
Did Gravity Wipe Out The Dinosaurs?
From The Supermassive Podcast by The Royal Astronomical Society
May 13, 2026 · 19 min
About this episode
The episode explores whimsical questions about gravity, black holes, and the extinction of dinosaurs.
How do we calculate a black hole's event horizon? Does Mercury's tail impact Earth? Can we name a planet Rupert? And did gravity wipe out the dinosaurs? Izzie Clarke & Dr Becky Smethurst dive into the rather whimsical Supermassive Mailbox to answer your questions. Want to name an Exoworld? Here's the IAU website to start a campaign: https://nameexoworlds.iau.org/ Send your questions, whimsical messages and your night sky photos to podcast@ras.ac.uk or find us on Instagram @SupermassivePod . Or why not support the show by joining The Supermassive Club ? You'll get ad-free listening and access to The Supermassive forum. The Supermassive Podcast is a Boffin Media production. The producers are Izzie Clarke and Richard Hollingham. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
People in this episode
Host: Izzie Clarke
Guest: Dr Becky Smethurst
Topics covered
- gravity
- dinosaurs
- black holes
- Mercury
- exoplanets
- astronomy
- science
Keywords
- gravity
- dinosaurs
- black holes
- Mercury
- exoplanets
- IAU
- Supermassive Mailbox
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: The Royal Astronomical Society, Boffin Media, IAU
Places: Earth, Mercury
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