. Please join astrophysicist Salman Hameed in this episode of Kainaati Gup Shup to talk about Theia and the origins of our Moon.