syzygy

In this season on life in the universe, it's time to look closer to home: what are the chances we will find evidence of life — present or past-tense — in the Solar System, our own back yard? Emily's fabulous colleague Dr Clément Moissard, plasma physicist at the University of York, joins us to discuss the search for life on Mars, on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn ... even on Pluto?! Surely not. It's a fascinating and fun conversation with plenty of surprises: Chris somehow missed the fact that we landed on Titan in 2005, Clément is super keen to visit mysterious Planet 9, and Emily just seems fixated on tasty space fish.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Our special guest Dr Clément Moissard• Latest evidence for life on Mars?• Water on Europa• Life on Enceladus?• The Cassini-Huygens mission• Cassini’s Grand Finale and images• Wait … we landed on Titan?• Sample return missions from Mars• JUICE mission to Ganimede• Zeppelins on Venus?!• There’s water on Pluto?!• Planet 9

We're back with Season 3! For the next six episodes we're talking life in the universe, and so far we have N=1: we know there's life on Earth, but nowhere else as yet. Those are challenging statistics. In this episode Emily makes the case that to explore the possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos, you need planets — and to have planets, you need stars. She then proceeds to whittle the number of potential life-bearing systems in our galaxy down to a scarily small number. But all is not lost, we still have five episodes to fill with hope and optimism.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Types of stars• Stellar magnetism• Multiple star systems• Stellar metallicity• The Galactic Habitable Zone

Exo-planets, sure. Exo-moons and -comets? Fine. But exo ... telescopes?! Emily is going out on a limb in this episode, expanding the definition of telescope to include things that measure stuff in space, and we're here for it! Which means we really do have a few telescopes out there beyond the Solar System, in the shape of Voyagers 1 and 2, with a few more waiting in the wings.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• The Voyager Missions: Voyager 1 and Voyager 2• Where are the Voyager spacecraft now?• The Heliosphere, where the Solar System ends • The Voyager Golden Record• NASA relieved to get a call from Voyager 1• Syzygy Episode 42: Life, the Universe, and Everything• Syzygy Episode 79: Voyager Hears a Hum• Voyager 2 turns of last scientific instrument• Uranus mystery finally solved!• The Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud• The Pioneer Program, esp. Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11• The Pioneer Plaque• The New Horizons mission and the Pluto Heart image• New Horizons visits Ultima Thule (Arrokoth)

It couldn't be a season of exo-stuff without taking a good hard look at the current state of exoplanets, the OG exo-thing. Emily sums up the state of exoplanet research in 2024 — her Exoplanets 2024 Wrapped, if you like — then lines up her top three exoplanets of the year, and considers what's coming up next in this exo-ploding field.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Exoplanets found in 2024• The Roche Limit• Paper about Gliese 4256b and a nice article• Comet Shoemaker Levy smashes into Jupiter!• Brand-new IRAS 04125+2902: paper and article• Retrograde hot Jupiter TIC 241249530 b: paper and article

Way, way back in the early epochs of Syzygy (ep 19 in Oct 2018 if you must know) we talked about the exciting prospect of spotting the first exomoon — a moon orbiting a planet orbiting a star that is not our own. It seemed reasonable to expect that six years later exomoons would be a thing we've discovered, and maybe even started a catalogue. But turns out, observing a minute signal on top of an already minute signal is hard. Emily outlines our best prospects for exomoon discovery.On the web: syzygy.fmHelp us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.Some of the things we talk about in this episode:• Syzygy ep 19: Moons, Exomoons & Moonmoons• Does Kepler 1625b have an exomoon?• Seems Unlikely …• What about Kepler 167e?• Volcanic exomoon around Wasp 49b?!

Live from York's Festival of Ideas*, in front of an audience of ... what, had to be a few hundred thousand people, right? ... Emily and Chris discuss some awesome astronomy that you can go outside and see with your own eyes. In particular, they go deep on the incredible May 2024 aurora, and show what the 2024 total eclipse across the USA looked like, with a preview of amazing eclipses to look forward to in the coming years. Chris finishes with a song, as he does. Watch on YouTube!(* Apologies for the audio quality, it was a big echo-ey space and it didn’t record as well as I’d hoped)Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced byChris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web:syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodSome of the things we talk about in this episode:• Watch this live show on YouTube• York Festival of Ideas• The May 2024 Aurora• Solar Cycle 25• The Solar Dynamics Observatory• timeanddate.com• The 2024 total solar eclipse• Upcoming eclipses

This week, a new Black Hole Record (kinda), and with it a nice conundrum. the GAIA mission has found the biggest black hole ... of the stellar-mass variety ... in our galaxy. A lot of caveats there, but the fun thing is, it's just next door, which makes us wonder if that's coincidence or a harbinger of more big black holes to come in GAIA's data dumps! Plus, a riddle: why do we keep spotting black holes that are too big to make? Did we break physics? Emily has a few explanations.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodSome of the things we talk about in this episode:• The Biggest (small) Black Hole (in our galaxy)• The rapid-release paper• The GAIA mission• GAIA’s data release schedule• Types of Black Hole• LIGO gravitational wave telescope• Quasi-stars• Syzygy Episode 116: Black Hole Sun

After some lengthy follow-up (the Bennu sample is open at last! And SLIM is alive!), Emily investigates possibly the most podcasty story we’ve had on the show: six planets around distant star HD110067, all locked into resonances that play beautiful music. Turns out if you leave a planetary system alone for long enough, gravity tends to pull everything into simple harmonies. Maybe our own solar system has a song to sing in the far future?Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• The Bennu asteroid sample is open! • JAXA SLIM updates • First SLIM images • Sextuplet symphony: The Nature paper • A good article about the discovery • Blog post by Dr Hugh Osborn with exoplanet music video • Trappist-1 system • Orbital resonances • Multiple star systems • JWST finds methane in exoplanet atmosphere • A breathless headline

Long-time Syzygy listener Jack asks: "Hey Emily — what's the deal with quasi-stars?" (We're paraphrasing). Quasi-stars are hypothetical, enormous stellar-object-thingies that might have formed shortly after the Big Bang. They're so huge they might have formed with black holes at their cores. If they existed at all, it would explain why astronomers keep finding intermediate-mass black holes in gravitational wave experiments. And as a bonus for you, Jack, Emily presents Hawking stars: otherwise ordinary stars that could be hiding a tiny black hole deep in their core. Could the Sun be a Hawking star? The mind boggles.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• Quasi-stars• (… as opposed to Quasars)• Types of black hole• Intermediate-mass black holes and LIGO• Hawking stars• The research paper that seeded this episode• Asteroseismology, the music of the stars

We've talked BOATs before — cosmic events that are the Brightest Of All Time — and it's always a favourite topic on the show. Recently astronomers analysed the runner-up BOAT in the Burster category, an astoundingly violent, weirdly long-lasting, and oddly-located neutron star merger, and measured the amount of afterglow Tellurium to learn more about fast neutron processes. What?! As Emily patiently explains, with a brief cameo from Tom Lehrer, it's all about a deeper understanding of where all the chemical elements in the universe come from.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Instagram & Threads: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• Research paper• Overview of the research• Syzygy episodes with BOATS:— Episode 30: Stardust or Cosmic Poo— Episode 61: Biggest Bag Ever!— Episode 107: Biggest Bang Ever! (Again)• Nucleosynthesis• The rapid neutron capture process• … as opposed to the slow neutron capture process• Tom Lehrer’s Elements song• Binding Blocks• The actual BOAT

JWST is flinging out Just Wonderful observations at great speed, many already leading to new astronomical insights. Here's one that was really unexpected: the Orion Nebula is full of JuMBOs! Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects, that is — pairs of giant planets (or planetty-things, the definition isn't terribly clear ...) floating free in space, in quantities that aren't possible based on what we *thought* we understood about planet formation. New observations that seem to break astrophysics? We're always up for that discussion!Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• The Fibonacci Sequence• The JuMBOs papers: overview, and JuMBO-specific• The Orion Nebula• JWST gets a good look at the Orion Nebula• Where is the Orion Nebula, exactly?• The definition of “planet"

It’s always nerve-wracking waiting for a very expensive new space telescope to launch — the whole mission can literally end in a highly explosive blink of an eye. Fortunately for the Euclid mission team, their gleaming new spacecraft left the Earth in one piece, and made its way to L2 to begin it's new job. It’s mission? Oh, just to solve five huge mysteries of the universe, from the nature of dark matter and dark energy, to unravelling the threads of the cosmic web.Help us make Syzygy even better! Tell your friends and give us a review, or show your support on Patreon: patreon.com/syzygypodSyzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.On the web: syzygy.fm | Twitter: @syzygypodThings we talk about in this episode:• Telescopes up a mountain in Hawaii• The Euclid Mission website• The Launch!• Euclid’s Big Five• Streaming data from L2• Euclid’s first test images• Dark Matter & Dark Energy• The Cosmic Web• Fly-through of the Cosmic Web